Eucla – the disappearing town

You might have driven past it without noticing. Out in the desert is a coastal ghost town that epitomises the fragility of arid coastal dunes and our arid landscape more generally. Despite a history of abuse and neglect, it’s quite an attractive place

Eucla is 11 kilometres west of the South Australian border and consists of a roadhouse on a high pass overlooking the Great Australian Bight . Below is an expanse of low-lying saltbush and stunted trees known as the Roe Plains. It is virtual desert with annual rainfall of only 273.9 millimetres, a third of what we get in the eastern states and too low even to grow wheat. It is an attractive but very fragile environment determined by water, the plants and animals thrive only because they are well adapted to an arid climate. It is a poster child for how to wreck a town by damaging your coastal dunes.

In 1841, Eyre and Baxter became the first European explorers to visit the area drawn by reports of small Aboriginal water soaks in the area. In 1873, land was taken up at Moopina Station near the present roadhouse. The settlers brought in sheep and drew on the underground water from the Nullarbor caves.

On the coast was the old town and port of Eucla, which has since disappeared. This was once a thriving telegraph station, one of the world’s busiest. The telegraph line opened in 1877.  The limitations of the technology at the time required the messages to be repeated by manual keying every few hundred miles. The eastern States also used a different code from Western Australia and all messages had to be translated to cross the continent. The town was half supported by the Western Australian government, and the other half were South Australian employees and facilities.  The site was chosen because it was close to the border, and an offshore sandbank also allowed ships to approach close to the coastal sand-dunes with relative safety. A jetty and tram line were constructed for offloading supplies brought in by sea. In 1898, the population of the town was 96 (82 males and 14 females). The inhabitants built themselves a school, tennis courts and cricket ground. The town had an inspiring view of the clean white sands of the Delisser sand dunes, and off in the distance the sea cliffs of the Nullabor.

The environment is more pleasant than you might think. It is an arid climate, but it is relatively mild with higher than usual shade and humidity due to clouds coming in off the sea. The Roe Plains are an attractive mix of saltbush and bluebush with stunted trees. The coastal scrub is alive with birds. Small soaks of freshwater seeping out of the sand dunes keep the local wildlife going. Kangaroos and emus are still common on the plains.

Then things started to go wrong. The water in the underground caves was only a thin layer of fresh over salt water and the water became progressively saltier. The livestock also trampled the delicate environment around water soaks. This damage to water sources had the effect of forcing the local Aboriginal tribes to abandon their nomadic lifestyle.

Rabbits had been released in Victoria in 1859 to provide sport and food for the early settlers. Around 1897, telegraphists noticed waves of rabbits pouring across the Nullarbor from the east. One Sunday they killed a thousand rabbits but to no effect. The vegetation began to disappear. After there was no food above ground they began grubbing up and eating the roots of the saltbush, blue bush and the cotton bush. They stripped bark from the trees. The Government then shipped hundreds of cats to Eucla. They soon got bored with only eating rabbits and wiped out the local birds and reptiles.

The Dellisser sand dunes were no longer bound by vegetation and began to move. Windows had to be kept shut regardless of the heat of the day due to windblown sand, and the dunes began to encroach on the town.

In 1929 a new telegraph line was built further north alongside the Trans-Australian Railway. It was easier to maintain and its automatic repeaters didn’t need so many telegraphists. The Government buildings at Eucla were abandoned.

In 1949, the Gurney family purchased the buildings for demolition and salvaged a lot of the stone for their Koonalda homestead. Roy and Dorothy Gurney and their family of two boys and three girls moved into the former residence of the West Australian Telegraph Master. The Telegraph Station Office was fitted out for accommodation for travellers, the first ‘roadhouse’.

By the late 1950s, the sand drifts were seriously damaging the buildings, piling onto the roofs and breaking window glass, and the Gurneys were unable to continue operating.  In late 1959, they began to build the Eucla Pass Motel using materials from the Telegraph Station. In 1978, Eucla Telegraph Station (Ruin) was entered on the Register of the National Estate, which includes the station ruin, Eucla jetty ruin, Delisser Sandhills and Wilson’s Bluff.

Many of the pioneer farmers and telegraph operators were buried at Eucla, but as the sand dunes encroached onto their graves, some of the headstones and plaques were removed and can now be seen at the museum at the Eucla roadhouse.

The ruins of the original telegraph station still stand amongst the dunes and are a local tourist attraction. As well as the ruins of the West Australian Telegraph Master’s residence, there are remnants of two other stone buildings. The position of these indicates that they are most likely the remains of the South Australian Telegraph Master’s residence and the billiard room. Foundations of the other buildings most likely still exist under the sand dunes.

In 2019 the dunes are starting to stabilise and the ruins of the homestead are reappearing. That same one large tree seen in the photos is the real survivor at Eucla and is still thriving. The other survivor is sea spurge. The seeds of this invasive weed have been carried around the southern hemisphere on ocean currents, brought over the equator by ships. Now it’s on every shoreline in the world, no matter how arid.

At the roadhouse there is a museum that is worth a stop to put it all in context.