MEEKATHARRA A HISTORY WESTERN AUSTRALIA WA

CARAVAN TRIP 2007
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. 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 commencement of mining in the area.

DON PUGH

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