Southern Cross is a town in Western Australia, 371 kilometres (230.5 miles) east of state capital Perth on the Great Eastern Highway.

[6] The town of Southern Cross is one of the many towns that run along the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme pipeline from Mundaring to Kalgoorlie, engineered by C. Y. O'Connor,[7] and as a consequence is an important location on the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail.

A succession of gold rushes in the Yilgarn region near Southern Cross in 1887, at Coolgardie in 1892, and at Kalgoorlie in 1893 caused a population explosion in the barren and dry desert centre of Western Australia.

[18] The Wyalkatchem to Southern Cross railway line, initially to Bullfinch from 1911, was opened in its full length in 1929.

[20] In 1932 the Wheat Pool of Western Australia announced that the town would have two grain elevators, each fitted with an engine, installed at the railway siding.