The small town of Greenbushes is situated about 80
kilometers south of the city of Bunbury in
Western Australia.
With a population of under 200 people, it could be considered a
hamlet (smallest of all the service centers).
There is one main street, which in the peak years of the 1960's had two
pubs, a few
general stores and some specialty shops such as a
hairdresser salon and a
butcher's shop.
In the present however, the pubs are still there, but now there is only one general store with a couple of petrol tanks.
Parallel to the main street, on either side of it, are two other streets which hold residential houses and three
churches. It's quite amazing that such a small town has three churches, although I suppose it's reasonable considering that during the
population boom, there was around 600 people in the town.
Greenbushes exists to provide housing for the workers at the Greenbushes
mine, run by Gwalia and a
timber mill run by Whittikers PTY LTD.
The mine is a large open-cut mine, with a
circumference of about two kilometers. It is the largest open-cut
tin mine in the
southern hemisphere, which just happens to be less than 50 meters from the local primary school.
The mine influences the town to such an extent, that even the local
swimming pool, is actually an old mine pit that revealed little decent ore to mine.
I think that the worst part about living in Greenbushes would have to be the crunchy tap
water. Honestly, there were so many
minerals in that water, that a lot of children who had grown up there had not seen clear water. Alright, it isn't that bad, but the water definitely has a distinct
taste. I don't suppose the yellowcake (unprocessed, and pretty harmless
Uranium) had anything to do with that.