Meekatharra, Western Australia

Meekatharra is a town in Western Australia with about 800 inhabitants. Meekatharra is an Aboriginal word meaning " place with a little water ." The Aboriginal people represent a significant proportion of the local population.

Meekatharra is an important supply center for the mining regions in the Murchison region of Western Australia.

The town is located 764 km north-east of Perth and can be reached via the Great Northern Highway. It is also a sheep and cattle transportation center. From here, the cattle and sheep were transported to the cities by train earlier. Today this is done with road trains. There is a 2181 meter long airstrip for aircraft, which was built during the Second World War by the Americans. These start and runway belongs to an important ETOPS airport serving for transcontinental flights to Australia. In the village there is also a Royal Flying Doctor Service Station as well as a School of the Air

History

Meekatharra was, like so many cities in Western Australia, in the time of the Gold Rush. The first settlement seems to have been built in 1894 here. After the gold prospectors Meehan, Porter and Soich were found in May 1896 gold, it attracted many of the prospectors of the other gold fields in East Murchison in the new settlement Meekatharra. Pretty soon swarmed to the goldfields only as of people. But the happiness did not last long: If you had no other gold deposits discovered in 1899, the city probably would not have survived. On Christmas Day 1903 Meekatharra finally gained the town rights. In 1910, the city of a railway station. The train station in principle guaranteed the survival of the city. In the same year, the first woolen delivery was sent to cities from here. This was done until the closure of the station in 1978 and for conversion to road trains. Meekatharra underwent a significant gold rush during the mining boom in the 1980s. By 2005, as a result, was the "Saint Barbara Mines 's Bluebird open pit mine " open pit operated. After that, many residents Meekatharras left the city because of the poor economic prospects.

Climate

Meekatharra has a hot - dry climate. The annual rainfall is 200 mm to 500 mm per square meter.