Comet Vale is an abandoned town in Western Australia located in the Goldfield region of Western Australia located between

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

and Laverton on the

Goldfields Highway Goldfields Highway is a generally northwest–southeast highway in central Western Australia which links the Great Northern Highway at Meekatharra with Coolgardie-Esperance Highway south of Kalgoorlie. The highway is approximately in length, ...

. It is within the Shire of Menzies. The town site was named after a comet that could be seen at about the time gold was discovered in the area. By 1895 the town had a population of approximately 500, and by 1897 the townspeople were demanding a post-office. The postmaster general instructed postmasters at Menzies and Googarrie prepare daily mail bags for Comet Vale which were then distributed at one of the stores in town. The ''Comet Vale Hotel'' was established some time prior to 1898. The town was gazetted in 1916. A prospector, Dan Baker is credited with the initial gold discovery. Two mines were in production in 1900 named ''Lady Margaret'' and ''Long tunnel''. The ''Gladsome'' mine was operating before 1905, and the Moss brothers built a 10-head

stamp mill A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operatio ...

and ''Coonega'' at Comet Vale. More mines opened later including ''Sand Queen'' and ''Happy Jack'' both of which continued to operate after World War I. A police station had been established in the town and was destroyed in 1916. A coach service used to service the town coming from Goongarrie and continuing to the Ularring district. In 1921 fresh water was found in old shafts not far from town to replace water requirements that had been sent by rail from Kalgoorlie.

References

{{authority control Ghost towns in Western Australia Shire of Menzies