Salmon Gums is a small town in

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 ...

located 106 km north of Esperance on the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway. The name is derived from a prominent stretch of '' Eucalyptus salmonophloia'' (Salmon Gum) trees which formed a landmark in the town's early days. The town is part of the

Shire of Esperance The Shire of Esperance is a local government area in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, about south of the town of Kalgoorlie and about east-southeast of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat ...

. At the 2016 census, Salmon Gums had a population of 191. The surrounding areas produce

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

and other

cereal A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food ...

crops. The town is a receival site for

Cooperative Bulk Handling The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym for Co-operative Bulk Handling), is a grain growers' cooperative that handles, markets and processes grain from the wheatbelt of Western Australia. History CBH was formed on 5 April 1933, at a ...

History

The first potential use of a townsite was as a watering spot for the proposed Esperance to

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Railway, since Salmon Gums is roughly halfway between these two towns. Land for a town-site was set aside in 1912 and the name was recommended in 1916. This land lay within the tribal boundaries of the indigenous

Kalaako The Kalaako (Kalarko) were an Aboriginal Australian people of the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. Country Norman Tindale assigned the Kalaako tribe a reach extending over , running up north from Green Patch and Scaddan to bey ...

. The town was gazetted in 1925, when the Esperance to Salmon Gums section of the railway was completed. Settlement of the area received a boost after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

when returning soldiers were given grants of land in this and many other areas around the state. These grantees became known as ''soldier settlers''. At the time Salmon Gums was regarded as being on the fringe of arable land. The low soil fertility and marginal average rainfall meant that yields were poor prior to the 1950s. As a result, the land was not in high demand, so the

opportunity cost In microeconomic theory, the opportunity cost of a particular activity is the value or benefit given up by engaging in that activity, relative to engaging in an alternative activity. More effective it means if you chose one activity (for example ...

to the government was quite small. Agricultural research was boosted prior to the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

by the establishment of the Salmon Gums Research Station. In 1949 a similar station, the Esperance Downs Research Station was established near Esperance. Research at the latter quickly led to the discovery that soil in the Esperance region was deficient in trace elements, reportedly phosphorus, copper and zinc, and the addition of these greatly improved fertility and crop yields. Since then the region, including Salmon Gums, has become a successful producer of wheat, sheep and cattle.

Mining

In 2001 a

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 i ...

-based iron ore company announced an investigation into a large lignite deposit at Salmon Gums for use reducing its

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

-rich iron ore currently being mined at

Koolyanobbing Koolyanobbing is located north-northeast of the town of Southern Cross, Western Australia. A subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs of Cleveland, Ohio mines Iron ore here. The ore is railed to the port at Esperance for export. Current operations commen ...

. As of 2009 all plans for the mining of the lignite has been suspended indefinitely due to the stock market collapse in early 2009. The sudden drop in oil prices would make the refinement of the oil suspended in the lignite financially unviable.

Climate

Salmon Gums has a mild semi-arid climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''BSk''). According to both the Köppen and Trewartha classifications for humid climates it is thermally subtropical, the months of January and February exceeding and all months exceeding on average, though by the Köppen criteria for arid climates and the classification used by the

Australian Bureau of Meteorology Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

its yearly average (being less than ) is insufficient to qualify as such. Like many near-coastal areas of Australia, the climate is dominated by periodic exchanges between hot, dry air from the desert interior and cooler, humid air from the ocean, exemplified by the very large gulf between its averages and extreme high temperatures, the 1991–2020 normals placing the average yearly record high as and the highest ever recorded being on 28 January 2011. With its semi-arid, relatively high-latitude and mildly-elevated location from the moderating influences of the ocean, Salmon Gums can be one of the coldest places in Western Australia—its record low minimum of on 15 August 1970 is the fourth coldest record low and sixth coldest temperature recorded in the state, while its record low maximum of on 16 July 1946 is tied for the coolest in the state. Per the 1991–2020 normals, the average yearly record low is , placing it within

USDA hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

9b and Australian National Botanic Gardens hardiness zone 3. An average of 70 days per year reach or exceed , putting it within American Horticultural Society heat zone 7. Precipitation is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year, but is dramatically more erratic and heavier per event on average in the summer than in the winter.

References

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Goldfields-Esperance Grain receival points of Western Australia