The Ravensthorpe Licensed Post Office is located at 67 Morgans Street, and provides a full range of services, with post office boxes available as well as passport business. It is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM and from 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM, closed Saturday and Sunday.
Ravensthorpe is a town 541 km south-east of Perth, 40 km inland from the south coast of Western Australia and 160 kilometres west of Esperance. It is the seat of government of the Shire of Ravensthorpe.
In 1848, the area was surveyed by Surveyor General John Septimus Roe who named many of the geographical features nearby, including the nearby Ravensthorpe Range that the town is named after. The area was first settled by the Dunn brothers during 1868. The Dunn brothers brought sheep farming to the area in 1871 when George and John Dunn drove a herd from Albany to the area they had established earlier. They were awarded a land grant in 1873 of 4,049 hectares.
Another of the Dunn brothers, James Dunn discovered gold at Annabel Creek and was awarded a claim by the government. More profitable discoveries followed in 1900 that resulted in a boom. The population climbed to over 1000 and by 1901 the government gazetted the town of Ravensthorpe.
The government completed construction of a copper and gold smelter about 2 km south east of the town in 1906, used to cast copper and gold ingots. At its peak of production the smelter employed over 120 men, the now disused smelter is still there and is surrounded by massive piles of tailings waste.
The area continued to prosper and the population grew accordingly, by 1909 the population was over 3000. The prosperity was short-lived; World War I took its toll on the town and by 1918 the local copper smelter had closed and many of the copper and gold mines had closed.
For many years Ravensthorpe relied mainly on support to agriculture and limited tourism for it's continued existence.
The discovery of nearby nickel deposits saw renewed activity in the area, with BHP Billiton's Ravensthorpe Nickel Operations (RNO) encouraging supporting developments around Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun, but after initial development the falling nickel price saw the project shelved.
First Quantum Minerals Australia Nickel bought RNO on 9 December 2009 from BHP Billiton. Nickel was first produced in October 2011 during commissioning, and first exports were shipped on 25 November 2011. Commercial production was achieved on 28 December 2011 and the plant continues to perform consistently at design throughput. RNO directly employs over 450 people and has a commitment to residential living for key staff in the Hopetoun–Ravensthorpe region.