Probably a readers of this thread are wondering about some of...

Probably a readers of this thread are wondering about some of the comments on Widgiemoothla, so in view of things on this forum being pretty quiet today will throw the following in for general interest.

For anyone that had to undertake the Nullabor crossing by road, particularly in the 1950's, early 1960's, the toilets at the Widgiemooltha Roadhouse became legends in their own right (think they have actually preserved one as a monument, which shows the locals do have a sense of humour).

Widgiemooltha had a bit of a beat up in several newspapers in the 1970's, when someone swapped the 80 kilometres per hour speed limit signs on both highway entrances to the town zone and replaced them with 120 kilometre per hour speed signs knocked off from a highway in South Australia, where in that state at the time the main highway speed limit was 120 kilometres per hour, compared to the Western Australian limit of 110 kilometres per hour.

The butt of the newspaper beat up was that thanks to the then poor reputation of the roadhouse, with everyone speeding past it, was about two weeks before any of the locals, including the local Kalgoorlie based police noticed that the posted speed limit had been upped beyond that permitted in the state.

Today of course the roadhouse has been much upgraded and actually has a very nice little tavern attached to it, that makes a welcome refuge for anyone trying to dodge (for a while) the road trains that hurtle up and down the highway.

How the township itself has survived over the years is a story in itself as the place started out as a changing post for Cobb and Co stagecoaches doing the Coolgardie - Esperance run in the late 1800's, whereas today it more or less provides a family accommodation base for miners working in the district not wanting to undertake fly in, fly out operations from Perth.