Woodanilling

Woodanilling is a small town in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 254km south of Perth on the Great Southern Highway, 24km from Katanning and 30km from Wagin.The town is in a sheep and grain producing area and was named after a spring in the Boyerine Creek, 1 km south of town.Mallet bark was also exported from the area in large quantities in the 1900s.The area was first explored by Europeans in 1830-31 in expeditions by Captain Thomas Bannister. The construction of the Albany Highway in the early 1850s and the Great Southern Railway in 1889 brought settlers to the area and helped to establish the town, which was gazetted in 1892. The townsite is located on an old railway siding that was initially known as Round Pool; in 1895 this was renamed to Yarabin and finally changed to Woodanilling in 1896.The name Woodanilling is Aboriginal in origin and means either "lots of minnows" or "place where the bronzewing pigeon nests".An agricultural hall and public school existed in the town prior to 1903, the school was closed temporarily in 1903 when the teacher, a Mr Campbell, was transferred.By 1906 the Woodanilling Road Board was formed and the population of the shire swelled to 800 during its most prosperous period from 1905 to 1920.