| Meekatharra Western Australia | |||||||
 Location of Meekatharra in Western Australia (red) | |||||||
| Population: | 945 | ||||||
| Postcode: | 6642 | ||||||
| Elevation: | 517 m (1,696 ft) | ||||||
| Location: | |||||||
| LGA: | Shire of Meekatharra | ||||||
| State District: | Murchison-Eyre | ||||||
| Federal Division: | Kalgoorlie | ||||||
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Meekatharra is a town in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Inches redirects here To see the Les Savy Fav album see Inches. The Mid West region is one of the nine Regions of Western Australia. Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Meekatharra is an Australian Aboriginal word meaning 'place of little water'. Indigenous Australians are descendants of the first known human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. At the 2001 census, Meekatharra had a population of 945, with 36. The Australian census is administered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics every five years 2% being Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australians are descendants of the first known human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. [1]
Contents |
Overview
Meekatharra is a major supply centre for the pastoral and mining area in the Murchison region of Western Australian. Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent.
It was an important location in the Western Australian Government Railways system - being the northernmost location in the Northern Railway railway network, apart from the isolated Marble Bar Railway branch out of Port Hedland. Western Australian Government Railways ( WAGR) was most common name of the Western Australian government rail transport authority from 1890 to 1976 The Northern Railway has had a number of meanings in Western Australian railway history The isolated Port Hedland to Marble Bar railway was a Western Australian Government Railways {{RailGauge|42}} gauge Branch line that was opened For a while a further branch line continued eastwards to Wiluna. Wiluna is a town in the Mid West region of Western Australia. The line was closed from Mullewa and pulled up in the 1970s. Mullewa is a town in the Mid West region of Western Australia, north of Perth and east northeast of Geraldton. In the 2000s, new iron ore prospects may see the railway return. [2]
It is located 764 km north east of Perth and may be reached by the Great Northern Highway. Great Northern Highway is a generally north-south Western Australian highway which links the state's capital Perth with its most northern port Wyndham It is a centre for sheep and cattle transshipment, initially by rail but now by road trains. A road train or roadtrain is a Trucking concept used in remote areas of Australia, the United States, and Western Canada to move A huge 2181 metre runway, now known as Meekatharra Airport, was built by the Americans during World War II. |} Meekatharra Airport is an airport in Meekatharra, Western Australia. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including It serves as an important ETOPS diversion airport for inbound transcontinental flights to Australia. Diversion airports are suitable airports capable of handling a particular ETOPS rated aircraft during an emergency landing and whose flying distance at the point of emergency It is also a regional home to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air. The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia ( RFDS, informally known as The Flying Doctors) is an Air ambulance service for those living in the remote inland
Meekatharra is a former gold rush town. It seems the first settlement at Meekatharra occurred in 1894 and that, in May 1896, after the prospectors Meehan, Porter and Soich discovered gold, miners moved to the new settlement from the other East Murchison fields and mining grew rapidly in scale and sophistication. The Peak Hill mining town was founded in 1892 approximately 100km up the road during this initial Gold Rush.
Success on the Meekatharra field was short-lived. It was only because a second gold discovery occurred in 1899 that the town survived. In 1901 the Meekatharra State Battery began operation and by Christmas Day 1903 the township had been officially gazetted.
In 1906 Alfred Wernam Canning was appointed to develop a stock route from the East Kimberleys to the Murchison. The stock route, comprising 54 wells, was completed in 1908 and, when the railway arrived in Meekatharra in 1910, the town became the railhead at the end of the route. In many ways the railway ensured the town's survival. In 1910 it took the first shipment of wool out of the area and it continued to serve the local pastoral interests until it was closed down in 1978.
Meekatharra underwent a significant gold rush during the mining boom of the 1980s, with mining continuing until early 2005 at St Barbaba Mines's Bluebird open pit mine. A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers into the area of a dramatic discovery of commercial quantities of Gold. Open-pit mining, also known as opencast mining and open-cut mining and strip mining, refers to a method of extracting rock or Minerals Exploration has recently restarted in the area, St Barbara sold out to a company known as Mercator Gold. Mercator Gold have conducted an extensive drilling program and are currently in the process of re-opening the mill and commencing production in early June 2007. Although the town has fallen on tough economic time in the recent past it is now looking to a bright future with the recommencement of mining in the area.
The climate is hot and dry. The annual rainfall is between 200mm and 500mm (20 inches). No viable horticultural industry exists in the area, although extensive but poor cattle stations in the Murchison and Gascoyne exist.
References
- ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (19 November 2002). The Australian Bureau of Statistics ( ABS) is Australia 's national statistical agency. Events 1095 - The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Community Profile Series : Meekatharra (L) (Urban Centre/Locality. 2001 Census of Population and Housing. Retrieved on 2007-06-15. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 763 BC - Assyrians record a Solar eclipse that will be used to fix the Chronology of Mesopotamian history
- ^ http://www.goldenwestresources.com/wiluna_develop.php
Further reading
- Boyd, D. (1988) Meekatharra : a glimpse of the past- Meekatharra, W. A. Shire of Meekatharra ISBN 0731643089. "A Bicentennial, Back to Meekatharra publication".
- Edwards, Hugh, (1994) Meekatharra : the gold beyond the rivers Swanbourne, W. A : H. Edwards for the Meekatharra Shire. ISBN 064620842X
- Heydon, P. R. (1994) Meekatharra : end of the earth West Perth [W. A. ] : Dominion Mining ; Carlisle, W. A : Hesperian Press, ISBN 085905196X
External links
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