Wellstead is a small rural town and

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

of the

City of Albany The City of Albany is a local government area in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, about south-southeast of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It covers an area of , including the Greater Albany metropolitan area and the ...

in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Located between Albany and Esperance, the locality stretches along the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

coast, while the townsite is located inland, on the

South Coast Highway South Coast Highway is a Western Australian highway. It is a part of the Highway 1 network. With a length of , it runs from Esperance to Walpole roughly in parallel to Western Australia's south coast. Even then the journey is pretty much i ...

. The name commemorates the Wellstead family who settled in the area in 1860 and had held grazing land between

Cape Riche Cape Riche is a cape in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. By road, it is south-east of Perth and north-east of Albany. It is part of the locality of Wellstead and is south of the townsite. Facilities in the area include a bo ...

(which is part of the locality) and

Bremer Bay Bremer may refer to: People *Bremer (surname) *Bremer Ehrler (1914–2013), American politician * Bremer (born 1997), Brazilian footballer Places ;Australia *Bremer Bay, Western Australia *Bremer Marine Park * Bremer Island *Bremer River (disambig ...

. Farmland was opened up in the area in the 1960s for

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

cropping and land was set aside for a town site. The town site was gazetted in 1965 shortly after establishing a

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...

. John Wellstead still lived in the area in 1881 and sold 700 head of

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

via the market in Albany early the same year. He died in Albany in 1896 but his sons, including John Jr., continued the family pastoral interests in the area. The surrounding areas produce

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and other

crops. The town is a receival site for

Cooperative Bulk Handling The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled ...

References

City of Albany, Western Australia Grain receival points of Western Australia {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub