Location of Meekatharra in Western Australia (red)

Meekatharra is a town of approximately 800 inhabitants. Meekatharra is an Australian Aboriginal word meaning 'place of little water'. There is a considerable local Aboriginal population. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 438 × 599 pixels Full resolution (1000 × 1367 pixel, file size: 71 KB, MIME type: image/png) Shows location of w: Meekatharra, Western Australia marked in red in the Australian state of w:Western Australia. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 438 × 599 pixels Full resolution (1000 × 1367 pixel, file size: 71 KB, MIME type: image/png) Shows location of w: Meekatharra, Western Australia marked in red in the Australian state of w:Western Australia. ... Indigenous Australians or Aborigines[1][2] are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. ...

Meekatharra is major supply centre for the pastoral and mining area in the Murchison region of Western Australian. Murchison is the name of two places: Murchison is the name of a town on the west coast of New Zealands South Island. ... Capital Perth Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Ken Michael Premier Alan Carpenter (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 15  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $100,900 (4th)  - Product per capita  $50,355/person (3rd) Population (December 2006)  - Population  2,050,900 (4th)  - Density  0. ...

It was an important location in the Western Australian Government Railways system - being the northernmost location in the Northern Railway (Western Australia) railway network, apart from the isolated Marble Bar Railway branch out of Port Hedland. For a while a further branch line continued eastwards to Wiluna The line was closed from Mullewa and pulled up in the 1970's. Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the earlier name for the current Public Transport Authority (PTA) of Western Australia, an arm of the Government of Western Australia. ... The Northern Railway has had a number of meanings in Western Australian railway history. ... Marble Bar Railway The isolated Port Hedland to Marble Bar railway was a Western Australian Government Railways 3 6 gauge branch line that was opened in July 1911, and closed in the early 1950s. ... Wiluna is a small Australian town located 966 kilometres east of Perth, 185 kilometres east of Meekatharra, and 518 metres above sea level. ... Mullewa townsite is located in the northern agricultural region, 450 km north of Perth and 98 km east north east of Geraldton. ...

It is located 764 km north east of Perth and may be reached by the Great Northern Highway. It is centre for sheep and cattle transshipment, initially by rail but now by road trains. A huge 2181 metre runway was built by the Americans during the World War II. It serves as an important ETOPS diversion airport for inbound transcontinental flights to Australia. It is also regional home to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air. The Great Northern Highway, the longest highway in Australia Great Northern Highway is a Western Australia highway extending from Perth to the Northern Territory border. ... // A tanker road train Three road trains, Western Australia A road train is a trucking concept used in remote areas of Australia, United States, and Western Canada to move bulky loads efficiently. ... ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards) is an acronym for an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rule permitting twin-engined commercial air transports to fly routes that, at some points, are further than a distance of 60 minutes flying time from an emergency or diversion airport. ... Diversion airports are suitable airport capable of handling a particular ETOPS rated airplane during an emergency landing and whose flying distance at the point of emergency shall not exceed the ETOPS diversion period of that particular airplane. ... 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 areas of Australia. ...

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 1980's, with mining continuing until early 2005 at St Barbaba Mines's Bluebird open pit mine. Exploration has recently restarted in the area,St Barbara sold out to a company known as Mercator Gold. Mercator Gold have conducted an exstensive drilling program and are currently in the prosess of re-opening the mill and commencing production in early June 2007. Althought the town has fallen on tough economic time in the recent past it is now looking to a bright future with the commencement of mining in the area. GOLD refers to one of the following: GOLD (IEEE) is an IEEE program designed to garner more student members at the university level (Graduates of the Last Decade). ... Open Pit is the name of a brand of sauces marketed by Pinnacle Foods. ...

Woolworths Pty Ltd who owned the local supermarket in town sold the premises in January 2006. The store is now run by a family company and trades under the name Farmer Jack's. The store has switched emphis shifting from a suburban metropolitan supermarket to a local supermarket and general store providing a diverse range of products more suitable to the local population and surrounding region.

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.

Travelling Precautions in Region

The environment is extremely hot all year around and although poisonous snakes are rare, caution is advised. Never leave your vehicle in summer without water. Visitors trekking into the Great Sandy Desert should make contact with the police and lodge an itinerary and be prepared. Families Acrochordidae Aniliidae Anomalepididae Anomochilidae Atractaspididae Boidae Bolyeriidae Colubridae Cylindrophiidae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Leptotyphlopidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Typhlopidae Uropeltidae Viperidae Xenopeltidae Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. ... The Great Sandy Desert is a 360,000 km² (223,700 mi²) expanse in northwestern Australia. ...

External links

• Shire site
• Cemetery list

Contact numbers: Police: +61 8-9981-1007

Coordinates: 26°36′S, 118°29′E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...