The Katanning Roller Flour Mill (Katanning)

 hotel, cafe, bar, place with historical importance, wine tasting room

The Katanning Roller Flour Mill was established on the 30th of April 1891.

Its founders, Frederick and Charles Piesse, spent 6000 pounds to open the mill which, at the time, had the capacity to produce 8 tonnes of flour a day. Two years after the mill’s foundation, it began to receive national attention resulting for a number of families from the east to migrate to Katanning. The flour mill was initially open only during the harvesting season until 1899 when the facility started to operate the entire year.

From 1904 to 1961, the generators from the mill supplied electricity to the town of Katanning. F.T.R Piesse inherited the flour mill and led its operations in 1912 after his father’s death. Five decades after it was opened, the roller flour mill had eighty employees under its wing and was already exporting to other countries and cities such as Egypt, London, and Singapore.
Due to overcapitalization, the mill briefly stopped its operations in 1921. A new company, the Katanning Flour Mills Limited, was founded in 1927 using the money raised by the townsmen. The new establishment focused its operations in Swan rolled flour and grist orders from farmers. The mill once again come across difficulties in 1970 and was taken over by Katanning’s Oat Milling Company. It was closed for good in 1977 after not being able to keep up with the advancement of the milling process in metropolitan plants.

The Shire of Katanning purchased the roller flour mill in 1981 for $29000.

The Shire sold the mill to the Dome Cafe Group in 2015 for $1.00 on the proviso that they renovated it and set up business there.
The renovated building with 22 Hotel rooms, cafe and wine bar opened in May 2018.