Leinster is a town in the northern goldfields area of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. The town is located 4 km east of the Goldfields Highway

Goldfields Highway

Goldfields Highway is a generally northwest-southeast highway in central Western Australia which links the Great Northern Highway at Meekatharra with Coolgardie-Esperance Highway south of Kalgoorlie...

, in the Shire of Leonora

Shire of Leonora

The Shire of Leonora is a Local Government Area in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, about north of the city of Kalgoorlie and about northeast of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat of government is the town of Leonora.-History:Leonora was...

  Local Government Area, 968 kilometres (601 mi) northeast of the state capital, Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

. At the 2006 census

Census in Australia

The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, Leinster had a population of 732.

The town was established in 1976 by the Agnew Gold Mining Company as a dormitory town for workers at its nickel

Nickel

Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...

 mine and was named for the nearby Leinster Downs station

Station (Australian agriculture)

Station is the term for a large Australian landholding used for livestock production. It corresponds to the North American term ranch or South American estancia...

. Facilities at Leinster include a supermarket, post office, service station, primary school and tavern. Sporting facilities include an indoor sports centre and 18 hole golf course.

The Leinster Nickel Operation is now part of the BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...

 Nickel West business group. The operation employs 992 workers and produces 40,000 - 45,000 tons of nickel in concentrate per year.

Apart from the Nickel operations, gold was also mined 41 km south east of Leinster, at the Thunderbox Gold Mine

Thunderbox Gold Mine

The Thunderbox Gold Mine is a gold mine 41 km south-east of Leinster, Western Australia. It is currently owned by Norilsk Nickel and has been in care and maintenance since 2007.Norilsk acquired the mine in June 2007, when it took over Lionore Mining....

, from 2002 to 2007.