Katanning

Katanning is a town located 277 km south-east of Perth, Western Australia on the Great Southern Highway. At the 2006 census, Katanning had a population of 3,808.HistoryThe meaning of Katanning is unknown but it is thought to be a local aboriginal word that is 'Kart-annin' that literally means "meeting place of the heads of tribes", 'Kartanup' that means "clear pool of sweet water", or 'Katanning', which means "spiders on your back". Others suggest that the place is named after a local aboriginal woman.The first Europeans to explore the Katanning area were Governor James Stirling and Surveyor General John Septimus Roe who travelled through the area in 1835 en route from Perth to Albany.In about 1870, sandalwood cutters moved into the area but they did not settle. It was not until the arrival of the Great Southern Railway from Perth to Albany in 1889 that the township came into existence.The townsite was initially developed by the same company that built the railway, the Western Australian Land Company. The state government purchased the railway and the townsite in 1896 and later formally gazetted the town in 1898, when the population of the town was 226, 107 males and 119 females.Katanning remains an important centre on the Great Southern Railway to Albany.A roller flour mill, later known as the Premier Flour Mill, was constructed close to the centre of the town in 1891 by brothers, Frederick Henry Piesse and Charles Austin Piesse; this in turn encouraged the local farmers to grow wheat which was at the heart of the town's early economic success. The mill is now a museum. An earthquake with its epicenter just south of Katanning occurred at 8:00 am 10 October 2007. It measured 4.8 on the Richter scale, and was rated as the strongest earthquake in the region for four decades.