MEEKATHARRA

town, west-central Western Australia. Founded in the 1890s, it became the centre of the Murchison goldfield, but with the exhaustion of gold it became the focal point of a large pastoral region. Once the terminus of the Canning Stock Route and Madman's (cattle) Track, Meekatharra now receives livestock trucked south down the Great Northern Highway from as far away as Broome. Meekatharra is the site of a Royal Flying Doctor Service and the first regular School of the Air (public education by radio for outback children). The town is also a base for mining in the region. The name Meekatharra is said to derive from an Aboriginal term for bad watering place. Pop. (1986) 1,018; (1991) 1,414.