Gwalia
Historic mining town in the desert north of Kalgoorlie
Located 233 km north of Kalgoorlie and 828 km east of Perth, Gwalia is now little more than an historic adjunct to nearby Leonora, the main administrative centre in the northeastern Goldfields.

Gwalia is, by any measure, a truly fascinating settlement. The checklist of its claims to fame are awesome. Established in 1896 as the 'Sons of Gwalia' mine on the Sons of Gwalia gold reef (Gwalia is the Welsh name for Wales) the first mine manager was Herbert Hoover, later to become President of the United States. If that isn't enough this tiny town can claim to have once been the second largest gold mine in Western Australia, to have the first State hotel, and to have been the site of the state's first tramway.

Located off the Kalgoorlie–Meekatharra Road to the west of Mt Leonora and 4 km south of Leonora, it is hard to imagine that this largely uninhabited ghost town was once a thriving mining town with a population of over 1000.

The area around Gwalia was first explored by John Forrest in 1869 but it wasn't until 1896 that prospectors, drawn to the area by the huge finds at Southern Cross, Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, discovered gold near the present site of Leonora. That same year the 'Sons of Gwalia' reef was discovered by Carlson, White and Glendinning who worked it for a brief time before selling out to George Hall for £5000. Hall recouped his entire investment after one month. Hall, seeking additional capital, began negotiations with a London firm who sent a 23 year old mining engineer, Herbert Hoover, to the site. Hoover saw the mine's potential and suggested himself as manager of the project. As manager he successfully reduced costs at the mine by hiring Italian labour. Gwalia had a significant Italian community for the rest of its existence.

From the earliest days there was considerable competition between Leonora and Gwalia. Leonora was surveyed in 1897 and it quickly acquired shops and a variety of services. However, as Gwalia's mining operations offered the most reliable work in the area, people began to settle near the mine first in tents and later in simple, dirt floor cottages made with timber frames and clad with corrugated iron.

A truce between the two towns occurred in 1903 when a tram service was built between the two settlements. However by the 1920s Gwalia was showing signs of uncertainty. Its existence relied solely on the Sons of Gwalia mine and when 400 men were sacked the community was decimated.

After this the fortunes of the town and the mine were vulnerable to changes in the price of gold and other external factors. The town literally died overnight on New Year's Eve 1963 when the mine closed down. The population of around 1700 was reduced to 40 people by 17 January 1964 and the Gwalia Hotel had been closed.

Things to see:  

Historic Gwalia Heritage Trail
There is an excellent guide to Gwalia titled the Historic Gwalia Heritage Trail which provides a detailed history of most of the town's interesting and important buildings. There is Mazza's Store in Tower Street, a typical corrugated iron building which was, for most of the town's life, the all-encompassing General Store. A little way further down the road is Patroni's Guest House, another corrugated iron building, which was a popular eating and living quarters for miners particularly those from Italy and Yugoslavia.

Around the corner in Kane Street is the Little Pink Camp, a ramshackled place which offers an insight into the way houses in Gwalia were literally made out of any materials available. It has newspapers on the walls, a simple plank floor, and three small rooms. It was moved to its current site in 1988.

On the corner of Kane and Station Streets is the large and gracious old State Hotel. Built by the Western Australian government in 1903 at a cost of £6000 it is now used as their administration offices by the mining company, Sons of Gwalia NL. The hotel has a number of interesting features including pressed metal ceilings and some particularly beautiful internal joinery on the staircase and around the bars.

The Heritage booklet recounts an interesting period in the hotel's history when the drinkers went on strike.

'In March 1919 what is thought to have been the State's first Beer Strike occurred in Gwalia. Fifty residents voted for a Beer Strike and vowed not to return to the hotel until their conditions were met. They had carefully compiled a list of complaints, including some relating to the brand of beer offered, the price, size and cleanliness of the glasses, and the behaviour of the manager whom they insisted should be dismissed.'

Near the hotel is the Midland Woodline Steam Engine known as 'Ken' which was used to transport wood to fire the steam engines at the mines. Further east is Art's Place a typical restored miner's cottage with gables and clad in the ubiquitous corrugated iron.

Continuing west along Tower Street the visitor passes the old swimming pool and reaches a group of buildings which include the Assay Office, Mine Office (now the Gwalia Museum which has lots of folk memorabilia of the area), the Mine Manager's House (a substantial three bedroom dwelling built from local timber, bricks and iron which was probably the residence of Herbert Hoover during his stay in the town), and the Headframe and Winder which were built in 1899 to service the original mine. They were moved to their present location in 1987.

Accommodation and Eating
See Leonora