Leinster is a town in the northern Goldfields area 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 east of the

Goldfields Highway Goldfields Highway is a generally northwest–southeast highway in central Western Australia which links the Great Northern Highway at Meekatharra with Coolgardie-Esperance Highway south of Kalgoorlie. The highway is approximately in length ...

in the

Shire of Leonora The Shire of Leonora is a local government area in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, about north of the city of Kalgoorlie and about northeast of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat of go ...

, and northeast of the state capital,

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. The town was established in 1976 by Agnew Mining, initially as a

dormitory town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for miners working in the nearby Perseverance and Rockys Reward

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

mines and Agnew gold mines. It was named for the nearby

Leinster Downs Leinster Downs Station is a pastoral lease that once operated as a cattle station and now operates as a sheep station in Western Australia. Situated approximately north of Leinster and south of Wiluna in the Goldfields–Esperance region. ...

station. Facilities at Leinster include a supermarket, service station, community school, day care centre, medical centre and tavern. Sporting facilities include an indoor sports centre, a Olympic sized pool and a baby pool, squash courts, BMX track, football and cricket oval, and an 18-hole golf course. The school is an independent public school for students up to year 12. The Leinster Nickel Operation is part of the

BHP 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 ...

's Nickel West business group. As at 2006, the operation employed 992 workers and produced of nickel in concentrate per year.Perseverance Mine, Leinster, Leonora Shire, Western Australia
on Mindat.org Leinster Airport was built adjacent to the mine. Apart from the nickel operations, gold was mined south-east of Leinster, at the

Thunderbox Gold Mine The Thunderbox Gold Mine is a gold mine 41 km south-east of Leinster, Western Australia. It was formerly owned by Norilsk Nickel, which placed it in care and maintenance in 2007, but is now owned by Northern Star Resources. Ethemology T ...

, from 2002 to 2007 and again since 2016.

References

Mining towns in Western Australia Company towns in Australia Towns in Western Australia Shire of Leonora {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub