Map of Western Australia.

Important map of Western Australia showing the state of pastoral leases issued to 1888, from information provided by John Forrest.

During this period construction of the Midland Railway had commenced in 1886 through a privately funded project. Two years later the Western Australian Government had granted a land concession of over 3,000,000 acres to the Company following its registration in 1890. In the terms of the concession, the company was entitled to 12,000 acres of land for every mile of railway completed. As a consequence this entitled the company to select land between Midland Junction and Walkaway, near Geraldton, within 40 miles of the new railway. Between 1905 and 1918, the company actively pursued a scheme of land classification and settlement led by land agent and politician James Gardiner. The first subdivision was auctioned at Moora on 22 June 1906. By 1911, 16 subdivisions between Midland Junction and Dongara had been classified and auctioned. In 1910, Gardiner instigated and managed the Ready Made Farms Scheme, which provided cleared and fenced farms with houses to prospective settlers. The townsites of Coorow, Winchester and Carnamah formed the backbone of the scheme. The scheme was advertised widely to British citizens and was moderately successful, with 35 of the 58 farms sold by the end of 1915.