Meekatharra Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Meekatharra Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Meekatharra Shire is found in the Mid-West region of Western Australia, about half way between Perth and Port Hedland. The shire is 100 789 square kilometres. It is about the same area as Scotland/Wales combined, or Nevada USA.

The shire has a population of 1521 (est. 2013), mainly in its only town also called Meekatharra. The town has basic services including accommodation (motel) and a small supermarket. Only one major road is found, being the Great Northern Highway, which bisects the shire from south to north. There are several gravel roads connecting other areas of the shire, which are usually in a reasonable condition, unless it rains. Little in the way of services exists away from the highway. Many areas are remote and travellers should be well prepared.

The shire is semi arid, covered in mulga scrub, and pastoral stations. Generally the shire is flat in the south, but ranges of hills increase in the north. The main industries is pastoral, mining and tourism. Summer is unbearably hot, with plagues of flies. The best travelling months is winter (May to October), when days are reasonable, and nights cold, which in turn has killed off all the flies. Tourist attractions are limited, and outside of the town at great distances. Much requires local knowledge as these places have little money to develop attractions. It is however a great place to look for rocks.

Meekatharra was once the centre of a major gold mining operation. Gold is found in greenstone belts at varying distances either side of the highway. These have operated at various times from the 1890's to present. Some of the goldfields are little changed since discovery, whilst others contain several large modern pits. At the time of writing only a few of the gold mines were operational, with many others mined out. The shire also contains a major talc mine, some base metal deposits including the major Degrussa copper mine, variscite deposits, and a chromite mine.

An area of gold mineralisation (strong quartz carbonate-pyrite alteration in high magnesium ultramafic).

Exploration and mining re-started in the 1980s.
Gold exploration recommenced at Meekatharra in late 2004, with the intention of re-establishing a mining inventory and production through the Bluebird processing plant.


Meekatharra is an aboriginal word for 'place of little water'. As is usual with the local language it succinctly describes the whole region in one word.

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Localities in this Region

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References