Where is Mount Barker?

Mount Barker is located on Albany Highway:
359 km south east of Perth
50 km north of Albany

For Fast Facts on Mount Barker, click here.

What is Mount Barker like?

Mount Barker is the administrative centre of the Shire of Plantagenet and boasts a thriving community of approximately 1,700 people. The town services an expansive agricultural area, where there has been successful diversification into viticulture and the cultivation of wildflowers.
Mount Barker boasts a number of lovingly preserved and unique buildings, including St Werburgh's Chapel and the convict-built Old Police Station. Whilst cherishing its history, Mount Barker has responded to its growing popularity as a touring centre with the development of new visitor facilities to suit every taste. Mount Barker has all major facilities including a large supermarket, bank, ATM, newsagent, service stations, hotels and caravan park.

A little bit of history

Mount Barker was first explored by Europeans in late 1829, nearly four years after the establishment of the penal colony at King George Sound – modern day Albany. Albany was the first European settlement in Western Australia.

On 2 December 1829, the penal colony's surgeon Dr Thomas Braidwood Wilson and a party consisting of two convicts, an Aboriginal guide named Mokare, a soldier and a Mr Kent, Albany's commissariat officer, set off from Albany to explore the hinterland. They reached Mount Barker (named after Captain Collett Barker, the settlement's commandant) soon after.

The first settler into the area was Sir Richard Spencer, the Government Resident in Albany. In 1835 he bought 1,940 acres from Captain James Stirling who had been granted 100,000 acres in the area.

The Land Selection Act of 1898 attracted settlers to the district. The small settlement at Mount Barker was now linked to the nearby port of Albany to the south and Fremantle to the north by the Great Southern Railway. The town site of Mount Barker was gazetted in 1899.

Mount Barker Links
Shire of Plantagenet