Both their parents work out of the town and they expect they will too.

Jake's family has lived in the town for three generations. His grandmother and most of his mother's family still live there.

His father works in Westbury and his mother at Perth's Eskleigh nursing home.

Caitlin's family has lived in the town since she was born. Her mother works for Avon and her father in Launceston for BHP.

The children both like the quietness and space of the country town.

"There's a lot of space to ride your bike around," Jake says.

Caitlin likes playing cricket on the oval with friends and climbing the trees.

Jake plays cricket in Westbury and football in Longford.

The annual Hagley School Fair, the Targa road race, Westbury Show and Agfest at Carrick are the highlights of the year.

But being a small town has its disadvantages in terms of facilities.

Both would like to see the town tennis courts, now cracked and littered with pine cones, renovated and a town swimming pool built.

Resident for 30 years, transport company proprietor Graeme Page, has no fear that Hagley will cope with change as it has for generations.

Always an agricultural centre, Hagley was principally a dairying and pea- farming region.

Two pea canning factories were large employers during the Christmas harvest season.

During the war, flax was grown and milled in the area.

Post-war Hagley became Australia's most important stud stock centre for English sheep breeds.

But in the 1970s poppies took over as the principal crop, bringing a new prosperity to the region.

One of the biggest changes in the region has been the decline in rural jobs, Mr Page said.

Farms that once employed eight people are now operated by one or two family members.

"Young people go to town to work. But those that have stayed on the land are more productive than ever before," Mr Page said.

Because of its size - only two kilometres from one boundary to the other - Hagley looks to Westbury as its major centre.

Mr Page is on the Westbury-Hagley Development Committee that is investigating measures to counter the impact of the bypass.

He has no doubts that Hagley will survive.

"They are very innovative people in this area, prepared to move with the times," he said.