Katanning’s lost histories drive new tourism wave

They call it the heart of the Great Southern — and if a recent rise in visitor numbers forms a long-term trend, Katanning could become the heart of a Great Southern tourism awakening. In a six-part series, the Great Southern Herald is examining the character of Katanning to find out what sets the town apart and how it could realise its tourism potential. History is one of the biggest lures for tourists, and a local historian and visionary hotelier would argue Katanning is brimming with it. As the first town in the State to have electric street lights, free library services, an inland swimming pool, and a country historical society — among other things — Katanning is not short on claims to historical fame. With the State’s earliest settlements established at King George Sound and the Swan River, the Great Southern was one of the first regions to be explored by European settlers through the opening of an overland route between the two points. Arthur Todd, a local historian who runs Lost Katanning, said the Quartermaines were considered to be the first settlers in the district, as the first to secure land in 1852. “(Elijah Quartermaine) was satisfied with the prospects, as he found some of the pools in the district and then took up on lease 80,000 acres of the area taking in what was afterwards to become Katanning, Woodanilling, Carrolup, the Police Pools and Corakin,” he said. But the township of Katanning did not come into existence until the construction of the Great Southern Railway in 1889, which attracted settlers for agricultural and other commercial ventures. One of them was entrepreneur Frederick Henry Piesse, who set up a portable store in 1886, and followed the progress of the railway to Katanning. Dome Cafe Group managing director and Premier Mill Hotel owner Nigel Oakey described Piesse as the town’s founding father. “Katanning was interesting to him because it was the point where the railway line would eventually join as they were building it from the south and the north,” he said. “I think he just epitomises, for me, that entrepreneurial spirit that was much a part of those early pioneering days ... people had to be extremely clever and resourceful to make something out of not a lot.” Mr Oakey said Piesse’s Roller Flour Mill was regarded as one of the colony’s most significant industrial developments. “When Piesse came to Katanning, there were only 11 full-time white settlers there, and what he observed was there was a lot of grain farming, but for processing, it was going by horse and cart up to the mill in North Fremantle,” he said. “He didn’t know much about grain farming or flour milling but he was the classic entrepreneur in the sense that he just knew he could combine those things as an opportunity in Katanning.” The mill was the first of its kind in WA, attracting grain farmers to the district and becoming the heart of the town’s early economic success. Piesse was also interested in the process of electricity, so he put steam engines in the mill that had several times the capacity needed for flour milling. Mr Oakey said he became the first person to distribute commercial electric light in WA. “The flour mill in reality became the power mill,” he said. A statue of Piesse was erected in 1916 beside the railway line in Austral Terrace. “To appreciate the importance he had on the early development of Katanning, it is worth noting that virtually every building between the mill and his statue was either created by him or built using bricks from his brickworks,” Mr Todd said. “Piesse also donated 10,000 bricks towards the construction of the Katanning Town Hall, which was completed in 1896, as well as the St Andrew’s Anglican Church. “And no journey to Katanning is complete without a visit to Piesse’s imposing family mansion, Kobeelya, which he had built in 1902.” At the start of the 20th century, Katanning’s population grew from several hundred to several thousand as agriculture, viticulture and horticulture industries took off and the town became a thriving regional centre. In 1901, the first edition of the Great Southern Herald was printed. Mr Todd, driven by a mission to stop Katanning’s history being forgotten, has recently written a book on the town’s history which he expects to be published in the coming months. He is one of many people fascinated by the unique history of the town. Just like Piesse more than 130 years ago, Mr Oakey saw potential in Katanning as the heart of the Great Southern. “I realised when I bought that mill ... these are stories from not that long ago and yet they’ve been so quickly forgotten,” he said. “For quite a few years I’ve been spending time in Great Southern. “The Stirling Range, Frankland River, the Porongurups, Mt Barker and even up to Dumbleyung and Lake Grace — I think it’s just a phenomenal region.. “You wonder why it is that more people don’t come here, because there’s no lack of extraordinary things to see and do which are refreshingly different to the South West coastal thing that we’ve had going on in WA tourism for so long. “It struck me that the reason people won’t come down and engage with this incredible tourism product was there was no decent base camp. “Katanning’s job and our job at the Premier Mill Hotel is to be the concierge to the region.”