Meekatharra

About Meekatharra

Meekatharra is a townsite in the Murchison goldfields, 765 kilometres north northeast of Perth. The townsite is 35 kilometres north northeast of Nannine where the first goldrush on the Murchison Goldfield occurred in 1890. It was not until late 1895, when three prospectors, Meehan, Porter and Soych, pegged a claim at "Meekatharra" that the place came to the attention of the mining world. Their claim was near Meekatharra Spring, the Aboriginal name of a watering point that had appeared on maps since 1885, and it is from this spring that the townsite's name is derived. It is believed that the name means, "place of little water".

By 1900 there had been sufficient growth at Meekatharra for the Meekatharra Progress Committee to write to the government requesting a townsite be declared. A surveyor inspected the site and felt it premature, but within a year the situation had changed, and lots were surveyed and land reserved for a townsite. The formal gazettal of the townsite took place in December 1903. A railway station was opened here in 1910, and it contained a large junction station, loco depot and trainsmen's barracks. A stationmaster was there until 1978 when the line was closed.

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