History
Albany
Albany was the home of the Menang Noongar people, who made use of the coastal waters of the area over the summer months. They called the area Kinjarling which means “the place of rain”. Fish traps found at Emu Point suggest that the area held a significant population of Aboriginal people.
The first known European contact in the area occurred in 1626 when the Dutch ship Gulden Zeepaert sailed along the south coast towards South Australia. English explorer George Vancouver entered and named King George Sound, the site of present day Albany, in 1791. Vancouver took possession of New Holland for the British Crown on 26 September of that year.
Albany is the site of the oldest continuous European settlement in Western Australia. The King George Sound settlement was founded in 1826, three years before the Swan River Colony. The settlement at King George Sound was a hastily-established British military outpost intended to forestall any plans by France for settlements in the area.
The Great Southern
Soon after the establishment of the outpost at King George Sound and the arrival of the settlers in the Swan River Colony in 1829 the importance of overland contact between the two was recognised.
John Bannister made the first overland trip between the two settlements in 1831. John Septimus Roe mounted an expedition south of the Swan River Colony in 1835 and traversed vast areas, including what is now Gnowangerup Shire, naming the Stirling Ranges, and through the Cranbrook area to Albany.
Following Roe’s reports on the region, settlers realised the potential of the region. In 1847 the government introduced a system of grazing land leases to regulate the squatters who were pasturing their flocks on crown land.
During this period an relatively small (but important at the time) sandalwood cutting industry developed. Sandalwood was exported to China from Bremer Bay and Albany.
The early activity in the Central Great Southern area was dominated by leaseholders grazing sheep with little major development undertaken. Towns were established along the Perth-Albany Road, including Williams and Kojonup.
During the 1880s the government announced that it proposed to construct a rail link between the two major settlements. By the time the line was completed in 1889 towns had been established along the line by the Western Australian Land Company, at Katanning, Broomehill and Cranbrook, with sidings at Tambellup and Yarabin (Woodanilling).
The Western Australian Land Company was granted huge tracts of land as part of the contract to build the railway line. The company sold off the land, where possible, to recoup its costs. The Homestead Act of 1893 and Land Act of 1898 gave settlers with less capital the chance to obtain smaller holdings, with additional leased land, to establish themselves as primary producers.
Late in the 19th century many people migrated from South Australia which had been devastated by drought. When the gold rush abated prospectors began to move to the Great Southern and establish themselves. Following World War I there was an influx of ex-servicemen when the Soldier Settlements were established. The end of World War II saw new soldier settlements and a further influx of migrants to the area.
All of the towns in the area developed along similar lines with the establishment of facilities such as stores, hotels, boarding houses, commercial buildings, schools, halls and community buildings. However, it was Katanning, situated half way along the new railway line, which grew into the commercial centre of the region, with the construction of multiple facilities.
Today, the Central Great Southern is a thriving region, with many of the small land holdings which were allocated to ex-servicemen and migrant settlers amalgamated into larger, more viable holdings which are being successfully farmed. The trend of recent decades of movement away from rural areas throughout Australia has abated in the region and the population of the Great Southern is relatively stable.
