Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Buntine WA

Buntine

Postcode: 6613

Buntine is a small town located in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, about 300 kilometres (186 mi) north of Perth, the state capital, along the Great Northern Highway within the Shire of Dalwallinu.

The name Buntine was first used in 1910 as the name of a nearby hill. In 1913, it was applied to a railway siding on the line between Wongan Hills and Mullewa, at the suggestion of District Surveyor J P Camm. The town of Buntine was gazetted in 1916.

A small town on the Great Northern Highway about 240km north-east of Perth, Buntine is on what they call in the west ‘The Wildflower Route’, which should be self-explanatory.

There are more than 10,000 species of wildflowers in WA, with almost 2,000 still unnamed, and about three-quarters of the total are exclusive to the state, making it one of the richest flora custodians in the world.

The deserts that divide Australia’s east and west have allowed our wildflowers to evolve and develop in splendid isolation in both directions, and WA’s limitless, open expanses, and lack of invasive population, has helped to preserve the uniqueness of so many species and varieties. Buntine is in the Dalwallinu Shire which has a resident population of just 1740 or so people whose main pursuits are wheat and sheep farming with a bit of gypsum mining thrown in. The town holds a Wattle Week festival in the second week of September every year.