Ravensthorpe is a town 541 km south-east of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and 40 km inland from the south coast 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 ...

. It is the seat of government of the Shire of Ravensthorpe. At the , Ravensthorpe had a population of 2,085. In 1848, the area was surveyed by Surveyor General John Septimus Roe who named many of the geographical features nearby, including the nearby Ravensthorpe Range that the later town was named after. There was one of the Western Australian Government Railways isolated branch lines between Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe. This line, the Hopetoun to Ravensthorpe railway line, opened in 1909. Alluvial gold was discovered at the Phillips River in 1892. At the goldfield a ''de facto'' town emerged, known as ''Phillips River''. The government completed construction of a

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zin ...

about 2 km south east of the town in 1906, used to cast copper and gold

ingot An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is Casting, cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products. Ingots usually require a second procedu ...

History

A temporary pastoral lease ("Free Run") was registered by James Dunn senior in 1868. His five sons and daughter started sheep farming at the property, Cocanarup (20 km west of the present town), in 1871, after George and John Dunn drove a herd from Albany. In 1873 the family was granted a permanent lease of . The region is infamous for the Ravensthorpe Massacre, also called the Cocanarup Massacre, where many Noongar people were massacred in revenge for the fatal spearing of John Dunn in 1880. Dunn had allegedly raped a 13 year old Noongar girl. By 1901, the population had climbed to over 1,000 and the government gazetted the town, renaming it Ravensthorpe. The area continued to prosper and the population grew accordingly, by 1909 the population was over 3000. The prosperity was short-lived;

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

took its toll on the town and by 1918 the local copper smelter had closed and many of the copper and gold mines had closed. The population of the town in 1968 was approximately 800 people. Ravensthorpe Airport opened in 2004.

Agriculture

After the war Ravensthorpe survived servicing the farming in the district. Agriculture in the area began to grow following the Great Depression and pastoral land releases occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. The surrounding areas produce

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and other

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

crops. The town is a receival site for Cooperative Bulk Handling. A bulk wheat bin was constructed in the town in 1947 capable of holding over 30,000 bushels.

Mining

Nickel

BHP Billiton commenced a feasibility study in 2002 into opening a nickel and

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

mine and processing plant 35 km east of the town. The project was approved in 2004 and construction commenced shortly afterward. The plant known as the Ravensthorpe Nickel Project was commissioned in late 2007 with first production occurring in October and the first 5000 tonnes being produced by December 2007. The plant was officially opened in 2008. In January 2009, BHP Billiton announced that it was suspending production at the Ravensthorpe nickel mine indefinitely, due to the reduction in world nickel prices caused by the global economic crisis. The decision cut 1,800 jobs and had a major impact on the local economy. On 9 December 2009, BHP sold the Ravensthorpe mine, on which it had spent A$2.4 billion to build, to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

-based First Quantum Minerals for US$340 million. First Quantum was one of three bidders for the mine and actually produced the lowest offer. The Canadian company planned to have the mine back in production in mid-2011. In 2017 the mine was put into care and maintenance due to low nickel prices. Production resumed in January 2020 with First Quantum Minerals selling a 30% shareholding in the mine to POSCO in May 2021.

Lithium

The Mt Cattlin mine is a spodumene- tantalite mine north of the town. It was operated by Galaxy Resources between 2009 and 2012 before being placed on care-and-maintenance in 2013. Mine production restarted on 31 March 2016. In January 2017 the first shipment of 10,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate was consigned from Esperance to

Lianyungang Lianyungang () is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangsu province of China, province, China. It borders Yancheng to its southeast, Huai'an and Suqian to its south, Xuzhou to its southwest, and the province of Shandong to its north. Its ...

, China.

Copper

The Ravensthorpe Copper Mine operated in the area in the 1960s. In 1967 the mine produced of copper concentrate averaging about 23% Copper. The concentrate was trucked to the port of Esperance for shipment to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Climate

Ravensthorpe has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

(''BSk'') with a

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

rainfall pattern.

References

External links

Shire of Ravensthorpe
{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Mining towns in Western Australia Grain receival points of Western Australia Shire of Ravensthorpe