Bindoon Rock Festival

Bindoon is a small but charismatic town located less than an hours drive from Perth, in the picturesque Shire of Chittering. The name Bindoon is Aboriginal in origin and is thought to mean, “place where the yams grow”. The name has been in use in the area since 1843 when an early settler, William Brockman, […]

Bindoon is a small but charismatic town located less than an hours drive from Perth, in the picturesque Shire of Chittering.

The name Bindoon is Aboriginal in origin and is thought to mean, “place where the yams grow”. The name has been in use in the area since 1843 when an early settler, William Brockman, named the property after he had surveyed it. The townsite was gazetted in 1953.

The majority of training and selection for the Australian Special Air Service Regiment takes place in the town with some of the facilities including live-firing ranges and the Brigade Special Training Facilities.

Bindoon hosts the annual Bindoon and Districts Agricultural Show featuring cattle, poultry, fruit and vegetable exhibition and competition, horses in action, floriculture, cookery, art, general crafts, needlecrafts, photography, amateur wine making, home brewing, home produce, children’s exhibition and pet parades. The town is also well known for the annual rock festivals held in the 1980s and 1990s, known as the Bindoon Rock Festival.

The town has some sordid secrets and stories of institutionalized cruelty to native and migrant children, and accusations of sexual and physical assault of children by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. In 1994, the Parliament of Western Australia was presented a petition with 30, 000 signatures demanding an inquiry into these allegations. Other institutions run by the Congregation of Christian Brothers in Castledare, Clontarf and Tardun were also named in the petition. The child abuse that took place at Bindoon is recounted in the film Oranges and Sunshine.