- NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY FOR THE NORTHERN AGRICULTURAL REGION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
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Agriculture is the foundation of the Shire of Dalwallinu economy. Broadacre grain production and livestock farming dominate much of the rural landscape and support agricultural services, grain handling, transport and other businesses throughout the district.
Dalwallinu is also an important regional service and industrial centre. Manufacturing, engineering, fabrication, transport and logistics businesses operate within the Shire, including businesses supporting the agricultural and mining industries. Its location on the Great Northern Highway provides important transport connections to Perth and northern Western Australia.
Retail, health, education, government and community services provide further employment and support residents and surrounding farming communities. The Shire continues to encourage new businesses and diversification of the local economy.
Tourism makes a smaller but important contribution, particularly during the wildflower season. Dalwallinu is the southern gateway to the Wildflower Way, with visitors attracted by seasonal wildflowers, wattles, nature reserves, heritage and rural landscapes.
The Shire of Dalwallinu lies on the ancient Yilgarn Craton and is underlain predominantly by Archaean rocks more than 2.5 billion years old. These include granites, gneisses and granulites, together with metamorphosed volcanic rocks known as greenstones. Younger sediments occur within drainage systems and around salt lakes, including gypsum-bearing deposits in the Lake Goorly–Lake Hillman area.
The landscape is generally characterised by broad, gently undulating plains, low rises and sandplains, interspersed with granite outcrops, breakaways, drainage lines and salt-lake systems. Soils vary with the underlying geology and landform and include deep sands, sandy and loamy earths, duplex soils, gravelly soils and heavier soils associated with valleys and drainage systems.
The Shire includes parts of the Merredin (AVW01) subregion of the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion and the Tallering (YAL02) subregion of the Yalgoo bioregion. Native vegetation varies from eucalypt woodlands and Acacia shrublands across the agricultural landscapes to more extensive shrublands and woodlands in the drier northern and eastern parts of the Shire.
Characteristic woodland species include York gum (Eucalyptus loxophleba), salmon gum (Eucalyptus salmonophloia) and red morrel (Eucalyptus longicornis), together with jam (Acacia acuminata) and other Acacia species.
Remnants within the Shire may form part of the nationally listed Eucalypt Woodlands of the Western Australian Wheatbelt ecological community. This community is listed as Critically Endangered under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. It encompasses qualifying patches of eucalypt woodland dominated or co-dominated by characteristic Wheatbelt species, including York gum, salmon gum, red morrel and other eucalypts.
Remnant native vegetation is particularly important within the extensively cleared agricultural landscape, where woodland and shrubland remnants provide habitat for native flora and fauna and contribute to landscape connectivity.
Agriculture is the dominant land use across the Shire of Dalwallinu, with broadacre cropping and livestock production occupying extensive areas of the rural landscape. Protecting productive agricultural land remains an important land-use planning priority for the Shire.
Dalwallinu, Wubin, Kalannie, Pithara and Buntine contain the Shire’s principal urban, commercial, community and industrial land uses. Transport infrastructure is also significant, particularly the Great Northern Highway and the road and rail networks that support agriculture, freight and regional industries.
Other land uses include mining and resource-related activities, renewable-energy development, tourism and rural industries. Current planning increasingly recognises opportunities to diversify the Wheatbelt economy while maintaining the productive agricultural base.
Native vegetation and conservation reserves occur within the extensively modified agricultural landscape, including remnant bushland, granite outcrops, roadside vegetation and other areas unsuitable for cultivation. Protecting these remnants and managing salinity, erosion and other forms of land degradation are important for maintaining biodiversity, landscape values and productive land.
The Shire of Dalwallinu has a dispersed population centred on Dalwallinu and the smaller communities of Wubin, Kalannie, Pithara and Buntine, as well as residents living on farms and rural properties throughout the district. Dalwallinu is the principal administrative, commercial and service centre for the Shire.
At the 2021 Census, the Shire of Dalwallinu had 1,379 residents. The median age was 39 years, and 84 people — 6.1% of the population — identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
Agriculture and associated industries strongly influence employment and community life, while manufacturing, transport, health, education, retail and other services provide additional employment. The Shire’s small and geographically dispersed communities make local services, sporting clubs, community organisations and volunteering important contributors to community life.
Water resources in the Shire of Dalwallinu are strongly influenced by the region’s low and variable rainfall and inland drainage systems. There are no major permanent rivers, and surface water generally occurs in ephemeral drainage lines, seasonal wetlands, salt lakes, farm dams and other constructed water storages. Reliable water supplies are particularly important for agriculture and rural communities. Scheme water, farm dams, rainwater tanks and strategic community water supplies contribute to water security across the Shire, particularly during extended dry periods. Strategic non-potable supplies are maintained for emergency livestock water and firefighting. Extensive clearing of deep-rooted native vegetation for agriculture has altered the regional water balance in susceptible areas, contributing to rising watertables, dryland salinity and waterlogging. Saline groundwater and drainage therefore require careful management to avoid transferring salt and poor-quality water to neighbouring land, waterways and other environmental assets. Sustainable water use, maintaining reliable emergency water supplies, managing surface-water movement and reducing the impacts of salinity and waterlogging remain important priorities for the Shire’s agricultural landscapes and communities.
