Forrest (Western Australia)

Forrest
State :  Australia State : Western Australia
Coordinates : 30 ° 51 ′  S , 128 ° 6 ′  E Coordinates: 30 ° 51 ′  S , 128 ° 6 ′  E
Residents : 0 (2016)
Time zone : AWST (UTC + 8)
Forrest

Forrest is a small town in the Australian state of Western Australia . For 2006, there were still 18 inhabitants, ten years later none.

location

The place is located in the Nullarbor Plain or Desert about 1150 kilometers east of Perth , 1100 kilometers west-northwest of Adelaide and 190 kilometers north of the coast of the Indian Ocean on the Great Australian Bight at an altitude of 150  m . The place name is derived from the Australian explorer and politician (first Prime Minister of Western Australia) John Forrest .

meaning

Forrest has its own train station on the Trans-Australian Railroad , where passenger trains stop several times a week. The place was founded as a supply station in the course of the railway construction and is located on the longest straight railway line in the world through the Nullarbor Desert .

In Forrest there is an airfield ( Forrest Airport ) with an asphalt runway , which has been an important stopover for Australian transcontinental flights since the late 1920s, as non-stop flights were not possible at the time. This was the heyday of Forrest, when z. B. still a hotel and significantly more residents. Today the runway only serves as an emergency airfield or is only flown to a few times a week to refuel short-haul aircraft. Nevertheless, it is still the longest illuminated runway outside an Australian metropolitan area .

After the automation of the weather station, the village of Forrest has only two inhabitants today (as of 2005): a married couple who are responsible for the operation and maintenance of the airfield. Including the surrounding area, there are 18 inhabitants in the Forrest administrative area (as of 2006).

Trivia

Despite its low present-day importance and population, the place is shown in several school atlases (e.g. Diercke World Atlas, 4th updated edition 1996 ( ISBN 3-14-100600-8 ), page 180).

Web links

Commons : Forrest, Western Australia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the airfield with lots of information about Forrest

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Australian Bureau of Statistics : Forrest (State Suburb) ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
2. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics : Forrest (State Suburb) ( English ) In: 2006 Census QuickStats . October 25, 2007. Retrieved January 6, 2010.