Doodlakine
Postcode: 6411
Doodlakine is located 220 km ENE of Perth, Western Australia. It is situated within the Shire of Kellerberrin along the Great Eastern Highway. The town also contains a crossing loop for trains on the Perth to Kalgoorlie railway, and serves as a stop on the Avonlink rural train service.
About the biggest thing to happen for while in this little wheat belt town about 204km north-east of Perth was the recent opening of a new tavern. But, perhaps the fact that this caused such excitement speaks volumes for the simple attractions of this sleepy hamlet.
That’s not to say that little Doodlakine hasn’t had its proverbial 15 minutes of fame. The extraordinary Perth-Kalgoorlie pipeline snakes past its door – that amazing feat of engineering ingenuity that takes water from near Perth all of 563km to Kalgoorlie, making it the longest water pipeline in the world.
Its designer and builder, Charles O’Connor, got so stressed by the enormity of the task he set himself that he killed himself on Fremantle Beach, just two months before the pipeline officially opened.
And, in 1893, Doodlakine thought all its Christmases had come at once when the railway reached town. But some disgruntled land-owners down Kellerberrin way to the east lobbied hard and the railway was moved, leaving little Doodlakine to languish while the rival burghers and graziers of Kellerberrin flourished.