Roebourne Visitor Centre

Roebourne is the oldest serving town in the Pilbara, being gazetted a town in 1866.

Roebourne was named after Sir John Septimus Roe, the first Surveyor General in Western Australia in 1864.

John & Emma Withnell were the early settlers to our area, responsible for originally traveling the 13km upstream in search of fresh water, discovering Eramuckadoo pool in the Harding River. This was the place that they decided to establish Mt Welcome Station, now the town site of Roebourne.

Many fine old buildings still remain today:

The Old Hospital	1887
Post Office	1887
Watson $ Tee Store	1888
The Union Bank	1889
Victoria Hotel (last of original five).	1889
The Court House	1895
The Holy Trinity Church	1895
Gaol Police Barracks	1895

Roebourne land falls within the boundaries of the Ngaluma tribe. The Ngaluma land is from the Maitland River of approximately 6,400 sq km.

In the 1930’s, Aboriginals from neighboring tribes were moved into a Reserve in Roebourne. Yindjibarndi, Bunjima, Gurrama and Marduthunia tribes were all mixed together.

The dominate language group living in Roebourne are the Yindjibarndi.

Visit the town of Roebourne.