Does Woop Woop even exist and where the heck is it?

Its whereabouts is shrouded in mystery for city dwellers, so much so that then Prime Minister Bob Hawke was an hour late visiting the town because his Commonwealth car driver got lost trying to find the place.

It was obviously located somewhere out past Woop Woop. Woop Woop - it's a name that is as elusive and legendary as Timbuktu, Beyond the Black Stump and the Back of Bourke.

It has come to mean a place that is beyond civilisation, a far distance destination that is difficult to reach, and indeed, may not even exist.

But exist it did, and it was not that far from Collie. Woop Woop was 10km North-west of Wilga, about 70km South of Collie.

It was a milling town which came into existence in 1925 to harvest jarrah trees, but after three years, faded into history.

There were six unlined huts for the workers who were "batching" it, a couple of houses for the married workers, a boarding house and an office.

Workers were paid three pounds seven shillings a week, good money for those days, but working in the isolated town meant they earned their pay.

Water was obtained from a well, but it was of poor quality that often caused stomach aches, and the flies made life difficult.

In their spare time, the men would go kangaroo shooting, which supplemented their meat supply and earned them up to seven shillings a skin.

They would also play cards and drink.

Occasionally, they would walk into Wilga to a dance, but these were run by strict Methodists, which meant no alcohol and a midnight finish.

Drinking was not just confined to the men.

The cook at the boarding house was found flat on her back in the kitchen, dead drunk when the workers went in for breakfast.

The manager was so angry, he tore the roof off her boarding house and sent her packing.

There is little remaining of Woop Woop as the stumps of the wooden huts crumble into the bush.

However, visitors to the Coalfields Museum can read about Woop Woop in the section about the timber industry.