Ogilvie, Western Australia

Ogilvie is a small town in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Other than sheep, agriculturally the area was known for wheat, barley, oats, lupins, Wimmera rye, and clover.^[3]

The area is about 70 kilometres north of Geraldton, and includes the small Ogilvie Nature Reserve.^[4]

The town was named by 1916 as a farming community,^[5] likely to have been named after Andrew Jameson Ogilvie (–8 October 1906),^[6] the land owner of the nearby Murchison House Station. Over time the locale was serviced by a railway siding of the same name.

The Ogilvie State School was in existence by 1917,^[7] while two acres of land was set aside for a tennis court in the same year.^[8] The Ogilvie Agricultural Hall was opened in May 1919.^[9] This public hall was used for dances, a church, and as the local school.^[10][11] By 1953, the hall also had a supper room and nursery.^[3]

The Ogilvie and District Branch of the Primary Producers' Association was re-formed in July 1925.^[12] Its representations included to the Western Australian Minister for Agriculture for emus to be declared vermin following continued widespread crop destruction.^[13]

Tennis continued to be an important community activity, with new tennis courts constructed by and opened in December 1946.^[14] In that year, the wheat and barley crops were only a moderate harvest, an abundance of emus, but a notable impact of foxes on lambing stock.^[14]

Efforts were made to form a fire brigade in 1952.^[15]