Westralian Farmers Ltd. Perth, Western Australia.

6WF

Westralian Farmers Ltd. was founded on June 27, 1914, as the Westralian Farmers' Co-operative, which focused on providing services and merchandise to the Western Australian rural community. It was involved in the operations of the Cooperative Wheat Pool of Western Australia.

In May 1923, the Commonwealth Government called a conference of the main radio manufacturers. This conference led to the introduction of the "Sealed receiving set" regulations, which required that radio receivers be licensed and tuned to only receive one station. The government then granted radio broadcasting licenses to each state, with one license for Western Australia being granted to Westralian Farmers Ltd.

In 1924, Westralian Farmers Ltd. established the first public radio station in Western Australia, 6WF. The company sold licensed radios manufactured by itself and other manufacturers, such as Batyphone and Mulgaphone. It is not clear how many radios Westralian Farmers Ltd. manufactured, but it was advertised from 1924 to 1930.

After protests from the public, the sealed set system was dropped after a few months and two classes of transmitting licenses were issued: A class (national broadcasters funded from receiving set licenses) and B class (commercial licenses funded from advertising). Due to falling license revenue, Westralian Farmers Ltd. suffered heavy losses in running 6WF. In December 1928, the Postmaster General purchased the entire plant, and from 1929 6WF has been operated by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

Westralian Farmers Manufacturing Division

Due to the implementation of the sealed set system, radio sets to receive 6WF on 1250 meters were not available, as this frequency was not used in the other states of Australia. Therefore, Westralian Farmers Ltd. decided to build and manufacture its own radios. These sets were sold under the Mulgaphone brand.

[1] Sunday Times (WA) Sep 30 1928  Page 7.