I would like anyone to tell the names and where the best little ghost towns are and what sort of unusual things they found there, or any old cemeteries they have come across.
Thanks
Helen
Sheba said
05:57 PM Mar 1, 2017
Why not just Google them ?
Swoffer said
06:02 PM Mar 1, 2017
Sheba wrote:
Why not just Google them ?
Probably because its a reasonable topic for discussion and this is a discussion forum I spose .
warhorse said
06:22 PM Mar 1, 2017
most of the country towns have cemeteries, its interesting to wander around and find the very early graves,many where young children,often with the cause of death,such a hard life for early settlers back then.
meetoo said
06:58 PM Mar 1, 2017
Helen, Terowie, near Peterborough SA is one of the more intact ones.
Cheers, John.
Mike Harding said
07:19 PM Mar 1, 2017
The most poignant cemetery of which I'm aware, in Australia, is a little north of Amphitheatre in central Victoria:
Pioneer Cemetery My books tell me the Amphitheatre - Mountain Hut area of Victoria was first prospected in 1853 so this cemetery, presumably, is subsequent to then. Each time I camp in these forests and visit this cemetery I am confronted by the harshness of daily life people endured compared with the softness and comfort we take for granted, indeed demand, today. These were determined and tough people and they opened up and developed the Australia we now enjoy. I look at the graves of the children, the twins and their mother, the men who dug mine shafts in rock hard ground in 40C and sometimes I shed a tear for them.
Two lone graves:
Lake Hindmarsh - north west Victoria: Pioneers Grave
No point in me rabbiting here as this blog provides an excellent explanation:
Wyndham in WA has a couple of Cemeteries with a lot of history. As has Broome WA there are reminders of how brutal the pearl shell industry was. The problem we had in finding exactly where certain members of my family were interred has been made more difficult owing to the destruction of a lot of Church records (fires). There were some records actually posted on a board at the "Old Cemetery" at Wyndham which helped us locate Great Grandparents final rest. www.australiancemeteries.com.au/wa/wyndham_eastkimberley/wyndhampioneer.htm
The Belmont Bear said
08:51 PM Mar 1, 2017
I found that the Elsey Station Cemetary near Mataranka in the NT gave a real sensation of the isolation that the early pioneers must have felt living in that area. The people actually buried there are those that Jeannie Gunn wrote about in her book "We Of The Never Never". We also lived in Dampier in the late 70s/early 80s and sometimes we would visit the ghost town of Cossack if you took the dirt road out to the back beach you would pass a small cemetery of the early Chinese pearl divers on the way.
Sorry - those graves near Cossack were probably not Chinese pearl divers they were more likely either Chinese labourers or Japanese pearl divers maybe someone who knows it could clarify - it's almost 40 years since I was last there.
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Thursday 2nd of March 2017 07:23:40 AM
meetoo said
10:43 PM Mar 1, 2017
Mike Harding wrote:
The most poignant cemetery of which I'm aware, in Australia, is a little north of Amphitheatre in central Victoria:
Pioneer Cemetery My books tell me the Amphitheatre - Mountain Hut area of Victoria was first prospected in 1853 so this cemetery, presumably, is subsequent to then. Each time I camp in these forests and visit this cemetery I am confronted by the harshness of daily life people endured compared with the softness and comfort we take for granted, indeed demand, today. These were determined and tough people and they opened up and developed the Australia we now enjoy. I look at the graves of the children, the twins and their mother, the men who dug mine shafts in rock hard ground in 40C and sometimes I shed a tear for them.
Two lone graves:
Lake Hindmarsh - north west Victoria: Pioneers Grave
No point in me rabbiting here as this blog provides an excellent explanation:
Mike, how far away from the lakes edge is Jardines grave, do you know?
Cheers, John.
Mike Harding said
07:09 AM Mar 2, 2017
>Mike, how far away from the lakes edge is Jardines grave, do you know?
Around 1km from the lake's high water mark. It is close to where the 2WD dirt ends and the 4WD track to the lake begins. I can't recall if you can get a 2WD directly to the grave but you can certainly get one to within five minutes walk.
I was there about four months ago and the lake was about one third full then, not sure what it's done since, but if you take the 4WD track to the lake be very careful once the track, sort of, finishes as the ground can be very boggy under what look like solid grass. The area immediately around the lake is also prime snake country so watch where you walk.
The Belmont Bear said
08:11 AM Mar 2, 2017
There is a little known graveyard now mostly overgrown by bush at a place called Pulpit Hill on the Great Western Hwy just west of Katoomba. Historians have been unable to verify who is buried there but there is a long held belief that it contains the graves of the convicts who died during the building of Cox's road in 1814/15 as well as some of the early free settlers from the 1820s. If you park your car on the dirt road near the explorers tree and take the bush track for about 50metres up the hill behind it you will come across the remains of the old dry stone perimeter wall and a number of rock covered graves scattered through the bush. It has always amazed me that more people don't know about this place considering it's history and the fact that it has existed even before most of our capital cities. If your interested in our early history it's definitely worth the 10 minute walk.
the rocket said
10:08 AM Mar 2, 2017
Acland qld. One person left last i heard. Mining. Every anzac day there is a service and people come on buses from far n wide. Hundreds of people attend.
msg said
11:01 AM Mar 2, 2017
Mary Kathleen
-- Edited by msg on Thursday 2nd of March 2017 11:01:43 AM
Nelly said
11:58 AM Mar 2, 2017
Hello adreamer - I like ghost towns, cemeteries and also going on ghost tours - thank you for the post. That is very interesting Belmont Bear about the little cemetery near Katoomba - you would think some historical association would take some interest in it after all it is our heritage.
Lawson said
12:16 PM Mar 2, 2017
Along the Oodnadatta Track are the ruins of many old fettlers quarters some have huge water purifiers used for the water in the steam engines, the siding of Coward Springs still has the Stationmaster's House, there's a good camp ground and even has a spar made of railway slippers around the old bore, the ruins of the town of Farina has many stone buildings some are being stabilized you a volunteer group a great place to wander around for hours the cemetery is a few km out in the middle of a large flat gravel plain its well kept but a very lonely place in the middle of nowhere.
There is camping there in the gully with grass and flush toilets.
Dennis L
meetoo said
12:38 PM Mar 2, 2017
Mike Harding wrote:
>Mike, how far away from the lakes edge is Jardines grave, do you know?
Around 1km from the lake's high water mark. It is close to where the 2WD dirt ends and the 4WD track to the lake begins. I can't recall if you can get a 2WD directly to the grave but you can certainly get one to within five minutes walk.
I was there about four months ago and the lake was about one third full then, not sure what it's done since, but if you take the 4WD track to the lake be very careful once the track, sort of, finishes as the ground can be very boggy under what look like solid grass. The area immediately around the lake is also prime snake country so watch where you walk.
Thanks Mike
Cheers, John.
adreamer said
02:37 PM Mar 2, 2017
Nelly wrote:
Hello adreamer - I like ghost towns, cemeteries and also going on ghost tours - thank you for the post. That is very interesting Belmont Bear about the little cemetery near Katoomba - you would think some historical association would take some interest in it after all it is our heritage.
Hi Nelly, my daughter said 'she was the only kid in school' who spent her Sunday's at cemeteries playing on old graves.
Helen
The Belmont Bear said
03:31 PM Mar 2, 2017
Nelly a lot of people have taken an interest in that little cemetery in fact if you look up "Pulpit Hill Cemetery" on Google you will see some of the background stories and photos. The problem is that they don't really know how many of the graves are authentic, in a report written in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1933 it said that there are only 3 convicts from Cox's road building gang buried there , some early pioneers and maybe even a few fake graves could have been added later. It is not a proper cemetery i.e. on consecrated ground apparently it's called Pulpit Hill because they used to hold services there for the convicts so they probably thought it was as good place as any to bury some of them when they died.
Has anyone ever been to Radium Hill in SA? Abandoned town as you will ever find. It didn't even make it on the list in the previous post. All the houses have since been removed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYDcqsJJ71k
Cheers, John.
-- Edited by meetoo on Friday 3rd of March 2017 12:30:16 AM
-- Edited by meetoo on Friday 3rd of March 2017 01:39:39 AM
Lancelot Link said
12:29 AM Mar 3, 2017
Maralinga, just don't touch anything, you may glow in the dark afterwards!
A little bit of comic relief or an attempt at it, whether it be tasteful or not is a different matter!
Trying logging on to TROVE, the national archive site. It has all sorts of great stuff and I am sure you could do a search for towns that once were. It is also a great place to find hatch, match and dispatches for your family tree stuff from newspapers around Australia.
meetoo said
02:31 AM Mar 3, 2017
Waukaringa is another out of the way one That I have been to. North of Yunta in SA.
The attached photo of the pub was still operating in the 70's.
These are the best to go look at. I know there are not many left intact but still interesting to find.
Thanks for all the replies, still much to see and so much small the time!!
Helen
Kisha said
02:58 PM Mar 8, 2017
Adreamer Hi, I to share a great interest in history, in west Australia there is a Pioneer cemetery in Kenwick, on the right hand side of Albany Highway going towards Perth, between Austin Ave and Royal street. Its very interesting. Also the graves of John Okey Davis and his wife Frances who arrived in the colony in October 1829 aboard the ship `Lotus` and became among the first European settlers in Gosnells. The grave is on Homestead Road in gosnells, you have the convenience of parking your vehicle right beside the grave, its lovely with an old wrought iron surround. At times over the years I have placed wild flowers beside John and Frances. Gingin is also another place that has a great pioneer cemetery, and if your into astronomy as I am there is the southern Cross Observatory in gingin ....regards Kisha.
Cupie said
10:24 PM Apr 10, 2017
We once tried to get to Rum Jungle, thinking that it was a township when in fact I now find that it is an area or region.
We followed a sign saying 'Rum Jungle' but were confronted by a great heap of torn up bitumen road blocking our way. I would have gone round it except that I had the van on the back.
Seems that this was fortunate as it is still a very dangerous place due to the extremely high radiation from the tailings dumps.
It's interesting to see how many are interested in old Grave Yards. The best that I have seen was on Norfolk Is.
-- Edited by Cupie on Monday 10th of April 2017 10:25:32 PM
meetoo said
12:44 AM Apr 20, 2017
meetoo wrote:
Mike Harding wrote:
The most poignant cemetery of which I'm aware, in Australia, is a little north of Amphitheatre in central Victoria:
Pioneer Cemetery My books tell me the Amphitheatre - Mountain Hut area of Victoria was first prospected in 1853 so this cemetery, presumably, is subsequent to then. Each time I camp in these forests and visit this cemetery I am confronted by the harshness of daily life people endured compared with the softness and comfort we take for granted, indeed demand, today. These were determined and tough people and they opened up and developed the Australia we now enjoy. I look at the graves of the children, the twins and their mother, the men who dug mine shafts in rock hard ground in 40C and sometimes I shed a tear for them.
Two lone graves:
Lake Hindmarsh - north west Victoria: Pioneers Grave
No point in me rabbiting here as this blog provides an excellent explanation:
I have been to Maytown, Thornborough, Kingsborough, Ravenswood, Northcote, Irvinebank and Watsonville, to name a few, all in North Queensland, all with cemeteries, Kingsborough only has four marked graves.
I intend going back to all of them because I have since found there are others in between that I haven't seen. This country is full of history.
The whole of Ravenswood is heritage listed with lots of bits of old buildings and mines. It still has two pubs working.
I have been playing lawn bowls for twelve months and if there is a club in town I go and invite myself for a game. Most small towns welcome travelling players with open arms. Apart from a game and meeting people, you get a lot of first hand information about the district. Quite often much better than you will get at the information center.
Maybe we will meet sometime somewhere. You can write to me through the link to the grave.
toglhot said
04:12 PM May 12, 2017
I know of a few:
Francis Creek East of Pine Creek in the NT. Francis Creek was a mining town deserted after cyclone Tracy. Not much left when I was there, the town swimming pool and remains of the change sheds. Curiously on top of the hill behind the town is a church, largely intact including ceiling fans and glass louvres. Probably still intact because it can't be seen from the towns only remaining structure - the swimming pool.
Mt Wells battery in the NT. Also abandoned after cyclone Tracy. A lot left here: three intact houses that were used by the mine's managers and higher echelons, the single miners quarters, central mess, a couple of workshops, the battery itself powered by a WW2 sub engine, the dam which supplied water and the mines themselves. When I was there there was a chap living in a caravan, said he was the caretaker! Bombed out of his brain.
There were hundreds and hundreds of abandoned humpies and mines on the tracks between Mt Wells and Francis Creek. A very interesting drive through that area. Most were abandoned around the time of Cyclone Tracy as there was no way of getting their produce out of there for a good many years after Tracy. All the old machinery is still evident, all home made stuff of course. I even came across a couple of abandoned XA Falcon panel vans. I wouldn't rush to have a look though. It's a few years since I went through there and I believe the big mining companies have gone through the area tearing the place apart with their open cuts, similar to what happened in Coolgardie!
Snake creek just North of Adelaide River is an interesting place also. Not a town but an ammunition depot used during the second WW. A few buildings are left, along with parts of the railroad and plenty of artifacts lying around. The Navy supposedly had a presence there as late as the early 70s???
Gwalia, a couple of hundred kilometers North of Kalgoorlie is not just still standing, it has been repaired and rebuilt as a museum. Numerous old houses, pubs and even a brothel stand, their interiors furnished by furniture and bric a brac from the period. Herbert Hoover was the mine manager at one stage, he later became the president of the US. The residents of the nearby town got together to restore the old town and what a job they did.
Old Halls creek, not much left just some crumbling ruins. There is an old house further along the track/road which was largely still standing. Some old fella built the place and supplied the locals with fruit and veges until he died. His Gin and her relatives took over the property on his demise and the property soon fell apart. The house still stands, minus doors and windows along with the water tanks outside and you can still see where he used to farm. In the front yard is an old truck, a Bedford I believe.
I did visit a place in WA, the old two story hotel was still standing along with the ruins of some old houses. Can't quit remember where, but I think it was around the Meekathara/Cue area.
Another place I remember well is an old mine on the highway just before the turnoff to Kalbarri, Recently abandoned I think because a couple of the old offices and huts were still standing. The mine was just an enormous hole in the ground which was filled with old cars and machinery so not much could be seen.
I do remember driving along a track somewhere in WA and came across a group of very small, one room, stone humpies, some not even tall enough to stand in. They all had fireplaces and some roofs were still intact. Don't know the story behind this place but there were some other ruins of normal sized buildings across the other side of the river, we couldn't get to them though as the river was in flood. This was somewhere up around Kalbarri from memory.
There was an old humpy we stopped at just south of Meekathara from memory. A lady built it from rubbish she collected in the area. She survived by collecting bottles and cans and other stuff and selling them to scrap yards. The house was remarkably intact right down to lounge chairs, tables and clothing. We were interrupted by a local who kept a close eye on us and told us her story, he seemed as though he new her well and wanted to preserve the place. There were a few deserted houses in town as well which we went through. The town looked like it was slowly dying, probably due to fly in fly out miners who never went in to town.
Typically, in Australia, most Ghost towns consist of maybe some foundations and not much more. As the towns were abandoned people took most everything with them to rebuild elsewhere.
But cemeteries and isolated graves abound, particularly around old abandoned mining towns. Reading the gravestones, one can piece together the hardships people endured.
There are literally hundred of old mines North of Kal, just holes in the ground really with a few boards to stave off cave ins. If you're reasonably fit and interested (and brave enough) you could climb or lower yourself down a few for a look. I used to climb and lower myself down sinkholes back in the day, everyone said I was crazy. Crazy or not I wouldn't venture down any of these old mines, safety wasn't at the top of the old timer's interests back then.
Ghost Towns have always fascinated me, so whenever I get a chance I make a detour, sadly most are nothing but rubble, or placards, stating a town or residence once stood there. I've visited a few in QLD and SA as well, but nothing to speak of really. The ones I mentioned are the ones that stick in my memory.
-- Edited by toglhot on Friday 12th of May 2017 04:51:39 PM
-- Edited by toglhot on Friday 12th of May 2017 04:53:40 PM
adreamer said
04:33 PM May 12, 2017
Great feedback!! Thank you
I can't resist going through old abandoned houses.
Years ago my brother and I were going through paddocks to get to a fishing destination and came across (what we thought) was an empty house and as we walked through the house a really old man came out of a bedroom, we took off so fast, the old man thought he was probably seeing things.
I would like anyone to tell the names and where the best little ghost towns are and what sort of unusual things they found there, or any old cemeteries they have come across.
Thanks
Helen
Why not just Google them ?
Probably because its a reasonable topic for discussion and this is a discussion forum I spose .
Helen, Terowie, near Peterborough SA is one of the more intact ones.
Cheers, John.
The most poignant cemetery of which I'm aware, in Australia, is a little north of Amphitheatre in central Victoria:
Pioneer Cemetery
My books tell me the Amphitheatre - Mountain Hut area of Victoria was first prospected in 1853 so this cemetery, presumably, is subsequent to then. Each time I camp in these forests and visit this cemetery I am confronted by the harshness of daily life people endured compared with the softness and comfort we take for granted, indeed demand, today. These were determined and tough people and they opened up and developed the Australia we now enjoy. I look at the graves of the children, the twins and their mother, the men who dug mine shafts in rock hard ground in 40C and sometimes I shed a tear for them.
Two lone graves:
Lake Hindmarsh - north west Victoria: Pioneers Grave
No point in me rabbiting here as this blog provides an excellent explanation:
http://molesworth.id.au/?page_id=123
And a lady I have much regard for: Kitty Kane
As above
http://chillifrog.tumblr.com/post/20568830/the-grave-of-kitty-kane
I found that the Elsey Station Cemetary near Mataranka in the NT gave a real sensation of the isolation that the early pioneers must have felt living in that area. The people actually buried there are those that Jeannie Gunn wrote about in her book "We Of The Never Never". We also lived in Dampier in the late 70s/early 80s and sometimes we would visit the ghost town of Cossack if you took the dirt road out to the back beach you would pass a small cemetery of the early Chinese pearl divers on the way.
Sorry - those graves near Cossack were probably not Chinese pearl divers they were more likely either Chinese labourers or Japanese pearl divers maybe someone who knows it could clarify - it's almost 40 years since I was last there.
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Thursday 2nd of March 2017 07:23:40 AM
Mike, how far away from the lakes edge is Jardines grave, do you know?
Cheers, John.
>Mike, how far away from the lakes edge is Jardines grave, do you know?
Around 1km from the lake's high water mark. It is close to where the 2WD dirt ends and the 4WD track to the lake begins. I can't recall if you can get a 2WD directly to the grave but you can certainly get one to within five minutes walk.
I was there about four months ago and the lake was about one third full then, not sure what it's done since, but if you take the 4WD track to the lake be very careful once the track, sort of, finishes as the ground can be very boggy under what look like solid grass. The area immediately around the lake is also prime snake country so watch where you walk.
Acland qld. One person left last i heard. Mining. Every anzac day there is a service and people come on buses from far n wide. Hundreds of people attend.
Mary Kathleen
-- Edited by msg on Thursday 2nd of March 2017 11:01:43 AM
Hello adreamer - I like ghost towns, cemeteries and also going on ghost tours - thank you for the post. That is very interesting Belmont Bear about the little cemetery near Katoomba - you would think some historical association would take some interest in it after all it is our heritage.
There is camping there in the gully with grass and flush toilets.
Dennis L
Thanks Mike
Cheers, John.
Hi Nelly, my daughter said 'she was the only kid in school' who spent her Sunday's at cemeteries playing on old graves.
Helen
There is a list of Australian ghost towns here. Nearly all have links to articles on them.
Has anyone ever been to Radium Hill in SA? Abandoned town as you will ever find. It didn't even make it on the list in the previous post. All the houses have since been removed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYDcqsJJ71k
Cheers, John.
-- Edited by meetoo on Friday 3rd of March 2017 12:30:16 AM
-- Edited by meetoo on Friday 3rd of March 2017 01:39:39 AM
A little bit of comic relief or an attempt at it, whether it be tasteful or not is a different matter!
Trying logging on to TROVE, the national archive site. It has all sorts of great stuff and I am sure you could do a search for towns that once were. It is also a great place to find hatch, match and dispatches for your family tree stuff from newspapers around Australia.
Waukaringa is another out of the way one That I have been to. North of Yunta in SA.
The attached photo of the pub was still operating in the 70's.
Cheers, John.
Not one of your better attempts, see - About the Maralinga Tour
Emu has been cleaned up as well. You can do your own trip to there.
Hi peter, I am looking for the one's not listed.
These are the best to go look at. I know there are not many left intact but still interesting to find.
Thanks for all the replies, still much to see and so much small the time!!
Helen
Adreamer Hi, I to share a great interest in history, in west Australia there is a Pioneer cemetery in Kenwick, on the right hand side of Albany Highway going towards Perth, between Austin Ave and Royal street. Its very interesting. Also the graves of John Okey Davis and his wife Frances who arrived in the colony in October 1829 aboard the ship `Lotus` and became among the first European settlers in Gosnells. The grave is on Homestead Road in gosnells, you have the convenience of parking your vehicle right beside the grave, its lovely with an old wrought iron surround. At times over the years I have placed wild flowers beside John and Frances. Gingin is also another place that has a great pioneer cemetery, and if your into astronomy as I am there is the southern Cross Observatory in gingin ....regards Kisha.
We once tried to get to Rum Jungle, thinking that it was a township when in fact I now find that it is an area or region.
We followed a sign saying 'Rum Jungle' but were confronted by a great heap of torn up bitumen road blocking our way. I would have gone round it except that I had the van on the back.
Seems that this was fortunate as it is still a very dangerous place due to the extremely high radiation from the tailings dumps.
It's interesting to see how many are interested in old Grave Yards. The best that I have seen was on Norfolk Is.
-- Edited by Cupie on Monday 10th of April 2017 10:25:32 PM
I recently visited the pioneer grave of Margaret Jardine near Lake Hindmarsh. It certainly is in an out of the way place.
Cheers, John.
-- Edited by meetoo on Thursday 20th of April 2017 12:46:29 AM
-- Edited by meetoo on Thursday 20th of April 2017 12:47:26 AM
I have been to Maytown, Thornborough, Kingsborough, Ravenswood, Northcote, Irvinebank and Watsonville, to name a few, all in North Queensland, all with cemeteries, Kingsborough only has four marked graves.
I intend going back to all of them because I have since found there are others in between that I haven't seen. This country is full of history.
Last year I found the grave of my maternal great grand parents, 80km south of Normanton in the middle of a cow paddock. It is a lone grave.
I am a two year old solo traveler and loving it.
The whole of Ravenswood is heritage listed with lots of bits of old buildings and mines. It still has two pubs working.
I have been playing lawn bowls for twelve months and if there is a club in town I go and invite myself for a game. Most small towns welcome travelling players with open arms. Apart from a game and meeting people, you get a lot of first hand information about the district. Quite often much better than you will get at the information center.
Maybe we will meet sometime somewhere. You can write to me through the link to the grave.
I know of a few:
Francis Creek East of Pine Creek in the NT. Francis Creek was a mining town deserted after cyclone Tracy. Not much left when I was there, the town swimming pool and remains of the change sheds. Curiously on top of the hill behind the town is a church, largely intact including ceiling fans and glass louvres. Probably still intact because it can't be seen from the towns only remaining structure - the swimming pool.
Mt Wells battery in the NT. Also abandoned after cyclone Tracy. A lot left here: three intact houses that were used by the mine's managers and higher echelons, the single miners quarters, central mess, a couple of workshops, the battery itself powered by a WW2 sub engine, the dam which supplied water and the mines themselves. When I was there there was a chap living in a caravan, said he was the caretaker! Bombed out of his brain.
There were hundreds and hundreds of abandoned humpies and mines on the tracks between Mt Wells and Francis Creek. A very interesting drive through that area. Most were abandoned around the time of Cyclone Tracy as there was no way of getting their produce out of there for a good many years after Tracy. All the old machinery is still evident, all home made stuff of course. I even came across a couple of abandoned XA Falcon panel vans. I wouldn't rush to have a look though. It's a few years since I went through there and I believe the big mining companies have gone through the area tearing the place apart with their open cuts, similar to what happened in Coolgardie!
Snake creek just North of Adelaide River is an interesting place also. Not a town but an ammunition depot used during the second WW. A few buildings are left, along with parts of the railroad and plenty of artifacts lying around. The Navy supposedly had a presence there as late as the early 70s???
Gwalia, a couple of hundred kilometers North of Kalgoorlie is not just still standing, it has been repaired and rebuilt as a museum. Numerous old houses, pubs and even a brothel stand, their interiors furnished by furniture and bric a brac from the period. Herbert Hoover was the mine manager at one stage, he later became the president of the US. The residents of the nearby town got together to restore the old town and what a job they did.
Old Halls creek, not much left just some crumbling ruins. There is an old house further along the track/road which was largely still standing. Some old fella built the place and supplied the locals with fruit and veges until he died. His Gin and her relatives took over the property on his demise and the property soon fell apart. The house still stands, minus doors and windows along with the water tanks outside and you can still see where he used to farm. In the front yard is an old truck, a Bedford I believe.
I did visit a place in WA, the old two story hotel was still standing along with the ruins of some old houses. Can't quit remember where, but I think it was around the Meekathara/Cue area.
Another place I remember well is an old mine on the highway just before the turnoff to Kalbarri, Recently abandoned I think because a couple of the old offices and huts were still standing. The mine was just an enormous hole in the ground which was filled with old cars and machinery so not much could be seen.
I do remember driving along a track somewhere in WA and came across a group of very small, one room, stone humpies, some not even tall enough to stand in. They all had fireplaces and some roofs were still intact. Don't know the story behind this place but there were some other ruins of normal sized buildings across the other side of the river, we couldn't get to them though as the river was in flood. This was somewhere up around Kalbarri from memory.
There was an old humpy we stopped at just south of Meekathara from memory. A lady built it from rubbish she collected in the area. She survived by collecting bottles and cans and other stuff and selling them to scrap yards. The house was remarkably intact right down to lounge chairs, tables and clothing. We were interrupted by a local who kept a close eye on us and told us her story, he seemed as though he new her well and wanted to preserve the place. There were a few deserted houses in town as well which we went through. The town looked like it was slowly dying, probably due to fly in fly out miners who never went in to town.
Typically, in Australia, most Ghost towns consist of maybe some foundations and not much more. As the towns were abandoned people took most everything with them to rebuild elsewhere.
But cemeteries and isolated graves abound, particularly around old abandoned mining towns. Reading the gravestones, one can piece together the hardships people endured.
There are literally hundred of old mines North of Kal, just holes in the ground really with a few boards to stave off cave ins. If you're reasonably fit and interested (and brave enough) you could climb or lower yourself down a few for a look. I used to climb and lower myself down sinkholes back in the day, everyone said I was crazy. Crazy or not I wouldn't venture down any of these old mines, safety wasn't at the top of the old timer's interests back then.
Ghost Towns have always fascinated me, so whenever I get a chance I make a detour, sadly most are nothing but rubble, or placards, stating a town or residence once stood there. I've visited a few in QLD and SA as well, but nothing to speak of really. The ones I mentioned are the ones that stick in my memory.
-- Edited by toglhot on Friday 12th of May 2017 04:51:39 PM
-- Edited by toglhot on Friday 12th of May 2017 04:53:40 PM
Great feedback!! Thank you
I can't resist going through old abandoned houses.
Years ago my brother and I were going through paddocks to get to a fishing destination and came across (what we thought) was an empty house and as we walked through the house a really old man came out of a bedroom, we took off so fast, the old man thought he was probably seeing things.