Mullingar is a locality in the

Eastern Goldfields The Eastern Goldfields is part of the Western Australian Goldfields in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, covering the present and former gold-mining area east of Perth. Extent and name origin The region encompasses the to ...

region 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 a suburb of Kalgoorlie–Boulder. At the 2016 census, Mullingar had a population of 305 people, down from 343 in 2011.

Geography

Mullingar is wedge-shaped, with its northern boundary an east-west line approximately north of the Kalgoorlie town centre. Its western boundary runs north-northwest along the Leonora branch line of

Eastern Goldfields Railway The Eastern Goldfields Railway, was built in the 1890s by the Western Australian Government Railways to connect Perth with the Eastern Goldfields at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. It is a part of the interstate standard gauge railway between Per ...

, while the eastern boundary of the locality runs north-east, roughly parallel to (and briefly along) Yarri Road. Only a small area of Mullingar is residential, specifically the area south 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, ...

and adjacent to the suburbs of

Lamington A lamington is an Australian cake made from squares of butter cake or sponge cake coated in an outer layer of chocolate sauce and rolled in desiccated coconut. The thin mixture is absorbed into the outside of the sponge cake and left to set, ...

and

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...

(from which it is separated by the railway). The remainder of Mullingar is mostly bushland, with some areas in the south used for mining.

History

Mullingar was being used as a locality name within the first few years of Kalgoorlie's existence, presumably chosen for the Irish town of the same name. In 1897, one of its residents had a home of a high enough standard to host

Henry Charles Richards Henry Charles Richards (10 April 1851 – 1 June 1905) was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. The son of Frederick Richards, JP, of Ore and St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex. He was educated at the City of London School and the P ...

, a visiting British MP. Mullingar had 110 residents in the unofficial census of 1898, with its population increasing to 387 at the official 1901 census. In 1934, a reporter for Perth's '' Daily News'' noted that most of Mullingar's houses had survived the downturn of the 1920s, unlike in surrounding suburbs where many owners had dismantled them.

Attractions

The Kalgoorlie Speedway has been located in Mullingar since 1992, situated on the Goldfields Highway approximately north of the residential area. The south of the locality contains the Hannans North Tourist Mine, which was established in 1991 to demonstrate historical mining techniques. The Australian Prospectors & Miners' Hall of Fame was located on the Hannans North site from 2001 to 2011, when it closed due to financial difficulties.History of the Australian Prospectors & Miners' Hall of Fame
Retrieved 10 February 2017.

References

{{Suburbs of Kalgoorlie Suburbs of Kalgoorlie–Boulder