THE PIESSE INFLUENCE Lost Katanning Frederick Henry Charles

The Piesse influence

F. H. Piesse

It was not until the arrival of the Great Southern Railway from Perth to Albany in 1889 that the township of Katanning really came into existence.

The founding father of Katanning was Frederick Henry Piesse, an entrepreneurial merchant who, seeing the potential that the Great Southern Railway would bring to the area, designed a mobile store to follow the railway’s construction. It is wonderfully appropriate that the railway, which was being constructed from both Perth and Albany, met only 5.5 km from the present site of Katanning. The point where the two railways met is marked by a cairn west of the town.

The Flour Mill, Railway and the Piesse building c1904

The beginnings of Katanning can be described specifically because in May 1888 Piesse had three wagon-loads of goods unloaded near Elijah Quartermaine’s house and a heap of sandalwood was dumped beside the railway. This was the beginning of F & C Piesse’s store which eventually became the town of Katanning. A statue of Piesse which was erected in 1916 stands beside the railway line in Austral Terrace.

In 1891 Frederick Piesse built the Roller Flour Mill. It had the effect of encouraging farmers in the area to grow wheat and was very much at the heart of the town’s early economic success. The mill was also the reason many settlers from South Australia decided to move to the area as they had somewhere to sell their grain. The mill, which is located prominently on the corner of Clive Street and Austral Terrace, has now been fully restored and repurposed as the Premier Mill Hotel and Dome Cafe.

To appreciate the importance that Piesse had on the early development of the town it is worth noting that every building between the Mill and Piesse’s statue, with the exception of the Katanning Shire offices, was either built by Piesse or built using bricks from Piesse’s brick-works.

The man’s hand is on everything in the town. The Piesse Complex in Austral Terrace, now a modern shopping centre, was built in 1901 as a kind of department store. The Katanning Hotel was built in 1889, after the original hotel burnt down, using bricks from Piesse’s brick-works and the King George Hostel, on the corner of Albion Street and Austral Terrace, was built for Piesse’s son in 1913 and was originally used to provide accommodation for mill workers.

Piesse also established an orchard, vineyard and winery around his home at Kobeelya with his wines winning medals in Perth, London and Paris. The remains of the winery, a castle looking structure used to house water tanks, still remains today.

The Katanning Stock and Trading Company was started by his son Arnold Edmund Piesse as A.E. Piesse & Co in 1905. It was floated as a public company in 1907 when the second storey was added to the building. The business is still in operation today.

Piesse donated 10 000 bricks to help with the construction of the Katanning Agricultural Hall in Austral Terrace which was completed in 1896.

Around the corner is St Andrews Anglican Church which was opened by Mrs. Piesse in 1898 after her husband had donated 40 000 bricks. Surprisingly, for an area where timber is plentiful, the pews are made from imported New Zealand kauri.

KOBEELYA

Kobeelya c1905

It is appropriate to finish Piesse’s involvement with the town by visiting the grand family mansion ‘Kobeelya‘ which F. H. Piesse built in 1902. Given that Katanning was only 14 years old at the time it is a remarkably urbane building. It must have seemed incongruous in a small country town to have had a seven-bedroom mansion with a billiard room, hot and cold running water, a ballroom, tennis courts and a croquet field. Kobeelya was also the first home in country Western Australia to be connected to electric power. It is a fitting monument to the man who created the town.