Merredin

Merredin is located 256 kilometres east of Perth, approximately half way between Perth and Kalgoorlie on the Great Eastern Highway.

The town is a thriving rural service town, and growing, harvesting and transporting grain is the main economic activity in the town.

The huge CBH grain handing terminal dominates the western approach to the town. An afternoon tour takes visitors inside the largest horizontal grain storage bin in the state.

The agricultural lands around Merredin produce more than a third of the state's wheat crop, and the bulk handling co-operative receives and processes in excess of a million tonnes of grain each year. The silos located at the rail facilities to the west of the town are the largest of their type in the southern hemisphere.

The Merredin Agricultural Show is organised and run by the Merredin Agricultural Society and runs each year in late March.

One of the most significant challenges faced by the local agricultural industry is groundwater salinity. Extensive damage is caused to buildings and roads in the area by the rising saline groundwater table. The main source of the rising water is the town site itself, where roads, footpaths, buildings and open space have replaced native vegetation which is adapted to use up every available drop of rainwater. Since the problem was initially identified in the early 1970s, the townspeople and the local farming community have with some limited success participated in a number of programs designed to improve the soil condition.

Interesting sites in the area include the China Southern pilot training facility at the airport. The heritage listed Cummins Theatre, has a pressed tin interior that was in 1928 transported from the former Trivoli Theatre in Coolgardie, and was erected by a brewer who used locally grown grains to brew Oatmeal and Kalgoorlie Stout.

Merredin aerodrome is used as a pilot training facility by the China Southern West Australian Flying College.

Nearby schools
North Merredin Primary School
South Merredin Kindergarten
South Merredin Pre-Primary
South Merredin Primary School
St Mary's School >
To view school locations, click the local real estate link on this page, then click the schools tab on the next page.

Nearby places
Nungarin Southern Cross Bruce Rock Kellerberrin Westonia

Connections to the National Broadband Network are due to be available in Merredin after December 2014. Learn more.

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Wheat silo, Merredin. Photograph © steve111. Courtesy of Panoramio

Merredin

Video © DotInfoWA. Courtesy of YouTube.