Wiluna is a small town in the Mid West 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 th ...

. It is situated on the edge of the Western Desert at the gateway to the Canning Stock Route and

Gunbarrel Highway The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It consists of about of washaways, heavy corrugations, stone, sand and flood plains. The Gunbarrel Highway connects Victory D ...

. It is the service centre of the local area for the local

Martu people The Martu (Mardu) are a grouping of several Aboriginal Australian peoples in the Western Desert cultural bloc. Name The Martu people were originally speakers of various Wati languages in the Western Desert dialect continuum whose identity coa ...

, the pastoral industry, the

Wiluna Gold Mine The Wiluna Gold Mine is an active gold mine in Western Australia near the town of Wiluna. The mine was active from 1984 until its closure in 2007 when it was put into care and maintenance, and again from late 2008 to June 2013 when the owners, ...

, and many more people who work on other mines in the area on a " fly-in/fly-out" basis. Wiluna's climate is hot and dry, with an annual rainfall of . Mean maximum temperatures range from 19 °C (66 °F) in July, to 38 °C (100 °F) in January. The closest service centre is in Meekatharra.

Overview

Wiluna has from 200 to 600

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

living within its community, depending upon the nature, time and place of the traditional law ceremonies across the Central Desert region. The traditional Aboriginal owners (a grouping known as the Martu) were "settled" as a consequence of the British colonisation process that began in the 1800s. In the 1950s a church-based group were supported by the government of the day to establish a mission. The traditional people lost their lands through many different processes, including the issuing of

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Australia Pastoral lease ...

s, the discovery of gold and the influx of non-Aboriginal people onto their lands. Before and after the atomic nuclear testing near

Maralinga Maralinga, in the remote western areas of South Australia, was the site, measuring about in area, of British nuclear tests in the mid-1950s. In January 1985 native title was granted to the Maralinga Tjarutja, a southern Pitjantjatjara Aborig ...

in the 1950s, many Aboriginal people from at least three different tribal and language groups were forced to live within the mission site. This created many conflicts and the legacy continues today. Much traditional knowledge and skill exists today amongst the Aboriginal residents and visitors. The existence of a local pub has created much conflict with many people opposed to its presence arising from the conflict and trauma associated with alcohol abuse. The town also has a general store, petrol, caravan park, sports oval, school, and health clinic. Local water holes are much damaged and overused after years of cattle use. During the

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

, large lakes may form that attract an array of wildlife. The region has snakes,

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

s, bungarras (large lizard/goanna), bush turkeys,

donkeys The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

, horses,

camels A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. ...

and

dingo The dingo (''Canis familiaris'', ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (Basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage of dog found in Australia (continent), Australia. Its taxonomic classification is de ...

es. Willuna is home to VMW, a marine weather transmitter operated by the

Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. It was established in 1906 under the Meteorology Act, and brought together ...

. Parts of the unsealed and flood-prone road between Wiluna and Meekatharra are being sealed, as part of a pilot program in which the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

provided for road work contractors in collaboration with the Martu-ku Yiwarra Training Centre.

Mines

The Wiluna area was explored by

Lawrence Wells Lawrence Allen "Larry" Wells (30 April 1860 – 11 May 1938), frequently spelled Laurence Allen Wells, was an Australian explorer. Wells was born at Yallum Station near Penola, South Australia and grew up in the Mount Gambier, South Australia ...

in 1892.

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

was discovered in the area in 1896, and within a few months over 300 prospectors were in the area. The town of Wiluna was gazetted in 1898, the name ''Wiluna'' being the Wati (Aboriginal language) name for the area. By the 1930s, the town had a population of over 9,000 people, but

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

severely affected the gold mining industry, and many mines were shut down. By 1963 the population had fallen to less than 100. Gold mining resumed in the area in 1981. The closest mine site to town is the

, approximately south of Wiluna. The mine was shut down by its new owner, Apex Minerals, in August 2007 for refurbishment and resource definition. The mine commenced milling again in November 2008 with plans to mill up to per annum and produce initially per annum, increasing to . Yeleeri mine site, located south has

uranium ore Uranium ore deposits are economically recoverable concentrations of uranium within the Earth's crust. Uranium is one of the more common elements in the Earth's crust, being 40 times more common than silver and 500 times more common than gold. It ...

, and the region boasts much mineral wealth. The Paroo Station lead carbonate open pit mine is located west of Wiluna. As of January 2015 it was being placed into care and maintenance due to low global prices for lead. Wiluna and the Mid-West region are the site of Western Australia's most advanced

uranium mining Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. Over 50 thousand tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account f ...

projects. Three projects are in the approval process, the

Lake Maitland uranium project Lake Maitland is a dry lake, dry salt lake located approximately south east of Wiluna, Western Australia, Wiluna, in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West region of Western Australia. Mining project The Lake Maitland mine, Lake Maitland ...

, the

Lake Way uranium project Lake Way is a dry saline lake located in the Mid West region of Western Australia, approximately south of Wiluna. It also gives its name to a nearby cattle station, the Lake Way Station. Description The lake, dry except during exceptional ...

, and the Yeelirrie uranium project which

BHP Billiton BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

sold to Canadian uranium company Cameco. All three are located within of Wiluna. All three mines are opposed by environmental groups and some local people. Yeelirrie is most fiercely opposed, with over 40 years of clear opposition from

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

Meteors

In October 1960, two station workers named Fred Vincenti and Frank Quadrio were opening a fence gate on the Millbillillie-Jundee track from Wiluna when they witnessed a bright fireball falling into spinifex (''Triodia'') grassland to the north. The debris from this meteor became known as the Millbillillie meteorite and is understood to be pieces of the

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

Vesta that had at some point been knocked off by a collision in the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

. Although no official specimens were recovered until 1970 it is understood that members of the local Aboriginal community had collected pieces. Another

meteorite fall A meteorite fall, also called an observed fall, is a meteorite collected after its fall from outer space was observed by people or automated devices. Any other meteorite is called a "find". There are more than 1,100 documented falls listed in ...

was recorded near Wiluna on 2 September 1967. This meteorite was a H5-class object; specimens were collected and housed in the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...

Education

Wiluna Remote Community School is a school that provides education for students from year 1–12, currently having a student population of between 85 and 115 students. The school provides a bus as transport to and from the school for the students. The indigenous language of the area is

Martu Wangka dialect Martu Wangka, or Wangkatjunga (Wangkajunga), is a variety of the Western Desert language that emerged during the 20th century in Western Australia as several indigenous communities shifted from their respective territories to form a single com ...

, however most students speak Aboriginal English.

Origin of name

An early mining settlement of Lake Way Gold, named after the dry

Lake Way Lake Way is a dry saline lake located in the Mid West region of Western Australia, approximately south of Wiluna. It also gives its name to a nearby cattle station, the Lake Way Station. Description The lake, dry except during exceptional ...

south of Wiluna, established around 1896, was called ''Weeloona'', derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ''Place of wind'' or ''Windy place''. However, the name is also sometimes claimed to come from the cry of the

curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been in ...

, which is frequent in the area.

Geography

Climate

Wiluna experiences a

desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''BWh''), though like most of inland Western Australia it has seen its rainfall increase by around 40 percent since 1967. The heaviest rainfall, however, was associated with the April 1900 floods when the town received , two-and-half-times its normal annual rainfall.

Railways

Wiluna was the furthest away from Perth that the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

system reached. The Wiluna branch was connected to the main Northern Railway at Meekatharra. The branch opened to Wiluna on 2 November 1932. The line was closed on 5 August 1957.

People from Wiluna

The Indigenous people who have always lived in the region come from different tribal groups. Accomplished hunters, crafts people, pastoralists, bush mechanics and people with many other skills exist today within the community. The former

Governor-General of Australia The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Michael Jeffery Major General Philip Michael Jeffery, (12 December 1937 – 18 December 2020) was a senior Australian Army officer and vice-regal representative. He was the 28th governor of Western Australia from 1993 to 2000, and the 24th governor-general o ...

was born in Wiluna on 12 December 1937. A new primary school was constructed in Wiluna after Jeffery visited the town in 2006 and criticised the condition of the existing school.G-G shocked by Wiluna school
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 24 May 2006 Warri and Yatungka were a famous Aboriginal couple who died in Wiluna in 1979. They were the last of the Mandildjara people to leave their country and the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Their

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...

-like story was recorded in the best-selling book ''The Last of the Nomads'' by Dr W J Peasley. This story is recounted as Peasley, organising the expedition, although it was Stan Gratte of Geraldton (OAM) who organised this party to recover them when urged by Warri's brother Moodjeren, who was concerned, due to old age and the lack of young people who would normally assist the elderly, they would not survive the extended drought which was now gripping Central Australia. Emaciated and likely close to death, the couple were brought to Wiluna where they were forgiven by their people for breaking the Mandildjara marriage laws decades before. They died in 1979 within four weeks of each other.

Notes

Citations

Sources

External links

Shire of Wiluna homepage
{{authority control Mining towns in Western Australia Towns in Western Australia Canning Stock Route