Katandra’s history

Katandra is an aboriginal word meaning ‘song of birds’. The property is one of the original farming settlements on Wallis Lake. It has been a dairy farm and a blacksmith and wagon shop were once located on the site.

The area around Wallis Lake was originally the home to the Worimi tribe. Europeans first explored the area in the first half of the nineteenth century. By the 1870s a string of small holdings ran along the banks of the Wallamba River to near Wallis Lake.

Commercial dairy farming started in the 1890s and by 1900 there were three creameries operating in the Wallamba River – Wallis Lake area. Milk or cream would travel from the farm by boat to a wharf on the lakeside. It was then transported to the creamery by trolley tracks. 

The Katandra homestead was built in around 1912 and primarily produced cream as it was too far from the creamery for milk to travel without spoiling. We understand that the cottage adjacent to the homestead was originally the old dairy and was previously located down by the lake to store the cream prior to it’s journey to the creamery. It was moved and extended to be habitable in the 1940s as the dairy industry focused on milk (as opposed to butter) production and the creameries closed.

Now our six low-line angus (commonly known as ‘low life”) feed on the lush grass that has benefited from over 100 years of pasture-improvement.