Onslow

The Onslow area has, for thousands of years, been home to the Thalanyji, Nhuwala, and Burama people, who inhabited the Cane and Ashburton Rivers areas. Onslow also accommodates Aboriginal people from the inland Pilbara, main groups in town being Punjima and Innawonga (from the Wittenoom and Tom Price areas), Yindjibarndi (Millstream area) and Ngarluma (Roebourne and Whim Creek area) , Martuthinira (from the coastal areas around the mouth of the Fortescue River south to the Robe River)

The original Onslow was proclaimed a town in 1883 and named after Sir Alexander Onslow, the Chief Justice of Western Australia at that time. The site chosen was a place near the mouth of the Ashburton River twelve miles south of the present town. The town supported the nearby stations that had been established along the Ashburton River and the gold mines in the hinterland.

The port was supplied by ships which anchored off the shore and were unloaded by relays of sailing lighters which travelled up the river to a landing where they were unloaded onto railway trucks and removed to the goods shed in town.

A jetty was built into deep water at Beadon Point and completed in 1925. The town of Onslow was removed to the more accessible, present day location, relocation accomplished between 1923 and 1926, with an official opening of the new settlement in May 1925. As a part of the removal arrangements, occupiers of town lots in the old settlement were allowed to select lots in the new site and offers were made by the State Government to provide loans to assist in the removal of the large and more substantial buildings. The town is a small coastal community which supports a population of approximately 600 people.

The West Pilbara Shire Council was formed in 1972 by an amalgamation of the Shires of Ashburton and Tableland. This was later changed to the Shire of Ashburton in 1987, one hundred years after the foundation of the Ashburton Road Board. The administration office of the shire was moved from Onslow to Tom Price in 1990. The shire covers a total area of 105,647 square kilometres and has a population of approximately 9,000 people.

The following are the Indigenous communities near Onslow:

• Bindi Bindi (in Onslow)
• Peedumulla
• Thalanji