Woodanilling Shire Round Pool Road Board Lost Katanning

Woodanilling Shire

The Woodanilling District was first explored in the early 1830’s and, by the 1850’s, the Albany to Perth road had been constructed encouraging pioneers to settle in the region. Some took up pastoral leases and others came in search of sandalwood.

Throughout the 1870’s more land had been taken up as farming and grazing land in the area and the name of “Round Pool” was first used. Round Pool was the name of a pool of water around 1 km south of the current town site and was the social focal point for the original settlers.

Before the opening of the Great Southern Railway (GSR) in the late 1880’s, local business owners had decided to centre their businesses around the proposed sidings of Katanning, Wagin Lake and Narrogin, due to their easy access and close proximity to the old outposts on the Albany to Perth Coach Road such as, Kojonup, Arthur River and Williams.

This left Woodanilling out of the picture. The land lying west of the townsite, which the Coach Rd ran through, was known as Beaufort. It was mainly undeveloped and contributed to Woodanilling becoming dwarfed by the larger centres of Wagin and Katanning in the years to come.

Today, the village is a quiet siding on the Great Southern Railway line and now only sees grain traffic with one or two trains passing through a day. Occasionally they will stop and load up at Co-operative Bulk Handling’s (CBH) Woodanilling’s grain bin. The station building still sees minimal use, with track gangs and loco crews using the railway phone inside the station building.

The Shire [2] now has around 400 people living in it however the Store, the Tavern, and Shire Office continue to provide services for the town.

THE ROAD TO CREATING WOODANILLING

THE WEST WARD.
MEETING OF RATEPAYERS

Great Southern Herald
30 August, 1905

SEPARATE ROADS BOARD FOR WOODANILLING AGAIN URGED.

A meeting of ratepayers was held at Woodanilling last Saturday to discuss details in connection with the expenditure of the special grant for the West Ward.

The chairman of the Board, Mr A. E. Piesse, who presided, pointed out that all matters decided that afternoon would have to be sanctioned by the Board before they were made valid. Besides the ordinary amount allowed for the West Ward, there was a special grant of £300 and an extra £100 for the Cartmeticup Road. He also referred to the advisability of forming an independent Roads Board for Woodanilling. Continue reading

BOARD DISTRICT.
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS.

Great Southern Herald
20 December, 1905

An enquiry was conducted at the Katanning Mechanics Institute on Monday by Mr A. E. Sanderson, Departmental officer, concerning the proposed amendment of the Katanning Roads Board district.

Mr I. Mills conducted the case for the Katanning Roads Board. Mr J. J. Mouritz represented the Woodanilling settlers and Mr T. Norrish appeared on behalf of the Broomehill Roads Board. Continue reading

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WOODANILLING SHIRE