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Rawlinna, Western Australia

Rawlinna Western Australia
Employee house of the former Commonwealth Railways at Rawlinna
Rawlinna
Coordinates	31°0.538′S 125°19.915′E / 31.008967°S 125.331917°E / -31.008967; 125.331917
Population	33 (SAL 2021)[1]
Postcode(s)	6434
Elevation	183 m (600 ft)
Area	22,776.9 km2 (8,794.2 sq mi)
Location	910 km (565 mi) east of Perth 350 km (217 mi) west of the Western Australia border 1,190 km (739 mi) west of Port Augusta
LGA(s)	City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder
State electorate(s)	Eyre
Federal division(s)	O'Connor

Rawlinna is an isolated locality on the Trans-Australian RailwayinWestern Australia, about 900 kilometres (560 miles) east of Perth, 380 kilometres (240 mi) east of Kalgoorlie and 350 kilometres (220 miles) west of the Western Australia / South Australia border. It is on the Nullarbor Plain, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from its western fringe; the topography is flat and well grassed, with saltbush and bluebush, with small belts of myall and myoporum trees.^[2] Annual rainfall is 288 millimetres (11.3 inches). Maximum daytime temperatures are typically 38 °C (100 °F) through summer and 19 °C (66 °F) during winter.^[3] In 2016, the population in the area was recorded as 30 people.^[4]

Rawlinna is the southernmost end of the Connie Sue Highway, a 4-wheel drive track that extends 650 km (400 mi) north to the Aboriginal community of Warburton.^[5] Rawlinna comes under the jurisdiction of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, despite being situated 380 km (240 mi) to the east.

Australia's largest operating sheep station, Rawlinna Station, covering an area of 1,011,714 hectares (2,500,000 acres) – about the area of the Sydney conurbation – adjoins the railway line. It runs up to 65,000 Merino 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 100 kilometres (62 miles) to get the sheep into the shearing shed at Jumbuck's "Depot" outstation.^[3]

A small, open-cut limestone mine is 2 km (1.2 mi) north of the settlement, from which lime is extracted for gold production at Kalgoorlie.

Visitors come from far and wide each year to the popular gymkhana known as the "Nullarbor Muster", which benefits a number of charities.^[6]

Rawlinna is a stop for the Indian Pacific, the experiential tourism train that operates between Perth and Sydney.^[3]

The train is the successor to the Trans-Australian, which was inaugurated in 1917, when the line was opened. Before 1951, when diesel locomotives were introduced, steam locomotives required frequent servicing 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,^[7]: 117 and a school which took part in an annual inter-school sports day alongside students from Cook and Tarcoola.^[8] However, all Commonwealth Railways operational buildings have been demolished; about a dozen buildings remain.^[9]

Media related to Rawlinna, Western Australia at Wikimedia Commons