Upcoming Events in Cunderdin

Meckering is a historic farming town with a fascinating story to tell. Learn about Western Australia's greatest engineering feat following the Golden Pipeline Trail and marvel at the aftermath of the famous earthquake that razed the town in 1968. Meckering is one hour and 45 minutes east of Perth on the Great Eastern Highway - a convenient rest stop on the Perth-Kalgoorlie route and one of the first stops on the fascinating Golden Pipeline Trail. Tracing the path and story of the Golden Pipeline, engineered by C. Y. O'Connor in the 1890s gold rush to transport fresh drinking water 560 kilometres from Mundaring Weir to the arid Goldfields, the self-drive heritage trail is a fascinating journey of discovery. Along the way, you can step inside a 100-year-old steam pumping station, walk across a dam wall and learn about the lives of the people behind the pipeline at the many museums on this enlightening road trip. Meckering itself has been an agricultural farming town since settlement in 1887, but this quiet rural township was changed forever on 14 October 1968 when it was completely destroyed by an earthquake. Much of the wreckage has been preserved and is exhibited around the town. The quake, which measured 6.9 on the Richter scale and injured 20 people, resulted in a 32-kilometre faultline which scarred the countryside. View a one-kilometre section of the fault that has been preserved 12 kilometres south of town, or the section two kilometres north of town where you can also see a devastated farm homestead. For a different perspective on history, walk through the lens at the Museum of Photography. Taking the form of a giant 35-millimetre camera, the museum is home to some 1,000 artefacts and cameras, some predating the invention of photography - projectors, enlargers, processing equipment, magic lantern projectors and slides, movie cameras, epidiascopes, zoetropes, phantascopes, kaleidoscopes and three-dimensional photography. If you'd like to break your road trip with an overnight stay in Meckering, book a night at the local bed and breakfast farm stay or caravan park.