This block in Dongara was once known as the ‘Sikh Quarter’ for the shops and residences owned by Sikh businessmen. When Sikh brothers Sojan and Pola Singh came to the Irwin in 1901, they operated a hawker’s cart around the area dealing mainly in drapery, selling to and taking orders from local housewives. Sojan Singh purchased several adjoining town blocks (Lot 73) facing Irwin Road and built a new store of brick and stone with an iron roof and a residence at the back, opening in 1907. A Sikh store operated from here for the next forty years. Two lots behind the stores were also owned by Sojan Singh and he seems to have kept horses and stock there. In the subsequent decade other Sikh men followed and worked in the district as labourers, gardeners and hawkers using Sojan’s store as their base. After Sojan died in 1922, Rur Singh bought his premises and took over the store operations, expanding the business with a new gallon licence, as well as continuing the drapery and silk lines and adding crockery, patent medicines and kitchen wares. He operated businesses in Moreton Terrace and Old East End until 1947, and he eventually retired to Perth. In 2025, the area was recognised for its importance, with the name ‘Sikh Lane’ being officially registered for a small lane running behind the existing shops.
See following the brochure “Sojan Singh and the Early Sikhs of Dongara”, produced by IDHS in 2025. Further information is available in the Sikh Heritage section of the Irwin Districts Historical Society webpage.
