Qualla: Austin, Western Australia https://qualla.com/austin-western-australia en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/5/f/austin-western-australia-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Austin, Western Australia https://qualla.com/austin-western-australia Austin, Western Australia: Introduction https://qualla.com/austin-western-australia/ Photo credit Bunyanth, Public domain. Most towns are built on firm ground. Austin was built on an island in a salt lake. South of Cue, in the dry heart of the Murchison, the settlement clung to a low rise surrounded by the glittering white pan of Lake Austin, which is why it was also known simply as Lake Austin, or The Island. When the lake lies dry it is a blinding sheet of crusted salt; when the rare rains come it fills and the town's island truly becomes one. Today Austin is a ghost town, abandoned and all but erased, yet still faintly visible from the Great Northern Highway as it crosses the lake.

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/5/f/austin-western-australia-wp/qe5f-austin-western-australia-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Austin, Western Australia: Very Indifferent Country https://qualla.com/austin-western-australia/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The lake and the town both carry the name of Robert Austin, the surveyor who was the first European to chart this country in the 1850s. His verdict on the place was not flattering. He called the area "very indifferent," though in the same breath he added a prophecy that would pro...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/5/f/austin-western-australia-wp/qe5f-austin-western-australia-very-indifferent-country.mp3 0:06 2 full Austin, Western Australia: Gold on the Salt https://qualla.com/austin-western-australia/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Austin's prophecy paid off. Gold was found in the area in the early 1890s, and the townsite was gazetted in 1895. A ten-head stamp mill, a machine that pounded ore to powder so the gold could be drawn out, was soon thudding away at the Austin mine just outside the settlement. It ...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/5/f/austin-western-australia-wp/qe5f-austin-western-australia-gold-on-the-salt.mp3 0:06 3 full Austin, Western Australia: The Railway Crosses the Lake https://qualla.com/austin-western-australia/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Getting in and out was the constant difficulty. At first the only link was a coach that ran twice a week from Yalgoo. Then, in 1898, the goldfields railway pushing north from Mullewa toward Cue reached the town, running its rails out across the salt to the island settlement. For ...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/5/f/austin-western-australia-wp/qe5f-austin-western-australia-the-railway-crosses-the-lake.mp3 0:06 4 full Austin, Western Australia: A Lake That Comes and Goes https://qualla.com/austin-western-australia/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Lake Austin is what hydrologists call ephemeral: a salt lake that is bone-dry far more often than it is wet. Stretching across the country roughly 21 kilometres south of Cue, it spends most of its existence as a crust of glaring white salt, then transforms after heavy rain into a...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/5/f/austin-western-australia-wp/qe5f-austin-western-australia-a-lake-that-comes-and-goes.mp3 0:06 5 full Austin, Western Australia: What the Salt Keeps https://qualla.com/austin-western-australia/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Goldfields towns burn bright and brief, and Austin was no exception. The easy gold thinned, the people drifted to other fields, and the island emptied. The buildings fell, the railway through the Murchison eventually closed, and the salt reclaimed the silence. Yet the place has n...

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]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/5/f/austin-western-australia-wp/qe5f-austin-western-australia-what-the-salt-keeps.mp3 0:06 6 full