Walkaway, Western Australia

Walkaway is a small town in the City of Greater Geraldton local government area of Western Australia. At the, Walkaway had a population of 270.

Its name is a corruption of the native "Wagga wah", referring to the bend in the nearby Greenough River, and was originally given to the railway station when a line was built from Geraldton in 1887.

Rail
In 1894 Walkaway was linked with the Eastern Railway at Midland Junction, 15 kilometres east of Perth, by a private land grant railway constructed by the Midland Railway Company. With the railway and an expanding agricultural area, the township grew. Decline set in with labour shortages associated with the First World War and the construction in 1915 of the parallel state government-owned Northern Railway, 50 kilometres to the east of the Midland Line.

Renewable energy
A number of renewable energy generation projects are located near Walkaway. Current projects (2014) produce 162 Megawatts of electrical power. Additional projects along with upgrades to current projects are scheduled for construction. The Mid West region is identified as a potential location for developing renewable energy technologies that include additional wind and solar photovoltaic electricity projects, solar thermal, geothermal, bioenergy, and ocean energy.



Walkaway Wind Farm
The Walkaway Wind Farm, 9 km east of Walkaway, was completed in August 2005. It consists of 54 turbines, each producing 1.8 MW, 80 m high, and with 40 mblade spans. Development consent has been given for an expansion of the project to up to 400MW.

Mumbida Wind Farm
The Mumbida Wind Farm, 5 km east of Walkaway, is a 55 MW renewable energy project developed by a joint venture of Verve Energy and Infrastructure Capital Group (ICG). Mumbida was completed in 2013 and is now fully operational. Mumbida Wind Farm utilises the 2.5 MW General Electric 2.5xl wind turbines, the first time that this model of wind turbine has been used in Australia. The Mumbida wind farm has been designed to be expanded to 85MW in the future.

Greenough River Solar Farm
The Greenough River Solar Farm is the first stage of a 40MW solar photo voltaic (PV) electricity generator. Stage 1 currently produces 10MW and was commissioned in 2012. At the time of commissioning, it was the largest solar PV generator in Australia. Construction of Stage 2 is scheduled to begin in 2014 and will add an additional 30MW to the project, located 30 km east of Walkaway and 50 km southeast of Geraldton, on the Walkaway-Nangetty Road.