It is believed that Mr Becker took the station clock for safekeeping in the 1970s when the passenger trains stopped running along the Great Southern railway line and the Woodanilling station buildings became redundant.

The clock used to be in a locked shed near the main station building, on a wall above the Morse code apparatus – this shed also housed the railway points and the telephone.

The clock sat on the top shelf of the pantry at the blacksmith’s house in Woody for a few years until Mrs Bradbury cleaned out the house when the house was sold, it has been in her home in Katanning ever since.

Mrs Bradbury only realised it was the Woodanilling railway clock two years ago at her husband’s 80th birthday celebrations when her brother-in-law Harry Bradbury noticed it and told her it used to be the Woodanilling railway clock.

The Bradbury family used to farm in the north-east of the Woodanilling Shire.

Mrs Bradbury recently decided to donate the clock for display in the Woodanilling railway building when it is re-developed into an interpretive centre.

The clock donation comes hot on the heels of more good news for the proposed interpretive centre after Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls approved $65,200 of Royalties for Regions money through the Great Southern Development Commission’s Regional Grant Scheme.

The Shire of Woodanilling and the WHAT Group now have to get approval for another $36,690 requested from Lotterywest for the project to go ahead next year.

People can call Mrs Bradbury on 9821 1512 or catch her at the Katanning Visitor Centre.

Mrs Bradbury is planning to take the clock to the antique and collectables event in Wagin next Saturday to see if the experts can put a date and value on it.

WHAT Group chairwoman Annabel Paulley said the clock would be a treasured exhibition piece for the interpretive centre.

“Knowing that it’s the original Woodanilling station clock makes it so special and we are so grateful to Isabel for returning it to its rightful home,” she said.