Rawlinna, Western Australia

Rawlinna is an isolated locality on the Trans-Australian Railway in Western Australia, about east of Perth, east of Kalgoorlie 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. The population in the wider Rawlinna area was recorded as 33 people in the 2021 Australian census; there were 7 private dwellings.

Rawlinna is at the southernmost end of the Connie Sue Highway, a 4-wheel drive track that extends north to the Aboriginal community of Warburton. Rawlinna comes under the jurisdiction of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, situated to the west.

Adjoining the railway line is Australia's largest operating sheep station, Rawlinna Station, covering an area slightly more than 1.0 million hectares (2.5 million acres or 3900 square miles): about the area of the Sydney conurbation. It runs up to 65,000 Merino sheep in a good season. Mustering and droving are 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

People strolling alongside stainless steel passenger cars with "Railways of Australia" above the windows

In 2006, the schedule for the Indian Pacific train provided for a stop at Rawlinna; it no longer does so

Rawlinna was a replenishment stop for freight trains and the Commonwealth Railways passenger train, the Great Western Express, which was inaugurated in 1917 (when the line was opened) and its successor, the Trans-Australian. Before 1951, when diesel locomotives were introduced, steam locomotives needed frequent replenishment with water. On the Trans-Australian Railway, frequent servicing was also required 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,Template:Rp and a school which took part in an annual inter-school sports day alongside students from Cook and Tarcoola. Diesel-hauled passenger trains only need to stop to refill water in the passenger cars. That factor, combined with changed technologies – such as concrete sleepers, modern rail fastenings, continuous welded rail and mechanised track maintenance by contractors – eliminated the need for local employees. With trains travelling faster – passenger, freight – train crews no longer rested at Rawlinna, staying instead at Parkeston and Cook. About 10 buildings remain.

When the entire Sydney–Perth line was converted to standard gauge in 1970, the passenger train service was re-named the Indian Pacific. The later experiential tourism train of that name does not stop at Rawlinna.