Wiluna is a small town in the Goldfields-Esperance region (since 2021) 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 situated on the edge of the Western Desert at the gateway to the

Canning Stock Route The Canning Stock Route is a track that runs from Halls Creek, Western Australia, Halls Creek in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna, Western Australia, Wiluna in the Mid West (Western Australia), ...

and

Gunbarrel Highway The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It consists of about of washaways, heavy Corrugated road, corrugations, stone, sand and flood plains. The Gunbarrel Highway c ...

. It is the service centre of the local area for the local

Martu people The ''Martu'' (Mardu) are a grouping of several Aboriginal Australian peoples in the Western Desert cultural bloc. Name The Martu people were originally speakers of various Wati languages in the Western Desert dialect continuum whose identit ...

, the pastoral industry, the

Wiluna Gold Mine Wiluna Gold Mine is an active gold mine operated by Wiluna Mining Corporation (administrators appointed) near the town of Wiluna, north of Perth in Western Australia's Goldfields region. Wiluna is one of the Goldfield's great mining centres, ...

, and many more people who work on other mines in the area on a " fly-in/fly-out" basis. Wiluna's climate is hot and dry, with an annual rainfall of . Mean maximum temperatures range from in July, to in January. The closest

service centre A rest area is a public facility located next to a large thoroughfare such as a motorway, expressway, or highway, at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary roads. Other names include motorway ser ...

is in Meekatharra.

Overview

Wiluna has from 200 to 600

Aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

living within its community, depending upon the nature, time and place of the traditional law ceremonies across the Central Desert region. The traditional Aboriginal owners (a grouping known as the Martu) were "settled" as a consequence of the British colonisation process that began in the 1800s. In the 1950s a church-based group were supported by the government of the day to establish a mission. The traditional people lost their lands through many different processes, including the issuing of

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to Pastoral farming, graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Austral ...

s, the discovery of gold and the influx of non-Aboriginal people onto their lands. Before and after the atomic nuclear testing near

Maralinga Maralinga is a desert area around large located in the west of South Australia, within the Great Victoria Desert. The area is best known for being the location of several British nuclear tests in the 1950s. In January 1985, in recognition of ...

in South Australia in the 1950s, many Aboriginal people from at least three different tribal and language groups were forced to live within the mission site. This created many conflicts and the legacy continues today. Much traditional knowledge and skill exists today amongst the Aboriginal residents and visitors. The existence of an historical Club Hotel, a dilapidated relic of the town's former heyday, created much conflict with many people opposed to its presence as an operating pub arising from the conflict and trauma associated with alcohol abuse. In 2019, a major renovation converted the Club Hotel into the Shire of Wiluna administration buildings. The town also has a general store, petrol, caravan park, sports oval, public swimming pool, school, and health clinic. Local water holes are much damaged and overused after years of cattle use. During the

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...

, large lakes may form that attract an array of wildlife. The region has snakes,

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

s, bungarras (large lizard/goanna), bush turkeys,

donkeys The donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a separate species, ''Equus asinus''. It was domes ...

, horses,

camels A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide ...

and

dingo The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...

es. Willuna is home to VMW, a marine weather transmitter operated by the

Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Government of Australia, Australian Government that is responsible for providing Weather forecasting, weather forecasts and Meteorology, meteorological services to Australia a ...

. Parts of the unsealed and flood-prone road between Wiluna and Meekatharra are being sealed, as part of a pilot program in which the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government or the Western Australian Governmen ...

provided for road work contractors in collaboration with the Martu-ku Yiwarra Training Centre.

Mines

The Wiluna area was explored by

Lawrence Wells Lawrence Allen "Larry" Wells (30 April 1860 – 11 May 1938), frequently spelled Laurence Allen Wells, was an Australian explorer. Wells was born at Yallum Station near Penola, South Australia and grew up in the Mount Gambier, South Australia ...

in 1892.

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 ...

was discovered in the area in 1896, and within a few months over 300 prospectors were in the area. The town of Wiluna was gazetted in 1898, the name ''Wiluna'' being the Wati (Aboriginal language) name for the area. By the 1930s, the town had a population of over 9,000 people, but

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

severely affected the gold mining industry, and many mines were shut down. By 1963 the population had fallen to less than 100. Gold mining resumed in the area in 1981. The closest mine site to town is the

, approximately south of Wiluna. The mine is operated by Wiluna Mining Corporation and currently produces gold from re-processing of legacy mine tailings. Yeleeri site, located south has

uranium ore Uranium ore deposits are economically recoverable concentrations of uranium within Earth's crust. Uranium is one of the most common Chemical element, elements in Earth's crust, being 40 times more common than silver and 500 times more common than ...

, and the region boasts much mineral wealth. The Paroo Station lead carbonate open pit mine is located west of Wiluna. As of January 2015 it was being placed into care and maintenance due to low global prices for lead. Wiluna and the Mid-West region are the site of Western Australia's most advanced

uranium mining Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...

projects. Three projects are in the approval process, with the

Lake Maitland uranium project Lake Maitland is a dry salt lake located approximately south east of Wiluna, in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Mining project The Lake Maitland project was being pursued by Canadian company Mega Uranium. Mega teamed up with Aus ...

and the

Lake Way uranium project Lake Way is a dry saline lake located in the Mid West region of Western Australia, approximately south of Wiluna. It also gives its name to a nearby cattle station, the Lake Way Station. Description The lake, dry except during exceptional ...

both owned by Toro Energy Ltd, and the Yeelirrie uranium project which

BHP Billiton BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

sold to

Cameco Cameco Corporation (formerly Canadian Mining and Energy Corporation) is the world's largest publicly traded uranium company, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2015, it was the world's second largest uranium producer, accounting for 18 ...

. All three are located within of Wiluna. All three projects were opposed by environmental groups and some local people. Yeelirrie is most fiercely opposed, with over 40 years of clear opposition from

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

Meteors

In October 1960, two station workers named Fred Vincenti and Frank Quadrio were opening a fence gate on the Millbillillie-Jundee track from Wiluna when they witnessed a bright fireball falling into spinifex (''Triodia'') grassland to the north. The debris from this meteor became known as the Millbillillie meteorite and is understood to be pieces of the

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

Vesta that had at some point been knocked off by a collision in the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

. Although no official specimens were recovered until 1970 it is understood that members of the local Aboriginal community had collected pieces. Another

meteorite fall A meteorite fall, also called an observed fall, is a meteorite collected after its fall from outer space, that was also observed by people or automated devices. Any other meteorite is called a "meteorite find, find". There are more than 1,300 d ...

was recorded near Wiluna on 2 September 1967. This meteorite was a H5-class object; specimens were collected and housed in the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory body, statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, WA Museum Boola Bardip, is located i ...

Education

Wiluna Remote Community School is a school that provides education for students from year 1–12, currently having a student population of between 85 and 115 students. The school provides a bus as transport to and from the school for the students. The indigenous language of the area is

Martu Wangka dialect Martu Wangka is a variety of the Western Desert language that emerged during the 20th century in Western Australia as several Indigenous communities shifted from their respective territories to form a single community. It refers to both a d ...

, however most students speak Aboriginal English.

Origin of name

An early mining settlement of Lake Way Gold, named after the dry

Lake Way Lake Way is a dry saline lake located in the Mid West region of Western Australia, approximately south of Wiluna. It also gives its name to a nearby cattle station, the Lake Way Station. Description The lake, dry except during exceptional ...

south of Wiluna, established around 1896, was called ''Weeloona'', derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ''Place of wind'' or ''Windy place''. However, the name is also sometimes claimed to come from the cry of the

curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been infl ...

, which is frequent in the area.

Geography

Climate

Wiluna experiences a

desert 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 ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''BWh''), though like most of inland Western Australia it has seen its rainfall increase by around 40 percent since 1967. The heaviest rainfall, however, was associated with the April 1900 floods when the town received , two-and-half-times its normal annual rainfall.

Railways

Wiluna was the furthest away from Perth that the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the state owned operator of railways in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra respon ...

system reached. The Wiluna branch was connected to the main Northern Railway at Meekatharra. The branch opened to Wiluna on 2 November 1932. The line was closed on 5 August 1957.

People from Wiluna

The Indigenous people who have always lived in the region come from different tribal groups. Accomplished hunters, crafts people, pastoralists, bush mechanics and people with many other skills exist today within the community. The former Governor-General of Australia, Major General

Michael Jeffery Major General Philip Michael Jeffery, (12 December 1937 – 18 December 2020) was a senior Australian Army officer and vice-regal representative. He was the 28th governor of Western Australia from 1993 to 2000, and the 24th governor-genera ...

was born in Wiluna on 12 December 1937. A new primary school was constructed in Wiluna after Jeffery visited the town in 2006 and criticised the condition of the existing school.G-G shocked by Wiluna school
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 24 May 2006

Warri and Yatungka Warri (1909–1979) and Yatungka (1919–1979) were an Aboriginal couple from the Mandildjara tribe (a Martu people) of the Gibson Desert in Western Australia who spent about 40 years isolated and living nomadically in the Australian desert. S ...

were a famous Aboriginal couple who died in Wiluna in 1979. They were the last of the Mandildjara people to leave their country and the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Their

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

-like story was recorded in the best-selling book ''The Last of the Nomads'' by Dr W J Peasley. This story is recounted as Peasley, organising the expedition, although it was Stan Gratte of Geraldton (OAM) who organised this party to recover them when urged by Warri's brother Moodjeren, who was concerned, due to old age and the lack of young people who would normally assist the elderly, they would not survive the extended drought which was now gripping Central Australia. Emaciated and likely close to death, the couple were brought to Wiluna where they were forgiven by their people for breaking the Mandildjara marriage laws decades before. They died in 1979 within four weeks of each other.

Notes

Citations

Sources

External links

Shire of Wiluna homepage
{{authority control Mining towns in Western Australia Towns in Western Australia Canning Stock Route