Whim Creek is a small town in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

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 ...

. Originally a post office known as "Whim Well", Whim Creek is on the

North West Coastal Highway North West Coastal Highway is a generally north-south Western Australian highway which links the coastal city of Geraldton with the town of Port Hedland. The road, constructed as a sealed two-lane single carriageway, travels through remote and ...

midway between Karratha and

Port Hedland A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...

. It is north of Perth and a stopover point for travellers to Broome.

Whim Creek Hotel

The Whim Creek Hotel is a famous landmark midway between Roebourne and

, and was renowned as a rest stop, hotel and drinking establishment for most of the 20th century. The original Whim Creek Hotel was a tin-roofed structure which was blown down in a cyclone in the 1890s. The hotel was resurrected, and has been blown down twice since; in the mid-20th century and in the 1990s. The current Whim Creek Hotel was erected in the early 20th century. The original building frame, made of steel, was intended to be the frame for the

Marble Bar Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphosed ...

courthouse. The frame and materials were landed at the Balla Balla Creek jetty, ready for transport inland to Marble Bar, but the effort was stranded by a large cyclone. The building was erected at its current site on the banks of Whim Creek, where the steel frame has stood ever since. The wooden facade has, however, been blown off twice. The hotel was bought as part of the Whim Creek Copper Mine by Venturex Resources in 2010, and closed in 2011. In late 2013 the hotel was bought by the Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation and Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation, who plan to restore and re-open it. The Hotel has again closed in an arrangement of handing the hotel to the Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation in 2018.

Colourful history

On April 2 to April 3, 1898, the town received of rain in 48 hours, with falling in a 24-hour period. On March 22 and March 23, 1899 another fell. Whim Creek was renowned for its alcoholic camel which used to drink patrons' beers before being relocated to Wiluna, suffering from

cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...

of the liver, and a large python which used to live within the rafters above the bar. Five brothers, from the Lockyer family, from the local Aboriginal community are commemorated for their war service via a small memorial in the car park. Two of the brothers died, three returned. (1 KIA serving with the RAAF and 1 KIA serving in the Australian Army).

History of mining

Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

was discovered several kilometres west of the town in 1872 and

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 ...

20 km north in 1887. Copper has been mined on and off at Whim Creek over a period of 120 years. Copper was mined initially via a series of small

adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adits ...

s and stopes into the Whim Creek and Mons Cupri deposits by artisanal miners, with records indicating that as early as 1882 small quantities of

malachite Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fractures ...

azurite Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the Type locality (geology), type locality at Chessy, Rhône, Chessy-les-Mines near ...

chrysocolla Chrysocolla ( ) is a hydrated copper phyllosilicate mineral and mineraloid with formula (x<1) or . The structure of the mineral has been questioned, as a 2006 spectrographic study suggest material identified as ...

and other copper minerals were being won. Copper was shipped via a small port on the coast at the nearby town of Balla Balla. A single track narrow-gauge railway ran from Whim Creek to Balla Balla. At its peak, the town supported two hotels, a blacksmith, a police station and a horse track. In the early 1900s a second period of mining began, with around 60,000 tonnes of copper concentrate produced mainly from the Whim Creek Mine. In the 1960s Japanese interests undertook a resource drilling program, with diamond core drilling, and built a small oxide mining operation. This shut down in the early 1970s. The leases passed to Whim Creek Copper Limited, but the company found profit elsewhere, and the mining leases were passed through several owners until the mid-1990s when Straits Resources Limited took over the tenure.

Mining today

Whim Creek Hotel had served as an accommodation village for the mine workers who work at the Whim Creek Copper Mine. Around 150 to 180 men and women lived in demountable units (dongers), and shared messing facilities at the Whim Creek Hotel. Several other mining and exploration camps located nearby also used the hotel and messing facilities, as few other facilities exist. With the closure of the mine in 2018 and the handing over of the hotel to new owners, the site has remained closed.

References

External links

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia City of Karratha 1872 establishments in Australia