Shire of Roebourne

The District of Nickol Bay was gazetted on 25th January 1871 and was defined as “…all that Portion North of the Murchison River and East and West to the State Border …”.  On 14th July 1871  the members elected to the Board were:
Frederick Pearse chairman, AR Richardson, F McRae, HH Hicks, A McRae, HW Venn JP, SH Viveash.

On 6th January 1887 the Nickol Bay Road Board District was abolished and the Town of Cossack, Municipality of Roebourne and Roebourne Roads Board District were gazetted.  In 1910 the Town of Cossack and Municipality of Roebourne were both dissolved and amalgamated into the Roebourne Road Board.

Over time the area of the Roebourne Road Board was reduced and various other Road Districts, including Ashburton, Tableland and  Port Hedland were formed.  The Roebourne Roads Board became the Shire of Roebourne in 1961 and in 1971 the area of the shire was reduced  to about 5,900 square miles and included the towns of Roebourne, Point Samson, Cossack, Whim Creek, Wickham, Karratha and Dampier and the stations Karratha, Mardie, Mt Welcome, Woodbrook, Warambie, Pyramid, Sherlock, Mallina and Cooya Pooya.   

With the beginning of the iron ore industry in the early 1960's'', Dampier was chosen as the port for Hamersley Iron’s operations and this signalled the beginning of major development in the sire.  With the introduction of jet aircraft, regular passenger flights to the unsealed Roebourne airport were discontinued, and in 1966 Hamersley Iron constructed a sealed airport, the then Dampier Airport.  

Planning for the construction of Karratha began in 1968 and land was excised from Karratha Station pastoral lease.  Wickham’s first permanent buildings were begun in 1970 and from this time the Shire of Roebourne was faced with increasing responsibilities.

In December 1970 the Minister for Local Government recommended that all councillors resign and that a Commissioner be appointed;  the rationale being that a Commissioner would be more able to obtain financial assistance from the State Government.  The Ratepayers Association of the time wanted council to defer the decision until the government could assure them that the centre for the shire would remain at Roebourne and that Roebourne would be able to develop without interference by the government.

The Shire Councillors resigned in January 1971 and Mr WG Klenk was appointed as Commissioner.  Mr PJ Carly succeeded him in July 1972.

Karratha became the administrative centre for the Shire of Roebourne in 1965 when Shire offices were relocated to Welcome Road.

The Commissioner remained in place until elections of councillors were held in May 1976.