Mount Magnet is a town in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

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 ...

. It is one of the region's original gold mining towns, and the longest surviving gold mining settlement in the state. The prominent hill that is adjacent to the current townsite was called West Mount Magnet in 1854 by explorer Robert Austin, having named a smaller hill 64 km away, East Mount Magnet (now called Carron Hill). Both hills had an extremely high

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

content which affected the readings of his compass. West Mount Magnet had its Aboriginal name reinstated by the Surveyor General in 1972, "Warramboo," meaning campfire camping place. The

magnetic variation Magnetic declination, or magnetic variation, is the angle on the horizontal plane between magnetic north (the direction the north end of a magnetized compass needle points, corresponding to the direction of the Earth's magnetic field lines) and ...

at Mount Magnet is zero: magnetic north equals true north.

Overview

Surrounding the town are remnants of old gold mining operations, and to the north east are significant Aboriginal sites being preserved jointly by the local community and the Western Australian Museum. Its history is sustained through the Wirnda Barna Arts Centre, and the Mount Magnet Mining and Pastoral Museum. The area once had three separate town sites - Mount Magnet, Boogardie, and Lennonville. Hill 50 Gold Mines N.L., which was floated on the Perth Stock Exchange in 1934 to acquire leases at Boogardie,. started mining Hill 50 in 1936. Boogardie has since been swallowed up into the

open cut Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

mining operations at Hill 50. Lennonville was abandoned at the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and the foundations of the bank and train station can still be seen. Poverty Flats, Mount Magnet, Western Australia

There continues to be active gold mining in the area, notably by Ramelius Resources which acquired Mt Magnet Gold Pty Ltd in 2010. The company operates the Saturn and Mars pits, collectively referred to as the Galaxy mining area. The company also commenced the Perseverance open pit cutbacks in 2015 at the top of the

Hill 50 The Hill 50 Gold Mine, now referred to as the Mount Magnet Gold Mine, is a gold mine located 4 km north-west of Mount Magnet, Western Australia. Unusual for such a large mining community, Mount Magnet never had a public

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

(a type of mill machine that crushes material). The nearest battery was built 5 km west in Boogardie. The actual battery can now be seen at the Mount Magnet Mining and Pastoral Museum. However, evidence of Mount Magnet's gold-rush heyday can be seen in its very wide main street with three hotels and historic buildings. During the wildflower season (August to November) the Gascoyne-Murchison area attracts tourists viewing the abundant natural display of wildflowers. There are thousands of wildflowers and plant species that can be seen, including the emblematic scarlet red sturt desert pea, the royal purple mulla mulla by the roadside, and fields of white, yellow and pink everlastings. During the lifetime of the Northern Railway to Meekatharra, Mount Magnet was an important railway junction when the

Sandstone Branch Railway Sandstone Branch Railway (also known as the Black Range railway) was a branch railway line between Mount Magnet and Sandstone in the Mid West region of Western Australia. History It was built in 1910, and closed in 1949; it was lifted in 1950. ...

was in operation. Mount Magnet is served by Mount Magnet Airport, where

Skippers Aviation Skippers Aviation is a small regional airline based out of Perth Airport that specialises in charter flights for companies with fly-in fly-out workers. They also operate flights for the mining industry in Western Australia, as well as some sch ...

has services to and from Meekatharra and Perth.

Climate

The climate in Mount Magnet is an arid climate, also known as a desert climate that has a BWh classification according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

. The mean maximum temperature in Mount Magnet is 28.6 °C. The driest months are September to November with average monthly rainfall of 8.93mm. The hottest day recorded in Mount Magnet was 47.4 °C on 21 January 2015.

References

External links

Shire of Mount Magnet
{{authority control Mining towns in Western Australia Towns in Western Australia Shire of Mount Magnet