 It is largely surrounded by karri, marri and jarrah forest and is close to the Warren, D'Entrecasteaux and Shannon national parks.Primarily a dairy farming area since the region was populated under the Group Settlement scheme of the 1920s and 1930s, the district was also a centre for the tobacco and logging industries until both ceased, the former in 1960 and the latter under the Regional Forestry Agreement of 1999.The town was the centre of a Group Settlement Scheme in the 1920s, and was surveyed at the request of the Premier of Western Australia, James Mitchell in 1923.