Morawa Scene: Article 08—The Hub of Morawa
This is the eighth article I have cobbled up for publishing in the Morawa Scene since I began this project back in November of 2023.
In this article, which is really the second part of the article before it (Article 07), I put the case that P. H. Lodge & Sons was the hub around which the town of Morawa emerged.
Click on the image of the article as published in the Morawa Scene (shown at right) to view a larger version of it.
The previous article which is, in a way, Part 1 of these two parts is here.
As usual, the text following the P. H. Lodge & Sons masthead below is exactly as it is in the page published in the Morawa Scene. However the pictures/graphics are generally of a higher resolution and will show colour; whereas the Morawa Scene is printed in black and white only.
A much larger version of the picture above was featured in my last (seventh) article for the Morawa Scene. These notes relate to this picture. I am going to impart some thoughts, insights, and a bold conclusion based on things my father (Syd Lodge), and my father’s brother Maurice Lodge, talked about from time to time.
[Note that the larger higher resolution version is also included in this posting]
As noted in Part 1, I put the date of the picture above at around 1912. That would be three years before the railway line was put through Morawa and 14 years before the hotel. My research shows that the railway line was officially opened on the 5th March 1915.
As best as I can pinpoint it, P. H. Lodge (Percy/Yorkie) purchased this store sometime in 1919. For more about that refer to the previous article.
When Yorkie Lodge purchased this store it is likely that the railway was only carrying grain. I am unable to determine if it was carrying general freight and/or passengers but I suspect that it wasn’t until the station was installed.
The building of the hotel was not complete until late 1926—see the Morawa Murmurings clip (included) from the 17/12/1926 edition of the North-Eastern Courier newspaper. The hotel was formally opened in May of 1927.
Not long after the hotel started operating the butcher built on lot 13, which is three lots to the north of the hotel.
Hence, Yorkie Lodge’s purchase of this store from Mr. Moore preceded the opening of the hotel by eight years and the local butcher by about nine. In fact when Yorkie purchased the shop there was very little else existing in the locality. There was a lot more going on ‘up the hill’ at Koolanooka where there was a Post Office, a school, a railway station and coal bins, a sports ground, and, at this time, maybe even a town hall—although that might have come along a bit later (circa 1930).
It was Koolanooka that the state planners intended to be the main town on that line. That is where they put the post office and the railway station.
At the time Yorkie purchased the store the existing ‘main’ road from Perenjori to Mullewa (the Wubin-Mullewa Road) bypassed the store by 4.5 kilometres to the east—as the crow flies. However, there was a road of sorts that came down directly from Koolanooka following the railway line through the lakes on the north-east side of the line.
The clip shown here (at right) indicates the original Wubin-Mullewa Road (or wagon track, as it more likely was then). When I lived in Morawa I walked this road/track through the lakes twice. Back then, in the early 1970s, it was still relatively well defined.
I doubt that many automobiles travelled this route in the day. I think the bulk of traffic along this track back then was likely just camel trains, horses, horse drawn carriages, and some foot traffic.
The dirt track in the main picture that goes to the shop does not show any wheel tracks from automobiles. My thinking on this track back in 1912 was that it went in an arc around what is now Prater Park. Note that there is no indication in the picture of the road that is now Solomon Terrance.
As best I can work out, at this time (1912) this locality had no formal or agreed name. I can recall uncle Maurice saying some people referred to it as Merkanooka or East Merkanooka, and the name Morewa was thrown around.
Merkanooka, which often got blurred with or overlapped Morawa back then, was a locality about 14 klms to the WNW of the shop—where Ryan, Boss, and Dreghorn Roads now converge. At Merkanooka in 1912 there was a school of sorts, a football/cricket ground, and also postal services. There may have also been a hall; or that might have come along a bit later on.
Additionally, at the time Yorkie purchased the store, there was pretty much no such thing as “the other side of town”. As related to me there were only a couple of temporary ‘bag and board’ structures west of where the railway line tracks are now and, at the time, they were not aligned along any defined survey lines.
Based on the above I feel that it would not be too much of a stretch to arrive at the conclusion that back in the early 1900s P. H. Lodge’s store—being previously Mr. Moore’s store—was the hub around which the town of Morawa began to emerge. Plus, my uncle Maurice was of the firm opinion that in 1926 Yorkie was a significant influence, and in my uncle’s view quite possibly the tipping point reason, for Mr. Baty’s decision to build the hotel in Morawa and not Koolanooka. Once the hotel was built in Morawa then Koolanooka had no chance. Morawa just went ahead from there.
The next article in this series can be found here.
