Gwalia Ghost Town
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- Gwalia began as a shanty town that sprouted up around the Sons of Gwalia Mine, once the deepest mine of its kind in Australia, in the late 1890s. Men soon flocked to the town to work in the mine, turning the desert settlement into a booming community. At its peak, 1,114 people called the town home.
A nasty mine fire in the 1920s closed the mine for three years, signaling the start of the town’s demise. Workers left in search of jobs in other mines, and Gwalia’s population never quite recovered even after business kicked back up again. The mine, too, never fully bounced back.
Also a interesting visit is to Hoover House near the mine which originally was the mine managers home but now a bed and breakfast and museum.
Herbert Hoover prior to the American presidency arrived in Kalgoorlie as a young geologist straight out of Stanford University, in 1897. Hoover worked for a British mining company, Bewick, Moreing & Co, who sent him to the Western Australian goldfields as a manager. He later returned to America and eventually became the president of America. The old home and museum is well worth the visit.
Excellent television shown tonight from the outback on my IPad Great watching
Thanks Nifty.
I worked at Harbor Lights Gold Mine just north of Leonora in 1994 as a Mechanical fitter for one year.$600 per week .6 weeks on & 1 off.Pay your own way there & back.Sundays off also.I used to park my Datsun 1500 ute at the top of Gwalia hill.The Steam Engines & stationary Engines are interesting. Wood had to power the steam winch so a rail was sent in 2 directions with a little steam train to go find wood.The way I remember it the name Sons of Gwalia was named after 3 brothers died underground there but I may be wrong on that.
Thanks Chris great story. I used to do FIFO but take my hat off to anyone that goes out for 6 weeks I was frothing at a 3 week swing and for you $600 a week too. today the money is much better as you know. Catching the train up there would have been another experience too. Thanks again and stay safe matey.
Bewick, Moreing
Hoover, aged 23; taken in Perth, Western Australia, in 1898
When Hoover graduated from Stanford in 1895, the country was in the midst of the Panic of 1893 and he initially struggled to find a job.[24] He worked in various low-level mining jobs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains until persuading prominent mining engineer Louis Janin to hire him.[27] After working as a mine scout for a year, Hoover was hired by Bewick, Moreing & Co. ("Bewick"), a London-based company that operated gold mines in Western Australia.[28] He first went to Coolgardie, then the center of the Eastern Goldfields, receiving a $5,000 salary (equivalent to $162,860 in 2021). Conditions were harsh in the goldfields; Hoover described the Coolgardie and Murchison rangelands on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert as a land of "black flies, red dust and white heat".[29][30]
Hoover traveled constantly across the Outback to evaluate and manage the company's mines.[31] He convinced Bewick to purchase the Sons of Gwalia gold mine, which proved to be one of the most successful mines in the region.[32]
Thanks for your comment it adds further to the local history and Gwalia gold mine. It is good when others add to the story for others to read. Thanks again :)
Hoover the USA President worked there as a mining engineer.
Thanks, yes it is amazing how someone like him passed through this place and went on to become president. Thanks John.
Our family history started here many many years ago, cemeteries are full of our descendants in the goldfields,its good to see this place left for everyone to see and hasn't been vandalized and wrecked
Thanks Paul no doubt there will be some red dust in your blood. You family history will be really interesting. Thanks again.
This was so interesting!! I am studying the case of the sons of Gwalia and was hoping someone on RUclips explains it but then I found this gem! Really good video, I got more than what I was asking from that search so thank you 🙏
Thank you
I enjoyed the tour. The heat must have been overwhelming. Tough men and weman. Blessings to you
Thank you Todd, I can't imagine how tough the heat would be and at night the intense desert cold. So many lived that tough life and probably died just as poor as when they came.
Scintillating "museum tour" thanks !
Thank you for your appreciation.
That was awesome bro!!! Thank you so much in sharing some history of Australia it was incredible feeling, it was moving for me how people got around and to settle. It was incredible thankyou for your time bro!!
Thank you for commenting it is much appreciated.
It’s a great story @ random travels, thank you. I worked there at SOG’s in the late 1990’s when gold rose in value again it went open cut.
I think what happened was the value of gold had been falling and around 1962, the main frame broke (that’s the big gantry that drags the loaded carriages out of the mine) and the mine didn’t have the money to fix it. Closed it up the same day apparently.
All the workers knew things would go very bad very fast when the only money generation in town so isolated so suddenly stopped, so they all exited overnight.
Sons of Gwalia mine was Hoovers first job as a geologist straight out of university, when he arrived in Albany he had to serve 2 weeks in isolation apparently, because there had been small pox on the ship he had arrived on.
Thanks for commenting, you are correct with the things you have mentioned and you worked there, you would have some good stories to tell. We just love these kinds of places and with a little imagination you can stop and hear the old times there. Apparently there used to be many more tin shacks north of the road. you have to have respect for those who worked out there in such tough times. Thanks again.
@@zoezoe610
We went to one of the trucks one night, the driver called on the radio, said she was sitting there getting loaded and she heard this almighty crash against the truck and felt like the truck nearly got knocked over and now all the dust has settled she can’t see the excavator anymore , there’s no noise from it ,
When we got there and carefully approached to look around, the excavator, he’d crashed through the roof of one of the old underground stable’s, which had been missed on the drilling program, no one was hurt, just a bit shocked. After some number of days we got the excavator out and cleaned up to look around, all the old harness gear and even some hay and chains and other hardware for the horses was all still down there, still hanging where it was stored.
My dad met my mother in Gwalia and my brother was born there. My aunt and uncle owned Mazzas store which sold everything. My parents moved to SA when the mine closed but always talked about how good life was in the Goldfields. My amazing dad then worked for BHP in whyalla for 42 years as a forman engineer.
What a great story, I have always believed that store owners and publicans made the most money in the gold fields. It is nice to hear from people who have a direct link to it's history. Thanks Rae.
My mum grew up there too. 50s & 60s
loved the video..this is one place I really want to visit ...I just hope all the old houses haven't been gutted by people taking souveniers.
Thanks Vanessa, there is still plenty of old relics to see. Well worth the visit and if needed there is a nice caravan park 5 minutes away at Leonora.
I could easily have a holiday home there.
Sounds like a fascinating place.
Great video.
It would be like living in the wild west, thanks :)
@@zoezoe610 A challenge all the same,though.
@@1953beetle Most definitely.
@@zoezoe610 👍
Roughly allowing for inflation that hotel would have cost $588688 in today's money
I had a look and the cost originally was 6,000 pounds so your calculations would be spot on. Thanks.
@@zoezoe610 actual used an online inflation calculator
And to build today, which couldn’t be done as the big timbers used are just not available, would likely cost 10 times that amount!
great video
Thanks Martin it was a interesting place to visit.
Great story of old town - toughest life out there
Thanks, tough beyond measure, we would not survive out there these days. Not many ever became rich either for their hard work. Thanks Kimberly.
The short pole @ 1:57 looked interesting with what looked like a couple of Fowler insulators as was used in Queensland and a third insulator on the top of the pole.
In the 5 bedroom miner's cottage there was a kerosene heater in one of the bedrooms.
Hi from NZ,
Anthony
Thanks Anthony, maybe many had kero heater back then. It would have been bitterly cold out there in a tin house.
Very interesting video. Now these people really lived a hard life and knew what it was like to have struggles
Thanks Steven, It would have been so hot in summer and freezing in winter and plus cooking in there as well. A very hard life and many left their families to look for gold to be never seen again by them. Thanks again.
I remember going to Gwalia with my grandfather, it was almost untouched, people had obviously left in a hurry, plates were on tables, kettles on stoves etc. it looks like a lot of things have disappeared since then.
My grandfather was friends with Hoover, even when Hoover was president. They worked together in Gwalia and owned or managed another mine, the White Feather.
Pa said it was a truly multicultural place.
Thank you for your comment, apparently when the mine closed it stopped virtually on the day and the next train that came people just grabbed what they could and abandoned the town.
We found it interesting reading the info and pondered how hot it would have been in those tin shacks and with a fire going to cook food. A tough life indeed.
It’s a shame the old Gwalia pub isn’t open as a pub.
Yes it would be good to just go and stand in there and see what it would be like. In Cue there is Big Bell ghost town which has a hotel similar and good to explore. Thanks.
Cool Saved. Thanks mate
Thanks Matt
It reminds me of wittenoom gorge mines and townsite and it's ghost town also and it was mined in wittenoom gorge blue asbestos exposure to
Great video. The missus and I are heading out that way next week.
Have a great time we found it really interesting. There is info on each building to let you know who lived there. Thanks for your comment. There will be an old guy who might drive down and tell you his story from there, he lives nearby.
Thank you.
I'd love to go out and see these things I'm a novice so wouldn't have a clue
Google is the best help :)
What happened to showing the important house on the hill? Perhaps you forgot you’d mentioned that you’d go and have a look at it? Apart from that little error it was a really interesting video, thanks!
Thanks Haley I might edit the info and suggest what you say. Have a nice day and safe travels.
I built a tin shack to live in cooked off a bbq every night inside. It’d teach 42 in summer in the shade. I’m 34
Fascinating. The tin houses have their own aesthetic. We're the walls shot at? There are a lot of holes.
Thanks Katherine, not sure about the holes but a great place to visit if you can.
The iron is secondhand iron. So the holes are the nail holes from the previous use. Would have come from Perth probably.
When it is in such short sections it usually means it was carted by horse dray possibly over quite a long distance. Often a small town or an enterprising person owned a corrugation machine that turned flat sheet into corrugated iron on request, for a fee of course. But much of the iron in Gwalia seems to be more modern iron like the ho9sues have been rebuilt in the 1950s or 60s perhaps. So the iron might be from Perth houses getting new roofs. Still most seemed to be the short lengths.
Hoover Hawgg
❤️
Thanks...
You all say what a tough life, no, we just have it easy as pie…
They would have had it tough in those shacks and yes our lives are easy as you say. Thanks buddy.
You are exactly right, I worked there at SOGs a number of times around 1996 - 98, after the value of gold rose again and that mine was worked again as open cut..
But to your point about how easy we have it now, my parents worked on sheep stations when wool was worth a fortune in the 1940’s & 50’s, Mum & Dad weren’t old enough to go to the war, I have the photos of the “homes”? they lived in way out there in the outback around Wanaaring and places in other states and near there in WA at Wiluna , the homes they lived in were just like these, and they were happy, mum loved telling about her outback boundary riders life and how they were just kids and they “bolted from the city” in the depression.
@@justdoesntaddup8620 mate you and ya family are lucky people and ya mum sounds true blue! It would have been a really happy life. My shack was my home but I’ve rented heaps of houses… it’s the bush spirit hey it’s calming and quiet only animals n birds no cars. There’s places around Sa that are the same houses or mallee stump cottages. Incredible history in our short time as a nation. I’m from eudunda, most explorers stopped nearby to gather the parties in one place. Steeped with history alone. Birth place of Colin thiele the author. Clare burra kapunda this country of ours mate, gee were lucky ta have it..
@@nothinyaseehere9449
Yep , I loved looking all around those places in SA on our days off when we worked up at Olympic Dam in 2004 - 5 & 6 , went up to an opal mine, White Dam , I think, bought my Mrs a big opal on the street from a opal miner, went to some massive property’s , like a million acres, yep , Burra, Balaclava, Clare, Pimba, loved it all, the range’s there are unreal.
Dad & his brother worked on some place way up SA outback when he was 15, (about 1932) breaking in horses to go to work, he said he reckoned they “may have been for the army, so going to war”, because there was just no end to the number of horses they wanted!
This would have been a interesting and informative video but the music is very distracting plus at times it over power powers the man's voice
Thanks Betty you made a good point and have planned to not have music when talking. Thanks feed back really helps.
@@zoezoe610 awesome!!
Where to find maps of the houses original building etcetera
As you move around the site there still remains Hoover House that was designed in 1897 by the mine’s manager, Herbert Hoover, who later became the 31st President of the United States of America. It has a museum and cafe' and some information about house the shanty houses spread north of the remaining tin shacks but there are none left in that area now.
Maybe the local shire in Leonora would have more information. Thanks
Massive land of australia is inhabitable.. it’s like a different planet
95% empty and 46 % is tropical
Hardly anyone lives there
THOSE PLACES DO NOT LOOK VERY SAFE? FOR SLEEPING ?
They are structurally quite strong and well put together. We looked at them and imagined how hot they must have been and how cold through the desert night plus they had a fireplace to do their cooking . what a hard life back then for the hope of a good gold find. They have stood there for a century which is amazing. Thanks.
Way it was no air con ,no fan no fridge no nothing how do those people survive out here ,summer /winter ?mind warping to me
And they had fires in there to cook as well. Thanks for your comment.
@@zoezoe610 I’ve been to many outback towns also nsw ,qld etc I see so many old time huts , homesteads ,abandoned stations ,the way people use to live ,I find astonishing ,I really do
@@alexpazman6440 You are not wrong, what a tough life they lived and looking for gold very few became wealthy from it. Many came looking for gold and never saw their loved ones again that they left behind. Thanks Alex.
To the man that shared this story,you need to find and read the book,The peakes of Lyell,by Geofrey Blaney,it about the discovery of gold on the west coast of Tasmania, Regards Baden Smith.
Hi Baden, the video is only to have a look at what remains there and not intended as a thorough exact history lesson. Local signage around the area is the only local reference for info at the time. The video is only and general look around. Yes there is much more information but is not necessary as too much info makes the video too long and makes people less likely to watch the video.
@@zoezoe610 I worked in the Wiluna area in the 70's and absolutely loved what was left of the town,only the club hotel.But all the empty houses and shops were abandoned.
@@badensmith737 Thanks Baden, I too worked in the mines and just love the inland of WA it's history and red country. It is an amazing area and a real look at the past. Thanks again.
Maybe you should of showen the rest of town where the rest of the today people still live 🤔
Thanks Neil, nothing else there is is now just half of what used to be there and only a historical site. Thanks matey.
It was Herbert Hoover Not Henry
Yes but could only fix it in the description once the video was made. Thanks Larry.
@@zoezoe610 not trying to be nit-picky Just wanted to point that out We have ghost towns just like that here in the states It was a good video
hay mate y wood u put music over the top of u talking . such a bad video from the start to the end.
Thanks Kev will take that on board, constructive criticism is good. Have a great day
Interesting video but spoilt by that awful music in the background.
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