A depot existed at Zanthus prior to 1915 when the east to west section of the Trans Australian Railway was still not completed.

Several passengers completed the journey to Kalgoorlie via a Goldfield Airways airplane while over 50 men worked to fix the two big washaways.

[4] A derailment of a train occurred in 1953 when five coaches of the transcontinental eastbound express left the tracks near the town tearing up a section of the line.

[5] In 1975, large amounts of rain had inundated inland Western Australia from the remnants of Cyclone Trixie.

The locality also has notoriety due to its position in place name lists of Western Australia.