Once a separate shire, Greenbushes has recently been incorporated into the shire of Bridgetown. Located 250 km south of Perth and only 17 km from Bridgetown it is now a small settlement relying on a combination of mining, timber, tourism and farming.
Greenbushes is really an old mining town. It came into existence in 1888 after tin had been found in the district by a Mines Department surveyor in 1886. The first company into the area was Bunbury Tin Mining and they were followed by a number of other smaller companies. The town boomed until 1893 when a world slump in the price of tin saw the local industry collapse. Since then the town's population and productivity have fluctuated according to the demand and price of the metal. A census carried out in 1904 gives a fascinating insight into a typical mining community at the turn of the century. The town had 159 miners who were serviced by '9 storekeepers, 8 builders, 2 tin smiths, 7 carpenters, solicitors, mining agents, chemists, butchers, tailors, bootmakers, bakers and a blacksmith'. By 1913 the town's population had reached 2000. Of this population approximately one quarter were working in the timber industry which had sprung up shortly after the establishment of the mine.
