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Zanthus, Western Australia
Town in Western Australia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Zanthus is a remote and uninhabited outpost on the Trans-Australian Railway approximately 210 kilometres (130 mi) east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
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History
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Zanthus was established as a railway town during the construction of the Trans-Australian Railway. Trains arrived in 1915 mostly carrying materials to the railhead from Kalgoorlie.[1] The 1933 Australian census recorded Zanthus as having nine dwellings and a population of 47.[2] As at the 2021 Australian census, Zanthus had a population of zero.[3]
In 1996 the timber station building was donated to Rail Heritage WA and relocated to the Railway Museum in Bassendean.[4]
Passengers were stranded at Zanthus in 1948 when a train was delayed resulting from floodwaters causing washaways along the tracks between Zanthus and Kalgoorlie. Several passengers completed the journey to Kalgoorlie via a Goldfield Airways aeroplane while over 50 men worked to fix the two big washaways.[5]
A derailment of a train occurred in 1953 when five carriages of an eastbound transcontinental express left the tracks near the town tearing up a section of the line. Repair crews worked through the night and built a deviation by the following day.[6]
In 1975, large amounts of rain had inundated inland Western Australia from the remnants of Cyclone Trixie. A large washaway close to Zanthus had resulted in the closure of the line. A new bridge was constructed as part of the repairs in just two weeks.[7]
Zanthus has a crossing loop on the line. On 8 August 1999, an Indian Pacific passenger train collided with a stationary freight train.[8][9]
The locality also has notoriety due to its position in place name lists of Western Australia.[10]
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