Wiluna, Western Australia
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Wiluna is a town and shire in the Mid West region of Western Australia. The town of Wiluna is located at , 947 kilometres north east of Perth, 182 kilometres east of Meekatharra, and 518 metres above sea level. It is situated on the edge of the desert at the gateway to the Canning Stock Route and Gunbarrel Highway.
The Shire of Wiluna covers an area of about 184,000km2, and has a resident population of about 300 people. It is primarily a mining area, and many more people work on mines in the area on a "fly-in/fly-out" basis. Wiluna's climate is hot and dry, with an annual rainfall of just 254mm (10in). Mean maximum temperatures range from 19°C (66°F) in July, to 38°C (100°F) in January.
The Wiluna area was first explored by the explorer Lawrence Wells in 1892. Gold was discovered in the area in 1896, and within a few months there were over 300 prospectors in the area. The town of Wiluna was gazetted in 1898, the name Wiluna being the Indigenous Australian name for the area. By the 1930s, the town had a population of over 9,000 people, but World War II severely affected the gold mining industry, and many mines was shut down. By 1963 the population had fallen to less than 100. Gold mining resumed in the area in 1981.
In October 1960 the two station workers named F. Vicenti and F. Quadrio were opening a fence gate on the Millbillillie-Jundee track 11 kilometres from Wiluna when they witnessed a bright fireball falling into spinifex (Trioda) grassland to the north of their location. The debris from this meteor became known as the Millbillillie meteorite and are understood to be actual pieces of the asteroid Vesta that had at some point been knocked off by a collision in the asteroid belt. Although no official specimens were recovered until 1970 it is understood that members of the local aboriginal community had collected pieces [1].
Wiluna was the furthest away from Perth part of the Western Australian Government Railways system that was connected to Perth, and the Wiluna branch was connected to the main Northern Railway at Meekatharra
