Mundrabilla, Western Australia

Mundrabilla Western Australia
Mundrabilla Roadhouse
Mundrabilla
Population:	20
Established:	1872
Postcode:	6443
Coordinates:	31°45′11″S 127°52′26″E / 31.753°S 127.874°E / -31.753; 127.874Coordinates: 31°45′11″S 127°52′26″E / 31.753°S 127.874°E / -31.753; 127.874 [1]
Elevation:	20 m (66 ft)
Location:	1368 km (850 mi) from Perth 644 km (400 mi) from Norseman 67 km (42 mi) from Eucla
LGA:	Shire of Dundas
State District:	Eyre
Federal Division:	O'Connor
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 24.6 °C 76 °F 11.2 °C 52 °F 237.4 mm 9.3 in

Mundrabilla is a small roadhouse community located on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia, on the Nullarbor Plain, 67 kilometres (42 mi) west of Eucla and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of the Great Australian Bight.

History

Mundrabilla station, the first sheep station on the Nullarbor, 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 (née Hairkness) 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.

Present day

Like other locations in the Nullarbor Plain area, the area consists of nothing more than a roadhouse, open 5:30am to midnight each day. The roadhouse includes a small wildlife park with emus, camels and an aviary. Pastoral activities continue in the area, and fragments of a meteorite spread over a 60 km range make it one of the largest meteorite sites in the world.

Mundrabilla Meteor

The largest meteor in Australia known as the Mundrabilla Meteor weighing in 12.192 tonnes was found by two surveyors in Mundrabilla in 1966, forms one half of the "Mundrabilla Mass". The other weighs 5.080 tonnes, where both pieces of the "Mundrabilla Mass" fell to Earth a million years ago.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ "Mundrabilla". Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government. http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/gazd01?rec=308340. 
2. ^ Cleland, M. (2006). "A History of the Cranbourne Meteorites". City of Casey. http://www.casey.vic.gov.au/history/hoh/09%20Environment.pdf. Retrieved 7 November 2009. 
3. ^ "Solar System information #6: Meteors and Meteorites". Perth Observatory. 1997-2009. http://www.perthobservatory.wa.gov.au/information/meteors.html. Retrieved 7 November 2009. 

External links

• Shire of Dundas - Towns of the Eyre Highway
• Nullarbor Net - Mundrabilla including local information.