Murchison (Western Australia)

For the shire, see Shire of Murchison.

Murchison region of Western Australia is a large region within the Mid West of Western Australia, at times including the local government area of Yalgoo, Cue, Mount Magnet, Murchison and Meekatharra. The region is related to the catchment area of the Murchison River.

It has extensive mining areas, with a large number of older abandoned workings. Most notable of the abandoned towns is Big Bell where in 1902 Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States was a company representative.^[1]

Historically the region has been known as The Murchison or Murchison Goldfields, similar to the way the Kalgoorlie region is known as The Goldfields.

The region has large Sheep stations and cattle stations - also known as Pastoral leases. There are extensive numbers of feral goats in the region which are caught and exported to supplement station incomes.

Population is very scattered; the largest population centre is Meekatharra with the small mining towns of Yalgoo, Mount Magnet and Cue.

Meeberrie station is considered the location of the strongest recorded earthquake in Australian history.

See also

• Mid West region of Western Australia

References

1. ^ Cue heritage trail

External links

• Geological mapping of the region

Further reading

• Green, Neville, 1997 Aboriginal names of the Murchison District c. 1848-1890 (data processing by Susan Moon). Perth, W.A..
• E.C. Grunsky ... [et al.] Report on laterite geochemistry in the CSIRO-AGE database for the southern Murchison region : Yalgoo, Kirkalocka, Perenjori, Ninghan sheets Wembley, W.A. : CRC LEME, 1998 CSIRO Division of Exploration Geoscience report ; 2R (CSIRO. Division of Exploration Geoscience) ; 2R. ISBN 0642282382
• Lefroy, Charles Bayden ...'talks about Murchison station life in the 1930s.' Early Days, Vol. 10, Part 5 (1993), p. 503-512.