Kondinin is a town located in the eastern Wheatbelt region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, east of the state capital,

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

via the Brookton Highway and State Route 40 between Corrigin and Hyden. It is one of three towns in the Shire of Kondinin. At the 2006 census, Kondinin had a population of 311.

History

The first European known to have visited the Kondinin area was Captain

John Septimus Roe John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in ...

, Surveyor General of the

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just ''Swan River'', was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, an ...

on his 1848–1849 expedition to examine the south coast. He encountered a group of

Aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

east of Nalyaring (near Brookton) who guided the expedition party to several water sources before leaving the party at Yeerakine (just south-east of Kondinin) as this was the limit of their territory. The lake and well nearby came to be known as Kondinin, although the meaning is unknown. In the early years, settlers occasionally encountered groups of Aborigines hunting possums. Although artifacts such as grinding stones and stone choppers have been found in the district, no signs of permanent occupation were found by early settlers other than the

mia-mia A mia-mia is a temporary shelter made of bark, branches, leaves and grass used by some Indigenous Australians. The word is also used in Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of variety (linguis ...

s built by "Europeanised" Aboriginal shepherds from

Narrogin Narrogin is a town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, southeast of Perth, Western Australia, Perth on the Great Southern Highway between Pingelly, Western Australia, Pingelly and Wagin, Western Australia, Wagin. In the age of st ...

in the employ of Michael Brown. Brown, a businessman from

, took up large pastoral leases in the Kulin/Kondinin area in 1905. These and other leases in the area were terminated in 1909/1910 to allow the government to distribute the land for agricultural purposes. The town of Kondinin began life as a railway station on the railway line from Yilliminning to Kondinin, built from 1911 to 1915. The district around Kondinin was already settled when the government chose to construct a railway line here in 1911. The townsite was gazetted in 1915. In 1949 the bulk wheat bin in town and another at Notting, located about from Kondinin, were both filled after a good season with excellent yields in the area despite the recorded rainfall of the previous year being only .

Present day

Kondinin has a population of about 300 and is a key agricultural centre for a district whose main activities are wheat and sheep farming. It contains a

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE () is the common name in Australia for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses. Colloquially also known ...

centre, a primary school (the nearest high school being 23 km away in Kulin), National Australia Bank, Bankwest, shopping facilities, accommodation (hotel, motel, caravan park), council offices and a

telecentre A telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others while they develop essential digital skills. Telecent ...

. The town is a stop on the

Transwa Transwa is Western Australia's regional public transport provider, linking 240 destinations, from Kalbarri in the north to Augusta in the south west to Esperance in the south east. The Transwa system provides transport between Perth and the ...

bus service to Esperance. The surrounding areas produce

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and other

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

crops. The town is a receival site for

Cooperative Bulk Handling The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled ...

. It is also known as the "Home of the Group" – the Kondinin Group, a farm improvement group that originated in Kondinin in 1955 and now has its head office in Perth, and other offices in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia. The Kondinin Group was formed as a self-help farmer group to study farm machinery reliability in the wheatbelt of Western Australia. It grew substantially in the 1990s and since 2000 has had about 10,000 members from mostly large scale cropping and livestock enterprises. Research suggests that the Kondinin Group has had a significant impact on the farm practices of its members. In surveys, it was preferred over consultants, suppliers, state departments of agriculture and accountants as a source of reliable and impartial information. The Kondinin Group runs an online bookstore that sells manuals on practical farm skills, teaching guides on agricultural industries and other materials, and publishes a magazine; both channels are used to disseminate Kondinin Group's research and related training. The community of Kondinin, through its historical innovation, continues to have a major impact on broadacre agriculture throughout Australia and is an acknowledged influence on

agricultural extension Agricultural extension is the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farmer education. The field of 'extension' now encompasses a wider range of communication and learning activities organized for r ...

throughout the world. This is recognised by Kondinin's continued use as the brand name of the group. The Centenary of Women's Suffrage Gazebo is located in Kondinin.

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Shire of Kondinin

Hoonavation
{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Grain receival points of Western Australia Shire of Kondinin