Greenbushes is a timber and mining town located in the

South West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

. The 2021 population was 365.

History

Greenbushes was founded as a

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

town in 1888 following a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ...

's discovery of tin in 1886. Greenbushes was named after the bright green '' Oxylobium lanceolatum'' that contrasted against the grey

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as ...

trees. The railway from Donnybrook to

Bridgetown Bridgetown ( UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The ...

opened in 1898, with Greenbushes station located approximately six kilometres north of the main townsite. The area surrounding the railway station was renamed North Greenbushes to reduce confusion. Harry and Adas Grave

A separate town site of South Greenbushes, also known as Bunbury End began in 1896. The town had its own post office, hall and strong community until the 1930s when most moved to the main town site. The town boasted its own cricket team as well as many other groups. The town experienced a period of

economic boom An economic expansion is an increase in the level of economic activity, and of the goods and services available. It is a period of economic growth as measured by a rise in real GDP. The explanation of fluctuations in aggregate economic activi ...

until the international price of tin slumped in 1893, which caused the Greenbushes' industry to collapse. By 1913, approximately one quarter of Greenbushes' inhabitants were working in the timber industry, which was established shortly after the first mine.

Industry

Greenbushes' two major industries are mining, producing

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concentrates,

lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense soli ...

minerals, tin metal and

kaolin Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedra ...

; and timber milling. Agriculture,

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for '' vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of '' Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, r ...

, tourism and art galleries are also part of Greenbushes' industry. The

Greenbushes mine The Greenbushes lithium mine is an open-pit mining operation which is in Western Australia and is the world's largest hard-rock lithium mine.Allday, A. (2020). Salt, Lithium and Other Mineral Mining in Australia. Sydney : IBIS World. It is loc ...

, located to the south of the town, has produced lithium concentrate since 1985. , it's the largest lithium mine in the world.

References

External links

Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes website
{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Mining towns in Western Australia South West (Western Australia) Timber towns in Western Australia