Mount Barker is a town on the Albany Highway and is the administrative centre of the Shire of Plantagenet in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.
Mount Barker is a town on the Albany Highway and is the administrative centre of the Shire of Plantagenet in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. At the 2016 census, Mount Barker had a population of 1,905.
The town was named after the nearby hill, which in turn was named in 1829 by Thomas Braidwood Wilson in honour of Captain Collet Barker, who was in command of Western Australia's original British settlement at King George's Sound from 1829 to 1831.
History
Prior to European settlement, small groups of Aboriginal people, called the Bibbulmun (a clan of the Noongar) People, inhabited the area. These were a nomadic people who followed seasonal food supplies. The Aboriginal name for Mount Barker Hill is 'Pwakkenbak'.
In December 1829, Mount Barker was named after Captain Collet Barker, commandant of the garrison at King George Sound, by naval ship's surgeon Thomas Braidwood Wilson. Wilson explored the area in company with the Noongar Mokare from King George Sound, John Kent (officer in charge of the Commissariat at Frederick Town, King George Sound), two convicts and Private William Gough of the 39th Regiment, while his ship the Governor Phillip was being repaired.European settlement of the Hay River area commenced around the 1830s and the opening of the Perth/Albany Railway in 1889 helped to ensure the town's future; the first store opened in 1890. Population growth continued through the 1890s and the first school and the town hall were opened in 1893. The population of the town was 326 (183 males and 143 females) in 1898.
Weather
Mount Barker has a temperate climate with warm summers and mild to cold winters. Summer temperatures can exceed 40 degrees Celsius, but rarely do, averaging around 26 degrees. Overnight temperatures in winter can drop to 0 degrees, but rarely any lower and daytime winter temperatures average around 10-15 degrees Celsius.Rainfall averages from around 24 millimetres (1 in) per month in January to over 100 millimetres (4 in) in July.
Significant weather events
While light snowfalls are not unusual on the peaks of the Porongurup and Stirling Range, it is very unusual for snow to fall to ground level anywhere in Western Australia. However, snow has been recorded in Mount Barker on several occasions. On 28 August 1992, with a maximum temperature of 7.2 degrees Celsius, two falls of snow were recorded. That same year, on 19 November, a light snowfall was recorded just two weeks before summer, this was the latest in the year snow had been recorded in the whole of Western Australia.
In June 2000, the Town Hall in Mount Barker lost its roof as a result of strong wind gusts.
On 28 December 2000, unusually hot weather and 44 km/h winds contributed to a bushfire that travelled south through the town, destroying two houses plus other buildings and equipment.
On 1 April 2005, the Plantagenet Shire suffered substantial flooding after heavy and persistent rainfall in the previous two days.
Golf ball-sized hail fell in Mount Barker and surrounding districts on 23 October 2006.
Things to do