Witchcliffe is a small town in the South West region of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

, located a few kilometres south of Margaret River

Margaret River, Western Australia

Margaret River is a town in the South West of Western Australia, located in the valley of the eponymous Margaret River, south of Perth, the state capital. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River....

 on the Bussell Highway

Bussell Highway

Bussell Highway is a generally north-south highway in the South West of Western Australia. The highway links the city of Bunbury with the town of Augusta and is approximately 150 km in length...

.

The name originates from a cave

Cave

A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...

 in the area, Witchcliffe cave, that was recorded by a surveyor

Surveying

See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

 in 1900. It is believed the name was given by the Bussell family

Bussell family

The Bussell family were a family of early settlers in colonial Western Australia. Four members of the Bussell family emigrated from England to Western Australia in 1831, with more members following in the next few years...

 whose property, Wallcliffe

Wallcliffe House

Wallcliffe House was a heritage listed two storey stone, shingle and corrugated iron homestead located near Prevelly and the mouth of the Margaret River in Western Australia...

, was established in the area in the 1850s.

In 1924 the government extended the Flinders Bay Branch Railway

Flinders Bay Branch Railway

A branch railway from Busselton to Flinders Bay, in South Western Western AustraliaOriginally part of the M.C.Davies Timber railway system, which ran between the two jetties at Hamelin Bay and Flinders Bay...

 to Witchcliffe. The siding was to be named Narawary but a post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

 already existed at the site with the name Witchcliffe, having opened in 1923, so the siding was named Witchcliffe in 1925. Lots were surveyed and sold along the siding in 1924 and the townsite

Townsite

A townsite is a legal subdivision of land for the development of a town or community. In the historical development of the United States, Canada, and other former British colonial nations, the filing of a townsite plat or plan was often the first legal act in the establishment of a new town or...

 was gazetted in 1926.

The town was built around the timber industry, with the Witchcliffe sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

 being built in 1922 just east of town for the W.A. Jarrah Forests Ltd, which was taken over by the Adelaide Timber company

Adelaide Timber company

Adelaide Timber company was a family saw mill company that had timber mills, and timber railway lines across a number of locations in Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia as part of the Shepherdson family business:...

in 1929.