Golden Pipeline

When the wheatbelt was opened up for agriculture in the 1890s, the country, which had become known by its vegetation, was divided into four classes.

The first-class land consisted of red-brown clay and loam. On it grew gimlet, salmon gum, morrel, yorrel and York gum, usually associated with acacias known as “jams”.

Second-class soils grew smaller mallee type eucalyptus. The sand plains with their hard-leaved prickly scrub were considered third-class while the samphire flats and salt lakes, together with land which grew poison plants, were classified as fourth-class. Where possible, blocks of land were surveyed to include a mixture of soil classes.