THE population of Wheatbelt town Kalannie was almost doubled recently with an influx of visitors for the first Kochii Eucalyptus Oil open day and field walk.
More than 140 people - many drove up from Perth - and others came in from surrounding farming areas - accepted invitations to inspect Kochii eucalyptus oil mallee trees being harvested and regrowth after harvest of eucalyptus polybractea trees on the McCreery family farm just out of town.
The visitors then moved on to the Stanley family farm at the other end of town to inspect Kochii's eucalyptus oil distillery and hear about its ambitious plans for continued expansion of oil production and to use a mountain of spent kochii biomass from that production to generate electricity for the town, as well as produce biochar, syngas and wood vinegar products.
