Salmon Gums, Western Australia

Salmon Gums is a small town and locality of the Shire of Esperance in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located 106 km north of Esperance on the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway. Apart from the townsite of Salmon Gums, the townsite of Dowak is also located within the locality. Parts of the Ngadju Indigenous Protected Area is also located within Salmon Gums.

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.

At the 2016 census, Salmon Gums had a population of 191.

The surrounding areas produce wheat and other cereal crops. The town is a receival site for Cooperative Bulk Handling.

History

The first potential use of a townsite was as a watering spot for the proposed Esperance to Norseman 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 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 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 to the government was quite small.

Agricultural research was boosted prior to the Second World War 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.

The townsite of Dowak, in the centre of Salmon Gums, on the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway and the railway line, was gazetted in 1928. The Dowak Nature Reserve is located west of the townsite.

Mining

In 2001 a Perth-based iron ore company announced an investigation into a large lignite deposit at Salmon Gums for use reducing its phosphorus-rich iron ore currently being mined at Koolyanobbing. 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 ''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 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 and 20 February 2024. 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 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

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Towns in Western Australia
Shire of Esperance
Grain receival points of Western Australia