Zanthus - WA

Located 202Km east of Kalgoorlie this is not a town but a simple railway siding. The line opened in 1917 and the name has been in use since then. Is is a crossing point on the railway where one train pulls off the main line to allow another heading in the opposite direction to pass.

It is derived from the Latin name for the kangaroo paw flower (Anigozanthos manglesii) which is the state's floral emblem.

Perhaps unsurprisingly there have been a few incidentals involving trains over the years starting with stranding of a train and its passengers in 1948 due to flood waters further along the line.

The next incident occurred in 1953 when a derailment of the eastbound express tore up a section of line. Repair crews were on the scene the same day and working through the night they had a deviation line built by the next day.

In 1975 the remains of Cyclone Trixie dumped flood water close to the siding. As a result a section of ground under the line washed out and it took two weeks to fully complete the repairs that included building a new bridge.



On the 18th of August 1999 a freight train headed east pulled in to the crossing loop to allow the Indian - Pacific to pass. The second engine man was operating the control panel and somehow managed to press the button at the wrong time diverting the Indian - Pacific into the 'turn out' and a head on collision with the freight train occurred

21 passengers from the passenger train were injured and had to be air lifted by the Royal Flying Doctor to Kalgoorlie. thankfully because the train had slowed to 40 kilometres an hour no one was seriously injured.

One carriage was a write off and was left on site at Zanthus.

The 'turn out' controls have since been altered to prevent such an accident form happening again.

Zanthus Project

In June 2011 Buxton Resources began explorational drilling in the area with a plan to drill 21 test holes. Initial testing showed promising amounts of magnetite-bearing ferruginous ironstone