Rawlinna is an isolated locality on the Trans-Australian Railway in Western Australia, about east of Perth and west of the Western Australia / South Australia border. It is on the Nullarbor Plain, about from its western fringe; the topography is flat and well grassed, with saltbush and bluebush, with small belts of myall and myoporum trees. Annual rainfall is . Maximum daytime temperatures are typically through summer and during winter. In 2016, the population in the area was recorded as 30 people. Rawlinna is the southernmost end of the Connie Sue Highway, a 4-wheel drive track that extends north to the Aboriginal community of Warburton. Australia’s largest operating sheep station, Rawlinna Station, covering an area of – about the area of the Sydney conurbation – adjoins the railway line. It runs up to 65,000 Merino sheep in a good season. Mustering and droving is done on motorbikes and in aircraft to locate them, beginning in January for a 10-week shearing program. A muster can take up to to get the sheep into the shearing shed at Jumbuck's "Depot" outstation. A small, open-cut limestone mine is north of the settlement, from which lime is extracted for gold production at Kalgoorlie. Visitors come from far and wide each year to the popular gymkhana known as the "Nullarbor Muster", which benefits a number of charities. Trans-Australian Railway Rawlinna is a stop for the Indian Pacific, the experiential tourism train that operates between Perth and Sydney. The train is the successor to the Trans-Australian, which was inaugurated in 1917, when the line was opened. Before 1951, when diesel locomotives were introduced, steam locomotives required frequent servicing because of poor water quality; Rawlinna was one of four major stations that had workshops and facilities such as a food store and bakery operated by the Commonwealth Railways, and a school. However, all Commonwealth Railways operational buildings have been demolished; about a dozen buildings remain. References External links Towns in Western Australia Goldfields-Esperance Trans-Australian Railway