Rawlinna is an isolated locality on the

Trans-Australian Railway The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta railway station, Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie railway station, Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. Built to standa ...

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 ...

, about 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 ...

, east of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

and west of the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

border. It is on 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 ...

, about from its western fringe; the topography is flat and well grassed, with saltbush and bluebush, with small belts of myall and

myoporum ''Myoporum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae (formerly placed in Myoporaceae). There are 30 species in the genus, eighteen of which are endemic to Australia although others are endemic to Pacific Islands, ...

trees. Annual rainfall is . Maximum daytime temperatures are typically through summer and during winter. The population in the wider Rawlinna area was recorded as 33 people in the

2021 Australian census The 2021 Australian census, simply called the 2021 Census, was the eighteenth national Census of Population and Housing in Australia. The 2021 Census took place on 10 August 2021, and was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). ...

; there were 7 private dwellings. Rawlinna is at the southernmost end of the

Connie Sue Highway The Connie Sue Highway is an Australian outback, outback unsealed track that runs between the Australian Aborigine, Aboriginal community of Warburton, Western Australia, Warburton on the Great Central Road and Rawlinna, Western Australia, Rawlin ...

, a 4-wheel drive track that extends north to the Aboriginal community of Warburton. Rawlinna comes under the jurisdiction of the

City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

, situated to the west. Adjoining the railway line is Australia's largest operating

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

Rawlinna Station Rawlinna Station is a pastoral lease and sheep station located about east of Kambalda in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. The locality of Rawlinna and the Trans-Australian Railway are situated along the boundary of the ...

, covering an area slightly more than 1.0 million hectares (2.5 million acres or 3900 square miles): about the area of the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

conurbation. It runs up to 65,000

Merino The Merino is a list of sheep breeds, breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monop ...

sheep in a good season. Mustering and droving are done on motorbikes and in aircraft to locate them, beginning in January for a 10-week shearing program. A muster can take up to to get the sheep into the

shearing shed Shearing sheds (or wool sheds) are large sheds located on sheep stations to accommodate large scale sheep shearing activities. In countries where large numbers of sheep are kept for wool, sometimes many thousands in a flock, shearing sheds a ...

at Jumbuck's "Depot" outstation. A small,

open-cut In civil engineering, a cut or cutting is where soil or rock from a relative rise is removed. Cuts are typically used in road, rail, and canal construction to reduce a route's length and grade. Cut and fill construction uses the spoils from cu ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

mine is north of the settlement, from which

lime Lime most commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Bo ...

is extracted for

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 ...

production at

. Visitors come from far and wide each year to the popular

gymkhana Gymkhana () (, , , , ) is a British Raj term which originally referred to a place of assembly. The meaning then altered to denote a place where skill-based contests were held. "Gymkhana" is an Anglo-Indian expression, which is derived from the ...

known as the "Nullarbor Muster", which benefits a number of charities.

Trans-Australian Railway

Rawlinna was a replenishment stop for freight trains and the

Commonwealth Railways The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australian Railway, Trans-Australia and Adelaide-Darwin railway, Port Augusta to Darwin railways. In 1 ...

passenger train, the ''Great Western Express'', which was inaugurated in 1917 (when the line was opened) and its successor, the ''

Trans-Australian The ''Trans-Australian'' (originally known as the ''Trans-Australian Express'') was an Australian passenger train operated by the Commonwealth Railways initially between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie on the Trans-Australian Railway line, and lat ...

''. Before 1951, when

diesel locomotives A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

were introduced, steam locomotives needed frequent replenishment with water. On the Trans-Australian Railway, frequent servicing was also required because of poor water quality; Rawlinna was one of four major stations that had workshops and facilities such as a food store and bakery operated by the Commonwealth Railways, and a school which took part in an annual inter-school sports day alongside students from

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

and Tarcoola. Diesel-hauled passenger trains only need to stop to refill water in the passenger cars. That factor, combined with changed technologies – such as concrete sleepers, modern rail fastenings, continuous welded rail and mechanised track maintenance by contractors – eliminated the need for local employees. With trains travelling faster – passenger, freight – train crews no longer rested at Rawlinna, staying instead at Parkeston and Cook. About 10 buildings remain. When the entire Sydney–Perth line was converted to standard gauge in 1970, the passenger train service was re-named the ''

Indian Pacific The ''Indian Pacific'' is a weekly experiential tourism-oriented passenger train service that runs in Australia's east–west rail corridor between Sydney, on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and Perth, on the shore of the Indian Ocean – ...

''. The later experiential tourism train of that name does not stop at Rawlinna.

References

External links

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Goldfields–Esperance Trans-Australian Railway