Tag: Goldfields

Gwalia Ghost Town

On the way to Lake Ballard, we stopped to fuel our Pajero at Leonora, and then travelled 3km to reach another interesting living ghost town Gwalia. The town flourished when Sons of Gwalia Mine operated there from 1896 to 1963 and produced over 2.5 million ounces of gold. It is claimed to be the second largest gold mine in Western Australia. At its peak in 1911, Gwalia had a population of around 1100 people. Today, most places are abandoned with the exception of just a few. The main attractions are the Museum, the re-opened (but now open cut) mine and Hoover House, which was built for the Sons of Gwalia Mine’s then manager, Herbert Hoover (who later became the 31st President of USA) and now serves coffee and cakes and offers accommodation.

After a quick look at the mine, as well as Hoover House, I spend most of my time at the Mine Office exhibition, where I was fascinated to learn about the history of the place, which had a significant cultural meaning. A large portion of Gwalia residents during the Sons of Gwalia Mine operation were migrants from Italy and the former Yugoslavia. Reading stories of those migrants, I resonated with some of them. Like, Lucia, I too came to Australia as a migrant, leaving all my family behind and starting a new life here. Like her, I too, am finding it hard to be a first-generation migrant. But when life throws this challenge and you deal with it, you become a stronger person.

There are many lessons we can learn by reading and studying these stories. In the old days, life used to be simple and now it is quite complex. As Stephen Peacock, one of Gwalia’s residents put it:

Well, Gwalia was really just a stop over on our way to the main destination for the day – famous Lake Ballard. It’s time to go!

Ghost town of Kookynie

Going back to the past, we visited Kookynie – part of the 965km Golden Quest Discovery Trail. Once a vibrant community, a town of more than 3500 people back in 1907 during golden mining rush, now it is a deserted town with no more than 20 people (although, the town boasts Grand Hotel that is still in operation, offering meals, drinks and overnight accommodation to visitors and locals).

In the old days, Kookynie had 11 (!) hotels, a Town Hall which held regular Saturday night entertainment activities, the first public swimming pool in the Goldfields, a number of businesses and public facilities and even its own brewery and soft drink manufacturers! Many of its buildings are now gone completely or ruined but the memories and stories still live displayed through remnants of buildings and interpretive signs.

Here used to be the social centre of the town…. Not any longer.

In the past Kookynie was one of the many towns in this area that attracted a lot of gold mining prospectors. As people still go out to these places and do actually manage to find gold, our kids were seriously hoping to become modern day prospectors and find gold too!

While the kids were busy looking for gold, the adults wandered about the deserted place, each deep in their own reflections….

Kids were fascinated with a number of old antique rusty cars that seemed become part of the landscape quite long time ago. How much fun it is to climb on top of one such car!

…. or to sit inside and steer the wheel!

Photo by Iulia Galushina

A few kilometres further away from Kookynie is Niagara Dam, which was built in 1897 to provide water for the nearby town and the steam engines during the early goldrush days. It became redundant a few years later when plentiful underground water was discovered at Kookynie.

Now Niagara Dam is a popular picnic spot, offering wonderful opportunities for photography.

It is also a free camp spot with toilets, gas barbeque, picnic tables, and cement fire rings. Sounds like a perfect place for our next camping trip!

The sun was setting down, which meant it was time to go back to Morapoi Station and prepare for the night.