Onslow (Western Australia)

Onslow
State :  Australia State : Western Australia Founded : 1883
Coordinates : 21 ° 38 ′  S , 115 ° 7 ′  E Coordinates: 21 ° 38 ′  S , 115 ° 7 ′  E Height : 70  m
Residents : 848 (2016)
Time zone : AWST (UTC + 8) Postal code : 6710
LGA : Shire of Ashburton Website : www.ashburton.wa.gov.au
Onslow

Onslow is a coastal town in Western Australia and is 1,386 kilometers north of Perth . The small town currently has around 850 inhabitants (2016). The city was founded in 1883 and is located in the Shire of Ashburton .

Onslow was established in 1883 as a port at the mouth of the Ashburton River to facilitate the handling of sheep's wool from the hinterland. The namesake is Alexander Onslow (1842-1908), the then presiding judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. For the next eighty years, wool was the city's main economic driver.

The city and its surroundings are climatically shaped by the alternation of droughts and floods and determined by the passage or the absence of tropical cyclones . In 1912, for example, meteorologists recorded annual precipitation of 14.8 mm, but between the end of January and the beginning of March 1961 three cyclones that hit the city within five weeks brought about 900 mm of precipitation.

Repeated flooding of the Ashburton River caused the authorities to relocate the settlement after a cyclone in 1925. The new location proved to be better protected from tropical storms, but a drought of several years between 1935 and 1941 was detrimental to economic development because the sheep farmers had too little water available for their cattle.

During the Second World War Onslow was - apart from Exmouth - the southernmost town that was bombed by the Imperial Japanese naval aviators . On September 16, 1943, some bombs fell southwest of the city, but people were not harmed and no property damage occurred.

After the Second World War, the importance of wool for the economy continued to decline and the local economy turned more and more towards tourism .

The most famous sights in Onslow are Beadon Point, the Ian Blair Memorial Walk, the historical ruins on the Ashburton River , the Goods Shed Museum, the numerous termite mounds up to two meters high and the Five Mile Pool. The well-known natural spectacle "Staircase to the Moon" can be observed from Sunset Beach. When the moon is full, the red moon rises out of the sea and projects a stepped reflection onto the sea surface.

Web links

Commons : Onslow, Western Australia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics : Onslow (L) (Urban Center / Locality) ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
2. ↑ https://www.ozatwar.com/japsbomb/bombexmouth01.htm
3. ↑ https://www.ozatwar.com/japsbomb/bomb14.htm
4. ↑ in Australia: Onslow & Mackerel Islands.Retrieved September 8, 2011.