Visiting grey nomads are helping to breathe new life into a gold-mining ghost town in remote Western Australia.
While the most glorious days of Gwalia – 800 kilometres or so north-east of Perth – may be very much behind it, a surge in tourist interest is bringing it back from the dead.
The town’s population plunged from 1,200 to just 40 in three weeks after the gold mine closed in December 1963, but some $4 million has been set aside to give visitors at least a glimpse of what was once here. The ABC reports that some 8,000 tourists were drawn to the town last year and that number is expected to rise as restoration work at a number of building continues.
The money is going towards the preservation and restoration of a 118-year-old, 30-metre high mining headframe, as well as 11 timber and iron miners’ cottages, and three brick buildings. If everything goes to plan, the work should be completed by December next year.
The mining headframe was built in 1899 using timber shipped from Oregon in the United States, and was used to haul miners, horses and gold-bearing ore out of the underground mine.
Shire of Leonora manager of economics and heritage services, Elaine Labuschagne, told the ABC that the sudden and near complete mass exodus from Gwalia was what made it so special and enabled it to offer ‘a snapshot in time of what it was like’.
“It’s a lot of funding that’s required to maintain a place like this, but because of its significance — not just for the Goldfields and Western Australia, but for Australia as well — it is important that we maintain it and preserve it,” she said. “There was such a good sense of community here and that’s what people remember.”
· Are ghost towns part of your Big Lap itinerary? Where is your favourite and why? Comment below.
Farina Ruins are our favourite so far but always looking for interesting historical sites to visit.
visited Gwalia in 2014 and was really impressed even back then by what they had saved,great to hear of the new plans.Higly recommend lunch on the veranda of the managers house,sat there watching eagles soar on the air currants,wonderfully relaxing