Mundrabilla is in a very sparsely populated area in the far south east of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. The two significant features are Mundrabilla Roadhouse and Mundrabilla Station, which are approximately apart. At the 2016 census, Mundrabilla had a population of 23, 32% male and 68% female. The time zone in use is UTC+08:45.

Mundrabilla Roadhouse

Mundrabilla Roadhouse was built by Roger and Pat Warren-Langford, who initially managed Mundrabilla Station. It is now a small roadhouse community located on the

Eyre Highway Eyre Highway is a highway linking Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. Signed as National Highways 1 and A1, it forms part of Highway 1 (Australia), Highway 1 and the National Highway (Australia), Australian Nat ...

, on the Roe Plains (at a lower level and south of the

Nullarbor Plain The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of 'no' and 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its no ...

), west of Eucla and about north of the

Great Australian Bight The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight (geography), bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern Coast, coastline of mainland Australia. There are two definitions for its extent—one by the Internation ...

Mundrabilla Station

Mundrabilla Station (), the first sheep station in the Nullarbor region, was established by William Stuart McGill (a Scotsman) and Thomas and William Kennedy (two Irishmen) in 1872. Thomas Kennedy died in 1896. McGill's first wife Annie Harkness (née Crawford) died in childbirth in 1879. Annie McGill and Thomas Kennedy are both buried on Mundrabilla Station. McGill remarried Ellen Angel Fairweather of Adelaide in 1889.

Climate

Mundrabilla has a typical

arid 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 ...

; however it is cooler in summer than much of the Australian desert due to its proximity to the ocean. Despite this, Mundrabilla Station still holds the record for the equal 6th-hottest temperature in Australia, recorded on 3 January 1979.

Present day

Like other locations in the

area, the area consists of nothing more than a roadhouse, open 6:00am to 9:30pm each day. The roadhouse includes a small wildlife park with emus, camels and an aviary. Pastoral activities continue in the area.

Meteorite

The Mundrabilla meteorite, the largest meteorite found in Australia, weighing , was found by geologists R.B. Wilson and A.M. Cooney during a geological survey at Mundrabilla in 1966, and forms one half of the "Mundrabilla Mass". The next largest fragment weighs . In all, of fragments have been recovered, spread over a range making it one of the largest meteorite sites in the world. The fragments fell to Earth at least one million years ago.

References

External links

Shire of Dundas – Towns of the Eyre Highway
including local information. {{authority control Towns in Western Australia Shire of Dundas Nullarbor Plain 1872 establishments in Australia Eyre Highway Hampton bioregion