Apologies in advance, this is going to be quite a farming related entry.

Albany was as far south as I had planned to go on this trip and I now needed to make the 418Km trip back to Perth. I didn’t fancy driving it all in one day so I chose a random B&B about half way to break the journey – Woodchester Bed & Breakfast (No web page, Tel: +61 8 9821 7007 only)

I set off from Albany north west on the Albany Highway and found the drive rather monotonous in heavy traffic. However, after about 40 mins I had to turn off onto the Great Southern Highway to get to Katanning where the B&B was located. This route was much more interesting going through farming country and little towns like Tambellup.

Finally I reached Katanning and found the B&B which was run by Rosemary McFarland. She explained that the town had originally grown around the success of Frederick Henry Piesse who had started with a portable store following the progress of the great southern railway and then decided to settle permanently when he reached Katanning in the 1880s. He built up a successful farming business, including the local flour mill which brought employment and prosperity to the area. He built the Piesse Mansion at the top of the town.

It is no longer privately owned and is now used as conference centre by the local Baptist church.

After a very comfortable night in the B&B, and good breakfast, Eric McFarland explained to me about the scale of the farming business in the region. The opening of the flour mill resulted in the growth of wheat production in the area. Many of the farms in the area are now over 10,000 acres and the railway is now used exclusively for transporting wheat to Albany. I drove past several agricultural equipment dealers in the town and was amazed at the amount stock they had.

A New Holland dealer further down the road had 8 new machines in his yard.

In addition to arable farming, sheep farming is big as well. Katanning has the largest sheep sales yard in the southern hemisphere. It sold over 1.5 million sheep last year and has a capacity of 26,000 sheep per sale. Sometimes they have to have more than one sale a week to meet demand.

60% of the sheep sold go for slaughter and the local market for the meat is the Muslim countries near Western Australia. Many Muslims from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island (collectively known as the Australian Indian Ocean Territories) moved to the town in the 1970s to work in the Halal abattoirs. They have stayed and built a sizable community. In 1980 they built a Mosque in the town.

I also found that the town has a very nice swimming pool. (I didn’t join the OAP fitness class)

I departed from Katanning on 24th February  for the final part of the drive back to Perth. Rather than take the faster route up the Albany Highway, I continued following the railway up the Great Southern Highway and passed through several more farming towns – Wagin, Narrogin and Brookton.