Wellstead is a small rural town situated in
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 ...
in the
Great Southern region between
Albany and
Esperance.
The name commemorates the Wellstead family who settled in the area in 1860 and had held grazing land between
Cape Riche
Cape Riche is a cape and rural locality in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. By road, it is 525 km south-east of Perth and 123 km north-east of Albany
Facilities in the locality include a boat launching ramp and a c ...
and
Bremer Bay Bremer may refer to:
People
*Bremer (surname)
* Bremer Ehrler (born 1914), American politician
* Bremer (born 1997), Brazilian footballer
Places
;Australia
*Bremer Bay, Western Australia
* Bremer Marine Park
*Bremer Island
* Bremer River (disambig ...
.
Farmland was opened up in the area in the 1960s for
cereal cropping and land was set aside for a town site. The town site was gazetted in 1965 shortly after establishing a
telephone exchange.
John Wellstead still lived in the area in 1881 and sold 700 head of
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...
via the market in
Albany early the same year. He died in Albany in 1896 but his sons, including John Jr., continued the family pastoral interests in the area.
The surrounding areas produce
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
and other
cereal crops. The town is a
receival site for
Cooperative Bulk Handling
The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym for Co-operative Bulk Handling), is a grain growers' cooperative that handles, markets and processes grain from the wheatbelt of Western Australia.
History
CBH was formed on 5 April 1933, at a ...
.
References
Towns in Western Australia
Great Southern (Western Australia)
Grain receival points of Western Australia
{{WesternAustralia-geo-stub