eucla, western australia

Eucla is the easternmost town in Western Australia. It is located at , on the Great Australian Bight approximately 13 kilometres (8 miles) west of the South Australian border. It is in the Shire of Dundas in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. It has a population of about 50 people. Eucla's climate is mild and dry. Average maximum temperatures vary from 25–26C from December to March, to 18C in July. The average annual rainfall of 267mm is evenly spread through the year, with monthly totals ranging from 14mm in January to 31mm in May. The Eucla area was passed through by the explorer Edward John Eyre in 1841. A port was discovered at Eucla in 1867, and in 1870, John Forrest camped at the location for nearly two weeks. In 1873, work commenced on the Overland Telegraph, a telegraph line from Albany to Adelaide. Land was set aside at Eucla for the establishment of a manual repeater station, and when the telegraph line opened in 1877, Eucla was one of the most important telegraph stations on the line. A jetty and tram line were also constructed for offloading supplies brought in by sea. In the 1890s a rabbit plague passed through the area and ate much of the Delisser Sandhills' dune vegetation, thus destabilising the dune system and causing large sand drifts to encroached on the townsite. The original town was abandoned, and a new townsite established about five kilometres to the east. The ruins of the telegraph station still stand amongst the dunes, and are a local tourist attraction. The origin of the name Eucla is uncertain. Eyre did not record any name for the area in 1841, but by the time of Forrest's visit in 1870, Eucla was the accepted name for the area. Probably Eucla is a form of an Aboriginal name for the area.

Eucla, Western Australia

See also