Deanmill is a historic timber town located in the

South West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, near Manjimup. Its postcode is 6258.

History

After the

Government Trading Concerns Act 1912 A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

was passed in December of that year, several State-operated businesses were established. One of these was State Saw Mills, which commenced with purchasing the South-West Timber Hewers' Co-operative for £80,000. Construction on the State's Number 1

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

, later called Deanmill, began in 1913, as did construction of the Number 2 and 3 mills at Big Brook, later called Pemberton. The mills cost an estimated £138,000, and were to provide

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

railway sleepers for the

Trans-Australian Railway The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. As the only rail freight corridor between Western Australia and the easter ...

. Construction of the mills was delayed by heavy rainfall, and the railway sleepers were delivered late. Other problems included shipping disputes and the Commonwealth government's price for sleepers. State Saw Mills created a township surrounding the Number 1 mill, called Deanmill after a construction engineer named A. Dean. They followed accepted practice at the time of placing a timber mill in a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

with accommodation and other facilities close by. Deanmill Primary School was built in 1914 by the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

in association with State Saw Mills. The school initially consisted of a single

classroom A classroom or schoolroom is a learning space in which both children and adults learn. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, ranging from preschools to universities, and may also be found in other places where education ...

, administration building and

shed A shed is typically a simple, single-story roofed structure that is used for hobbies, or as a workshop in a back garden or on an allotment. Sheds vary considerably in their size and complexity of construction, from simple open-sided ones de ...

, all constructed out of timber.

Today

Deanmill currently consists of the sawmill, mill houses, the Deanmill Workers' Club, the Deanmill

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Oval and part of the Deanmill Tramway and Heritage Trail. Premier

Geoff Gallop Geoffrey Ian Gallop (born 27 September 1951) is an Australian academic and former politician who served as the 27th Premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006. He is currently a professor and director of the Graduate School of Government at ...

visited Deanmill in December 2002 when the State government was compiling its Forest Management Plan, to start in 2004. The Government entered into negotiations with Sotico to provide a guaranteed volume of

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, djarraly in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with roug ...

sawlogs over 10 years, to maintain the timber industry in the area. Sotico was a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

Wesfarmers Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue o ...

, which sold the company in 2004. Several assessments have been made regarding the

environmental impact Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

of the sawmill and associated activities. A 2004 assessment by

showed

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination W ...

in and surrounding a

drainage channel Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

to Lefroy Brook. The WA government accepted responsibility for the issue, as State Saw Mills used arsenic to treat timber in the 1920s. Wesfarmers accepted responsibility for groundwater and

soil contamination Soil contamination, soil pollution, or land pollution as a part of land degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotic (human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. It is typically caused by industrial activity ...

with

creosote Creosote is a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics. Some creosote types were ...

, and the clean-up cost was shared by Wesfarmers and the State government.

Demographics

The rural district which includes Deanmill had 405 residents as of the 2006 Census, 50.4% males and 49.6% females. The median age of persons in Deanmill was 39 years old, and 90.9% of residents were Australian citizens. The most common answers for occupation included labourers (27.4%), managers (18.4%), technicians and trades workers (12.4%), professionals (10.9%) and sales workers (9.5%), and the most common industries were log sawmilling and timber dressing (16.4%), school education (9.0%), growing of fruit and tree nuts (8.5%), farming of sheep, cattle and grain (4.0%) and State Government administration (3.5%). The median weekly household income was $821, compared with the Australian average of $1,027.

References

External links

Geoscience Australia: Deanmill
{{authority control Towns in Western Australia South West (Western Australia) Timber towns in Western Australia