Cardiff is a rural town in the

Shire of Collie The Shire of Collie is a local government area in the South West region of Western Australia, about east of Bunbury and about south of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat of government is the town of Collie. ...

in the

South West Southwest is a compass point. Southwest, south-west, south west, southwestern or south-western or south western may also refer to: * Southwest (direction), an intercardinal direction Geography *South West Queensland, Australia *South West (Weste ...

region of Western Australia.

History

The requirement for a townsite in the area was identified in 1902, and the original townsite of Collieburn gazetted in 1907, halfway between Collie and the current locality of Cardiff. By 1915 the main requirement for land had shifted to the Cardiff end of the townsite of Collieburn. Subsequently, the Cardiff Progress Association sought to rename the town to Cardiff. This name change was approved, but only of the southern portion of the townsite, and the name was officially changed in 1916. It was originally declared as Collie-Cardiff, but the hyphen was dropped in 1944. The name results from being located in the Collie coalfields, with the original

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

being the name of the coal mining city in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. The town is home to 17 heritage-listed sites, among them the former Cardiff Mine Site, the Cardiff Public Hall and 14 heritage listed houses. The mining operations at the Cardiff colliery lasted from 1900 to 1960, were located south of the current townsite and connected by

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

to Collie as a branch line of the

South Western Railway South Western Railway Limited, trading as South Western Railway (SWR), is the British state-owned train operating company that took over the services of the South Western Railway (2017–2025), operator of the same name from FirstGroup and MTR ...

. The former mine open pits subsequently filled with water from the

Collie River The Collie River is a river in the South West region of Western Australia. The Collie River was named by Lieutenant Governor Stirling after Alexander Collie who, along with Lieutenant William Preston, in November 1829 was the first European ...

and the largest one now forms

Lake Kepwari Lake Kepwari is a man-made reservoir located in Cardiff, in the South-West region of Western Australia, about south-east of Collie. "Kepwari" is a Noongar word meaning "playing in water". Description The lake is a former open-cut coal mine for ...

. Cardiff is located on the traditional land of the

Kaniyang The Kaneang are an indigenous Noongar people of the south west region of Western Australia. Country The Kaneang traditional lands enclosed some of territory. On the Upper Blackwood River. The eastern boundary was formed by the line that runs fr ...

and

Wiilman The Wiilman people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Noongar group, from the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and South West regions of Western Australia. Variant spellings of the name include Wilman, Wirlomin, Wilmen and Wheelman. ''Wiilm ...

people of the

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the South West, Western Australia, south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton, Western Aus ...

nation.

References

{{Towns South West WA Shire of Collie