Background

The Avon Valley between the towns of Beverley and Toodyay represent the first inland farming in Western Australia, being first farmed in 1831. The Central Agricultural Region now extends much further than the Avon Valley itself and covers approximately 8.3m hectares of agricultural land. The majority of regions catchments in the Lockhart and Yilgarn catchments drain through the Avon River Basin.

The majority of primary production in the region is centred on the cropping of cereals, oilseeds and legumes mixed with sheep and cattle farming. Major soil constraints of the central agricultural region include low natural nutrition, production induced subsoil acidity and salinity related to rising water tables.

Annual rainfall in the region varies from approximately 450 mm in the west and south, down to 300 mm in the eastern areas around Southern Cross. In recent times the shift in property ownership has been towards fewer farms but larger landholdings.