Woop Woop

Lost Perth Facebook Page1

Region: South West
LGA: Boyup Brook
Industry: Timber
Coordinates: 33°39’54.0″S 116°10’13.1″E
What3Words: ///receptions.plates.taxpaying
Population: 0
Started: 1925
Gazetted: N/A
Closed: 1928

Woop Woop is an Australian term meaning a place that is a far distance from anything. Equivalent terms include “beyond the black stump” (also Australian), “the boondocks” (Southern United States) and “out in the sticks” or “the back of beyond” (UK)2.

But most Australian’s would be very surprised to be told that it is a real place. To paraphrase Francis Church, editor of The Sun newspaper in New York3 – Yes, Virginia, there is a Woop Woop.

Woop Woop was a Timber Mill 10Km north west of Wilga and 70Km south of Collie.  Deep in the forest and at times only accessible on foot.  It was set up by the Adelaide Timber Company in 1925. Six huts for single men, two houses, a boarding house, an office and the mill itself.  But they were able to field a full footy team.  The boys from Woop Woop would walk into Wilga for the Saturday Night dance.  The settlement only last 3 years. The name may have come from the sound made by the local frogs or toads4.

Sources

  1. Lost Perth, 2020. Lost Perth Facebook Group. Post retrieved on 18 Oct 2024 from https://www.facebook.com/LostPerth/posts/welcome-to-woop-woopyes-thats-right-there-is-such-a-place-or-at-least-there-was-/3631374590266902/ ↩︎
  2. Wikipedia, 2023. Woop Woop. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woop_Woop on 18 Oct 2024 ↩︎
  3. Francis Church, 1897. The Sun. New York City. December 25, 1914. p. 5 ↩︎
  4. Malcolm Quekett, 2016. Welcome to Woop Woop. Feature article in The West Australian 7 Jun 2016. Retrieved from https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/welcome-to-woop-woop-ng-ya-109154 on 18 Oct 2024. ↩︎