Goongarrie is an

abandoned town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

in Western Australia, located in the Goldfield region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

north of

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 ...

. The town site was originally known as ''90 Mile'', the distance of the settlement from Coolgardie. A group of

gold miner Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

s named Pickersgill, Cahill, Frost and Bennett, discovered

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

in the area in 1893, which was the first discovery since gold was struck in Coolgardie. The town was known as ''90 Mile'' and ''The Roaring Gimlet'' initially; the latter name comes from the sound the south westerly wind makes as it roars through the gimlet trees. A townsite was proposed in 1894 and gazetted on 17 June 1895. Some of the gold mines that operated in the area were the Phoenix, the Caledonian and Lady Montefiore. The name ''Goongarrie'' comes from the nearby Lake Goongarrie, and is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

word of unknown meaning. By 1903 the population of the area had dwindled to 66 people. The site of the town later became part of a

pastoral station A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

of the same name and is now part of

Goongarrie National Park Goongarrie National Park is a national park in Western Australia, east of Perth and about north of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Kalgoorlie. The park was part of Goongarrie Station (Australian agriculture), Station that was purchased by the G ...

References

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