Rusty the Tin Dog

RUSTY THE TIN DOG

Rusty was born in 2004 when the children from the Dowerin District High School developed a project initiative to encourage people to stop in Dowerin.

The students helped with his initial design, sourced funding for his materials and employed an artist to build him.

The students were inspired by the legend of his home, the Tin Dog Creek, which originally got its name during settlement in the area and the commencement of mining in the Yilgarn Goldfields.

The story goes that settlers in Northam started using the surrounding land to feed and rest their stock during winter and driving them home when the feed started to dry off.

A track was opened up as a result of this, leading to Moujakine, Yarragin and Eunuin.

From Goomalling onwards, the road followed a chain of water soaks, one of which became known as the 13-mile soak. The miners who were on their way to the Goldfields would leave their empty tinned beef cans (affectionately called ‘tinned dog’) by the water soak, thus Tin Dog Creek got its unique name (S. Gervas 1997).