Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Norseman WA

Norseman

Postcode: 6443

Norseman is located on Great Southern Highway, 724 km east of Perth via Great Eastern Highway and Coolgardie-Esperance Highway, and has a population of about 1,000. It contains a district high school (opened 1894), and ANZ and BankWest banks, shopping facilities, accommodation (hotel, motel, caravan park), district hospital, council offices and a telecentre are located within the town. Being at the start of the Eyre Highway, three fuel outlets are available.

In July 1894, Lawrence Sinclair and his horse “Norseman” discovered a rich gold reef which Sinclair named for his horse. In January 1895, the mining warden asked the Government to declare a townsite for the 200 or so miners who had arrived – it was gazetted the same year. The Aboriginal name for the area is “Jimberlana”.

Norseman initially struggled to develop because of the established town of Dundas, but between 1895 and 1901, a post office, banks, doctor, courthouse, stores and churches were established and in 1899 Cobb & Co mail coaches started delivering mail to Norseman. In 1935, Western Mining Corporation came to Norseman and invested significantly in its infrastructure, resulting in new bitumen roads, electricity and an extension of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme to the town.

Once it was the second-richest goldfield in Western Australia, next to the Golden Mile of Kalgoorlie. It is claimed that since 1892, over 100 tonnes of gold have been extracted from the area.