Gannawarra Shire Heritage Study Stage One Volume One Thematic ...

Church opened in 1883, and a creamery was established in 1890. A school building was moved in 1893 to
house Gannawarra State School 1959, with a new school building erected in 1926. The Gannawarra siding
opened with the establishment of the Kerang-Koondrook railway in 1889. Another school, Gannawarra North
State School No. 4547, opened in 1938 in a school building shifted from Yungera West.
A hall, still in operation, built from funds raised through hay carting and barbeques, opened in 1979.
The site of State School No. 1959 is marked today by a sugar gum planted in 1907. 128
Koroop
The Koroop area was taken up by selectors under the 1869 Land Act c1874. The settlement of Koroop
was situated either side of the Barr Creek over which a footbridge was opened in 1879. Even though a road
bridge was planned by Council in 1878, by 1888 it still had not been built so residents constructed a bridge in
this year themselves. In 1879, a post office was established, and in the same year a school building was
transported from Sampsons Bridge and opened as Koroop State School No. 2205. The Koroop area was
incorporated into the Cohuna Irrigation Trust district in 1886. A creamery was in existence in 1893. A
Methodist church opened in 1913 and was moved to a different site in 1947. The Koroop Hall, formerly the
hall at Horfield used as a skating rink, opened in 1926. The school was renovated in 1928. The hall was
rebuilt in 1954 after the building collapsed in a wind storm, and was vinyl clad in 1990. A new concrete
bridge sited further upstream was opened in 1939 and demolished in 1998 when a new bridge was
constructed. A new school was established in 1965. 129
Tragowel
The Tragowel township was established on the Tragowel run after selectors took up land from 1873 in
the district under the 1869 Land Act. By 1878, eighty families had selected 170 blocks in the Parish of
Tragowel. In dry years from 1876, farmers travelled as far as Bridgewater to access the water of the Loddon
River. In 1878 a post office was established in conjunction with a store. A portable school with a two-room
residence was erected and opened in 1880 as Tragowel State School No. 2227. The Tragowel South State
School opened in 1884. The railway to Kerang, with a station at Tragowel, was opened in 1884 and the post
office transferred to the railway station in this year. The Tragowel Plains Irrigation Trust constituted in 1886,
and the Macorna North Irrigation Trust formed in 1893, supplied irrigation, stock, and domestic water to
farmers in the district. Some selectors subsequently took up dairying to supplement wheat growing. The
Tragowel Cheese Factory opened in 1888. A church building was transported from Kerang and opened in
1887 near Tragowel as a place of worship for Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist denominations. A telegraph
office opened at the station in 1889, and stockyards and cool storage accommodation were constructed soon
128 From information supplied by Barham and Koondrook Historical Society.
129 Koroop history based on Koroop Looking Back: Back to Koroop 6th and 7th March 1999, (n.p.: Back to Koroop
Committee, 1999). Gordon, ed., Unlock the Land: A History of the Cohuna District 1875-1975, 53.
Gannawarra Shire Heritage Study Stage One Volume One Thematic Environmental History
Robyn Ballinger (History in the Making) December 2008
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