Continuing west from Laverton along the Outback Way we were travelling through WA’s Goldfields region which covers Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in the south to Agnew and Leinster in the west and north. We didn’t travel south to Kalgoorlie this time, but will be there in a few months.
The first town west of Laverton is Leonora, a main regional centre in the northern goldfields, established in 1896, one year after gold was discovered in the area. Three km south of Leonora is the ghost town of Gwalia, established in 1896 with the establishment of the Sons of Gwalia Mine. The mine eventually closed on 27 December 1963. Within a matter of days 1100 of the 1140 inhabitants left town, most with only what they could carry. Gwalia then became a ghost town.
After 2 nights in Gwalia with the ghosts, we headed south to Lake Ballard to view the Antony Gormley Structures. On the way we dropped into another mining ghost town Kookynie, with its Grand Hotel, and the nearby Niagara Dam, then on to Menzies, a small town despite being the administration centre for the region. From there we headed to Lake Ballard with the intention of camping lakeside (salt lake) for two nights, but after viewing just a few of the sculptures we decided, rightly or wrongly, that one night was sufficient.
We could have doubled back on sealed roads through Menzies and Leonora to reach our next destination, Mount Magnet, but why not take a perfectly dusty shorter route. I try to avoid retracing our steps, as there’s always something to see elsewhere. We took the direct road to Sandstone, an ex-mining town near Mount Magnet. The wind was starting to pick up, and as always it was a head wind, and by the time we reached Sandstone it was blowing a gale. We decided to bunk down at the caravan park for the night. We’re so glad we did, as it is a lovely little town with history and heaps of pride to match.
Heading west from Sandstone takes us out of WAs northern Goldfields region into Gascoyne Murchison, but it is also full of new and extinct mining towns.
Though only 152km from Sandstone to Mount Magnet we ended up staying the night at Mount Magnet, again in a caravan park. Not our preferred form of camp site. The lady in the Mt Magnet Information Centre suggested a long, unsealed route to our next stop, Cue, rather than the direct 80km, in order to see a meteorite crater, a big rock and another ghost town, so a fresh morning start on the detour was decided upon. The meteorite crater was a serious let down, being the smallest in Australia, but Walga Rock didn’t disappoint and the ghost town of Big Bell was interesting, and a great location to spend the night with the ghosts.
Bidding the ghosts farewell the next morning we headed into the historic town of Cue, for a walk around in the morning then continued north to Meekatharra and a few nights at a free camp at Peace Gorge. Henrietta needed a wheel alignment, so I enquired whilst at Cue and no one did them there, so next was Meekatharra. We were hopeful, as there was a tyre retailer in town, but it was closed, being a Saturday. Hence 2 nights at Peace Gorge until Monday to enquire, but to no avail. We’d have to continue north to Newman, a further 420km, with hope of getting it done there.
Built around 1920, Patroni’s Guest Home was one of a number of boarding houses in Gwalia for single men working at the Sons of Gwalia Mine. The 16 rooms could each accommodate 2 men. The guest house closed not long after the mine closed in 1963.Originally built in Laverton, this general store was moved to Gwalia in the early 1900s, then purchased by Victor Mazza and relocated within Gwalia in 1955. Mazza’s store supplied all household basics plus a range of imported items sought by the migrant community.Gwalia is dotted with ramshackle miner’s camps, boarding houses and various other structures, pulled together by their owners using whatever materials could be found. The building centre left was built c1920 by Italian Glovan Andreoletti. Originally located south of the State Hotel (top left) the camp consists of a bedroom and a kitchen with a small stove alcove. The interior walls are lined with hession. Gloven was interned in 1942 until 1944. The Lock-up (right) was originally from Murrin Murrin and is typical of the lock-ups from the early 1900s. Unlike many of the houses, the lock-up has jarrah boards lining the interior.All the mod-cons were available within the houses.Wall linings included hessian, canite, pressed metal, corrugated iron and the newspapers of the day.Before reaching Leonora and Gwalia we dropped into another ghost town at the Mt Morgans mine and Murrin Murrin. Gold was discovered at Mt Morgans in 1896 and in 1899 the town site was gazetted. At its peak in 1903 the population was 1,300. The easily won gold soon ran out and the mine closed. Reworked in the 1980s and 90s the mine remains closed. The nearby Murrin Murrin mine produces nickel, cobalt and ammonium sulphate from nickel laterite ore.There is a free camp adjacent to the Gwalia Museum. Not flash, but the price is right.With improved exploration and mining techniques the Sons of Gwalia Mine commenced open pit mining in 1983. Underground mining recommenced in 2005. Now the deepest trucking mine in the world at 1,600m below the surface it takes approximately 80 minutes for a truck to travel the 11.5km to the surface on a 1 in 7 gradient. There is a truck climbing the incline in the top photo. The white structure in the bottom photo is part of the ventilation system for the underground operations.The headframe and winder built in 1899 transferred men, horses, ore and mining equipment between the surface and underground levels. Everything was transferred in small skips. Horses were used underground until the 1950s. Originally located where the open cut operation is now in progress, the headframe was relocated to the museum site in 1987. It is the only large timber headframe surviving in Australia. The building top left is the Mine Office, which was built in 1898. Though only a mine manager for less than 12 months in 1898, and Gwalia’s second mine manager, Herbert Hoover designed the substantial brick home (bottom left) for himself, costing six times the average house cost at the time. Hoover left Gwalia before its completion, and later became the 31st President of the USA.
The Assay Office was where the assay furnaces were used to determine the quality of the gold in the ore obtained from the mine.This massive Fraser and Chalmers steam winder, which came from Erith in Kent, England, was installed in 1913 and is one of the largest steam winding engines remaining in Australia. Though in remarkably good condition, I found that one of the bolts needed tightening. This was my favourite room in the museum.A 1935 International Murrin Murrin Mail Truck, a 1927 Chevrolet Hearse, a 1908 Leonora – Gwalia Electric Tram, and KEN, a 1934 steam locomotive built at the WA Government Railway Midland Junction workshops to haul timber to fuel the mine’s steam and gas producer engines.Gwalia’s State Hotel, built by the government in 1903 to lessen the sly-grog trade. It closed in 1964 with the closure of the mine.68km south of Leonora and Gwalia is the ghost town of Kookynie, with the only remaining significant building being the Grand Hotel. Built in 1902, the pub continues to operate. We arrived to enjoy a pub lunch, only to find that the publican, Margaret, has closed the kitchen due to ill health (her husband’s, not the kitchen’s). The pub was rather run down and in need of considerable TLC, so maybe the kitchen wasn’t in the best of health. Once having a population of 3,500 when the adjoining Cosmopolitan Mine was in operation, the town now has less than 20 residents. A short distance away is Niagara Dam, built in 1897 to service Kookynie and the steam engines that were working the railway line north of Menzies.Menzies Town Hall (circa 1898). Grand building in what is now a tiny town.Lake Ballard is home to 51 sculptures by Antony Gormley. Top left is a view from our balcony, where we stayed one night. We originally planned for 2 nights to view all the sculptures across the expanse of the lake, but they were all quite similar, so after having a close look at 10 or so we figured we’d seen them all.Gormley designed the sculptures from 3D laser scans of Menzies inhabitants. The scans mapped the body with half a million digital coordinates. Cross sections were taken throughout the body, reduced by two thirds and the contours connected. I think those residents are severely malnourished. The sculptures are cast in an alloy of molybdenum, vanadium and titanium.From the top of the large mound in the lake I could see about 30 of the 51 sculptures spread across the lake, with the walking trails of past tourists linking them.Outside the township of Sandstone are remnants of early gold mining activity with open shafts waiting to consume unsuspecting tourists. Not the place to free camp and go outside at night for a pee. London Bridge is a little older than the mine sites, thought to be about 350 million years old. Once able to support horses and drays it is become thinner due to weathering.In the early 1900s, Sandstone was a booming gold rush town of up to 6,000 people. However, by 1920 the readily accessible gold had run out and the town dwindled to 200 inhabitants. It is now a lovely tidy town with very proud residents. We had dinner at the National Hotel (1907), but unfortunately didn’t manage to win the weekly draw which was $650 the night we were there. A wonderful pub with good food and great staff.The Post and Telegraph Office was purchased by the Shire in 2012 and now operates as a café, but the original internal features remain intact.Art on the water tank behind the Sandstone caravan park, plus some street art.The Black Range Chapel in Sandstone, built in 1908, was originally St Athanasius Church, with an adjoining convent with 60 pupils. The school closed in 1929 and the church was purchased by the Shire and restored in 1995. The Shire President met us at the chapel and filled us in on its history and that of a cottage across the road. Thus another expression of the community’s pride in its town.Maps and signs directed us to a meteorite crater north of Mount Magnet (top left). What they failed to state was that the Dalgaranga crater is the smallest crater in Australia with a staggering 21m diameter. Rather disappointing. Close by is Walga Rock (Walghana), the second largest monolith in Australia and home to the largest rock art gallery in WA. Covering approximately 50 Ha, Walga Rock is 1.7km long with a 5km circumference, but is only 45 m high above the surrounding sand plain.The most intriguing art (centre left) is a painting of what appears to be a square-rigged sailing ship with seven square portholes and six lines of writing beneath. Origin unknown!!
From the top of Walga Rock.Red Mulga (Acacia cyperophylla)In 1935 Premier Gold Mining Company announced that it would develop a mining operation at Big Bell. The township of Big Bell was gazetted in 1936, and at its peak in 1954 boasted a population of 850. The town had wide streets and modern facilities including a shopping centre and picture theatre. However, in 1955 the mine closed and the township declined rapidly. Few structures remain, including the art deco Big Bell Hotel, Catholic Church and water tower.Our overnight camp with the ghosts of Big Bell.Gold was first found in Cue in 1892. The town was proclaimed in 1893 and soon the population reached 10,000. By the 1900s, Cue was the centre of the blossoming Murchison Goldfields. However fortunes began to wane and by the 1940s the population was just 1,000. Some of the grand buildings that were built in its heyday remain, such as the Masonic Lodge, The Gentleman’s Club, The Western Australian Bank Building and the Austin Street Precinct.(clockwise from top left) Many steel silhouettes are scattered around the town; the old fire station at the spot where gold was first discovered in Cue; Cue Railway Station (now Town Oval facilities); Government Buildings (still in use).
3km out of the town of Meekatharra is Peace Gorge, a large picnic and free camping area, famous for its granite rock formations. No ghosts!
2 thoughts on “Gold to Ghosts”
Hi Graham and Carol, great photo’s. Your travel’s sound amazing.
Damien has just spent 3 days at Uluru, he is driving from Uluru to Alice Springs today and then flying to Darwin for a week.
It’s taken him 4 years but he has finally done it.
Keep safe & well.
Most interesting journal and pictures thanks guys. Sorry Lake Ballard was a bit disappointing, I’m glad I didn’t drag Bob up there. Waḻga Rock looks more interesting. Safe travels.
Hi Graham and Carol, great photo’s. Your travel’s sound amazing.
Damien has just spent 3 days at Uluru, he is driving from Uluru to Alice Springs today and then flying to Darwin for a week.
It’s taken him 4 years but he has finally done it.
Keep safe & well.
Most interesting journal and pictures thanks guys. Sorry Lake Ballard was a bit disappointing, I’m glad I didn’t drag Bob up there. Waḻga Rock looks more interesting. Safe travels.