Collie | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Main street of Collie | |||||||||||||
  Collie | |||||||||||||
 Interactive map of Collie | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates:33°21′47″S116°09′22″E / 33.363°S 116.156°E /-33.363; 116.156 | |||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | Western Australia | ||||||||||||
| LGA | |||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||
| Established | 1897 | ||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||
| • State electorate | |||||||||||||
| • Federal division | |||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
• Total | 53.4 km2 (20.6 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Elevation | 204 m (669 ft) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 7,184 (UCL2021)[2] | ||||||||||||
| Postcode | 6225 | ||||||||||||
| Mean max temp | 23.2 °C (73.8 °F) | ||||||||||||
| Mean min temp | 8.5 °C (47.3 °F) | ||||||||||||
| Annual rainfall | 703.6 mm (27.70 in) | ||||||||||||
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Collie is a town in theSouth West region of Western Australia, 213 kilometres (132 mi) south of the state capital,Perth, and 59 kilometres (37 mi) inland from the regional city and port ofBunbury. It is near the junction of theCollie andHarris Rivers, in the middle of densejarrah forest and the onlycoalfields in Western Australia. At the2021 census, Collie had a population of 7,599.[4]
Collie is mainly known as a coal-producing centre, but also offers industrial, agricultural and aquaculture tourism industries.Muja Power Station is located 15 kilometres (9 mi) south-east,Collie Power Station is 5 kilometres (3 mi) east, andBluewaters Power Station is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) northeast of the town. To its west is theWellington Dam, a popular location for fishing, swimming and boating.
The town is named after the river on which it is situated.James Stirling named theCollie River, which in turn is named afterAlexander Collie. He andWilliam Preston were the first Europeans to explore the area, in 1829.[5]
It has been reported thatcoal was discovered in the area by a shepherd named George Marsh in the early 1880s.[6] The townsite was surveyed and gazetted in 1897.[5] Coal production began in 1898 when theBrunswick Junction to Narrogin railway line was extended to Collie.[7][8]
Collie was once referred to as a "dirty mining town",[9] but on 8 April 2006 it won theAustralian Tidy Towns Competition from finalists from six states and the Northern Territory.[10] Collie was named the top Tidy Town because of the commitment of the community to recycling, waste management, beautification and community projects.
According to the 2021 census, there were 7,599 people in Collie.
Collie has a significant role in the provision of electricity for Western Australia. The state's two coal mines are in[failed verification] the town,[11] and there are the threecoal-fired power stations (Muja due to close by 2029, Collie due to close by 2027, and Bluewaters written off in 2020 by owners as zero valued). TheGovernment of Western Australia will soon[when?] commissiona new base load power station, for which a number of Collie base proposals have been made including nuclear.[vague][12][failed verification]
In 2014 Western Collieries, thePremier Coal mining operation, reported a production capacity of 5 million tonnes (11 billion pounds) of coal per year for 30 years.[13] TheGriffin Coal mine is owned by the Indian companyLanco Infratech.[14]
Collie has five primary schools (Allanson Primary School, Fairview Primary School, Amaroo Primary School,[15] Saint Brigid's Catholic College[16] and Wilson Park Primary School) and one high school,Collie Senior High School.
Tourist attractions at Collie include the Steam Locomotive Museum, Collie Art Gallery, Minninup Pool andWellington Dam. Parks include Soldier's Memorial Park and natural features include the Collie River. Stockton Lake, Lake Kepwari, Harris River Dam and Wellington Dam are man-made reservoirs and lakes available for leisure and recreation. Sporting facilities include the Roche Park Recreation Centre,[17] Collie Hockey Grounds and the Collie Eagles Oval.
Collie also hosts theCollie Motorplex, one of Western Australia's few permanent motorsport venues outside the Perth metropolitan area.
The Coalfields Museum and Historical Research Centre[18] provides a glimpse of the history and development of the mining town of Collie.
Collie experiences aMediterranean climate with warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters (Köppen climate classificationCsb).The town was lashed with unseasonalstorms on 12 December 2012 resulting in some flooding in the town. The town received 126 millimetres (5 in) of rain in a 12-hour period; several houses were evacuated.[19]
| Climate data for Collie East (2002–2024 averages and extremes) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 42.3 (108.1) | 42.4 (108.3) | 40.0 (104.0) | 36.4 (97.5) | 28.7 (83.7) | 24.5 (76.1) | 22.4 (72.3) | 27.2 (81.0) | 30.6 (87.1) | 33.7 (92.7) | 38.4 (101.1) | 40.7 (105.3) | 42.4 (108.3) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 31.1 (88.0) | 30.8 (87.4) | 28.2 (82.8) | 23.9 (75.0) | 20.2 (68.4) | 17.3 (63.1) | 16.4 (61.5) | 17.2 (63.0) | 18.7 (65.7) | 21.8 (71.2) | 25.5 (77.9) | 29.0 (84.2) | 23.3 (73.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 13.5 (56.3) | 14.0 (57.2) | 12.3 (54.1) | 8.9 (48.0) | 6.1 (43.0) | 4.5 (40.1) | 4.3 (39.7) | 4.8 (40.6) | 5.7 (42.3) | 7.5 (45.5) | 9.9 (49.8) | 11.7 (53.1) | 8.6 (47.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 2.8 (37.0) | 4.2 (39.6) | 1.0 (33.8) | 0.4 (32.7) | −3.1 (26.4) | −6.0 (21.2) | −4.0 (24.8) | −2.7 (27.1) | −2.7 (27.1) | −0.7 (30.7) | −0.4 (31.3) | 2.6 (36.7) | −6.0 (21.2) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 15.9 (0.63) | 11.1 (0.44) | 18.4 (0.72) | 39.7 (1.56) | 92.1 (3.63) | 97.7 (3.85) | 134.0 (5.28) | 116.0 (4.57) | 86.1 (3.39) | 39.7 (1.56) | 24.3 (0.96) | 17.5 (0.69) | 686.0 (27.01) |
| Average rainy days(≥ 0.2mm) | 2.8 | 3.5 | 4.8 | 8.9 | 12.9 | 15.0 | 20.2 | 18.6 | 15.5 | 11.3 | 6.9 | 4.9 | 125.3 |
| Source:[3] | |||||||||||||
Collie Speedway is amotorcycle speedway venue on the eastern edge of Collie, on Clifford Street.[20] The venue, which opened in 1971 has hosted importantmotorcycle speedway events, including qualifying rounds of theSpeedway World Championship (starting in 1992)[21][22] and the final of theWestern Australian Individual Speedway Championship on two occasions.[23]
Material was copied from this source, which is available under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.A long-running saga involving Griffin Coal, one of WA's two coal mines, this week took a critical turn after the operation was tipped into receivership by its Indian bankers.
Media from Commons
Travel information from Wikivoyage