Ora Banda is a townsite and locality in the
Eastern Goldfields 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 ...
located north-west of
Kalgoorlie. The town name is Spanish meaning "band of gold". It includes several operational mines and at the
2016 Australian census had a population of eight people.
History
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 me ...
was discovered in the district in 1893, and in 1909 the Ora Banda Progress Committee requested that the government make additional lots available, but it was 1911 before a decision was made to declare a townsite there. The survey of lots was made in 1911, and the townsite gazetted in 1912. By 1910 there were approximately 2,000 miners and their families living in the area. The town had two stores, two butchers, two bakers, a town hall, dining halls, a post office, a police station, churches, boarding houses and billiards saloons.
The once famous Huntington Mills Bank was situated there; in its time it was the largest bank in the Southern Hemisphere. In 1911 the Ora Banda Hotel was constructed by Alfred E Garnett using stone and brick.
On 17 June 1913, Eileen Walls (13yrs old) led a procession of school children up the main street, and had the honour of cutting the ribbon and so officially opened the Ora Banda
State Battery. The five head battery ran three shifts and in 1936 another five heads were added.
Water was supplied to the town by dams until the town was connected to the
Goldfields Water Supply Scheme
The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme is a pipeline and dam project that delivers potable water from Mundaring Weir in Perth to communities in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, particularly Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. The project was co ...
from Kalgoorlie in 1933.
File:Ora Banda school.jpg, The Ora Banda school burnt down
File:very old wheelbarrow.jpg, Living conditions were rough
File:Mining in Ora Banda.jpg, Mine shafts were scattered across the area
Current
Today's gold mining companies are still working the same sites discovered nearly a century ago, and on the outskirts of town you will find the Ora Banda State Battery which is still used to crush ore.
Annually in September the population swells for a day for the Ora Banda Race Day. The race track is opposite the historical Ora Banda Inn.
The town hit the headlines in 2000 when
Gypsy Joker
The Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club (GJMC), are a " one-percenter" motorcycle club that was originally formed in San Bernardino, California on April Fool's Day, 1956.Isaacs 2004 Though founded in the United States, the MC expanded successfully overs ...
, Billy Grierson, was
fatally shot while sitting at a camp fire on the old town site. Former
Criminal Investigation Bureau
The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB; ) is the agency of National Police Agency under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of China.
History
The modern criminal police system of the Republic of China was originally established in 1946 ...
chief and Ora Banda hotel owner
Don Hancock
Donald Leslie Hancock (known as Don Hancock) (5 January 1937 – 1 September 2001) was a Western Australian policeman. He is principally known for his involvement in the investigation of the Perth Mint Swindle, and his death in a car bombing in ...
was suspected of the shooting and his properties were later fire-bombed. Hancock was later killed in a car bombing in 2001 in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
in a revenge attack by a member of the Gypsy Jokers.
In the early hours of the morning of 18 May 2019, the hotel was destroyed by fire.
In August 2020 an impact crater was found near Ora Banda. The meteorite crater is estimated to be over 100 million years old, with a diameter of about 5 km.
See also
*
Cawse mine
The Cawse mine is a mothballed laterite nickel mine near Ora Banda in Western Australia. Cawse has a remnant Proven Reserve of 3.757 million tonnes of ore grading 0.65% nickel for 24,400 tonnes of nickel, as of 31 December 2009.
The mine, ope ...
References
External links
The ghost town that wouldn't die: Ora Banda YouTube promotional and historical documentary
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Ghost towns in Western Australia
Populated places established in 1911
Goldfields-Esperance