Leinster is a town in the northern Goldfields area of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It is east of the

Goldfields Highway Goldfields Highway is a generally northwest–southeast highway in central Western Australia which links the Great Northern Highway at Meekatharra with Coolgardie-Esperance Highway south of Kalgoorlie. The highway is approximately in length, ...

in the

Shire of Leonora The Shire of Leonora is a local government area in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, about north of the city of Kalgoorlie and about northeast of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat of gove ...

, and northeast of the state capital,

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. The town was established in 1976 by Agnew Mining, initially as a

dormitory town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for miners working in the nearby Perseverance and Rockys Reward

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

mines, now the

Leinster Nickel Mine Leinster Nickel Mine is a surface and underground nickel mine, 5 km north of Leinster, Western Australia. The deposit was discovered in 1971 and the mine opened in 1978, operated by the Agnew Mining Company. It was purchased by WMC Resourc ...

, and Agnew gold mines, now the

Agnew Gold Mine The Agnew Gold Mine, formerly the EMU Mine, is a gold mine located west of Agnew, Western Australia. It is owned by Gold Fields. As of 2022, it is one of four mines the company operates in Australia, the others being the Granny Smith, Gruyere ...

. It was named for the nearby

Leinster Downs Leinster Downs Station is a pastoral lease that once operated as a cattle station and now operates as a sheep station in Western Australia. Situated approximately north of Leinster and south of Wiluna in the Goldfields–Esperance region. ...

station. Facilities at Leinster include a supermarket, service station, community school, day care centre, medical centre and tavern. Sporting facilities include an indoor sports centre, a Olympic sized pool and a baby pool, squash courts,

BMX BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation. History BMX began during the ea ...

track, football and cricket oval, and an 18-hole golf course. The school is an independent public school for students up to year 12. The Leinster Nickel Operation is part of the

BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

Nickel West Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slow ...

business group. As at 2006, the operation employed 992 workers and produced of nickel in concentrate per year.Perseverance Mine, Leinster, Leonora Shire, Western Australia
on

Mindat.org Mindat.org is a non-commercial interactive online database covering minerals around the world. Originally created by Jolyon Ralph as a private project in 1993, it was launched as a community-editable website in October 2000. it is operated by ...

Leinster Airport was built adjacent to the mine. Apart from the nickel operations, gold was mined south-east of Leinster, at the

Thunderbox Gold Mine The Thunderbox Gold Mine is a gold mine 41 km south-east of Leinster, Western Australia. It was formerly owned by MMC Norilsk Nickel, Norilsk Nickel, which placed it in care and maintenance in 2007, but is now owned by Northern Star Resour ...

, from 2002 to 2007 and again since 2016.

References

Mining towns in Western Australia Company towns in Australia Towns in Western Australia Shire of Leonora {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub