The ancestral home of one of Katanning’s founding fathers and his whimsical distillery tower have been included on the State Register of Heritage Places.
Parliamentarian Frederick Henry Piesse was a farmer and businessman whose commercial enterprises shaped the economy of Katanning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
As a prominent politician, serving in John Forrest’s first representative government, he was also responsible for opening up land for small scale farming.
Piesse’s family estate, Kobeelya, and his former winery, including the 1910 two-storey Federation Gothic-style distillery tower, have now been included in the State Register.
The former wealthy gentleman’s estate of Kobeelya includes the 17-room, two-storey Federation Queen Anne-style residence and Coach House (1902), landscaped gardens, and an avenue of trees that mark the original entrance to the property.
Kobeelya was adapted into a Church of England residential girls’ school in 1922. When the school closed in 1986, it was sold to the Katanning Baptist Church and is now used as a place of worship, a conference centre, a retreat, and a venue for camps and outreach programs.
The fanciful landmark Distillery Tower, with its crenelated roofline, is all that remains of the Piesse winery estate, whose wines won international awards in the early part of the 20th century.