Katanning family tied to CBH history

When Ivan Crosby delivered the very first load of grain to Katanning’s CBH bin, he never imagined his grandson would be delivering, quite possibly, the very last load.

Mr Crosby died a few years ago but his wife Peggy has kept a Great Southern Herald newspaper cutting of her husband emptying their harvested grain into the newly built bin in November, 1961.

“I remember when they first built the bin in Katanning, and somewhere along the line they asked him to bring a load in so they could try it out before actually opening it to everybody and make sure it was working,” she said.

“One of our sons still has our farm and it’s his son, Braden, who put the last load of barley in during this harvest.”

Braden Crosby, 28, works on the farm with his father, Roger, who said this would likely be the last year the CBH bin opened.

“It looks like the bin will close permanently,” Roger Crosby said. “They weren’t even going to open it this year but at the last minute they decided to take one load of barley.

“So it was only by luck that they opened it up this year and I don’t think we’ll have that much luck again next year.”

Mrs Crosby said she was glad she had found the newspaper cutting and decided to show it to her grandsons.

“They were quite interested,” she said

“Braden pointed out how different the equipment is these days to what it was in the 60s and they got quite a chuckle out of that.

“And then of course later we got a photo of him with the last load of grain.”