Our History

Pierre Bellanger was one of the first in Western Australia to use lime in agriculture, around 1911 - 1912. He carted lime by boat on the Frankland River inlet to his property at Nornalup.

The site from which he obtained his lime is still visible today on the banks of the Frankland River, approximately 3 kms from the mouth of the Frankand.  His son, Edward (Ted) continued to use this lime on his return from war service (WWII) in the 1950's and worked with Rudolf Strivuals of the Albany Agricultural Department to further the use of lime in agriculture.

WALCO's Windy Harbour Quarry was originally opened in 1973 by Lorenzo Bonnazi at a site where Tom Lance had tried and found the lime too hard for his equipment. WALCO took over from Lorenzo in 1974 and through the use of more advanced extraction techniques and equipment was able to overcome the granite like hardness of the lime resource and produce a product suitable for the demands of farming and metallurgy. Through continued exploration for lime resources, WALCO came across a soft lime deposit in Manypeaks, Western Australia. This resource was found to be more suited to agricultural purposes, due to it being highly soluble in water and having a high fines content. WALCO expanded its operations to Manypeaks in 1989 and continues to provide high quality agricultural lime to a geographically broad farming area.