Laverton, originally known as British Flag, is a town in the

Goldfields Goldfield or Goldfields may refer to: Places * Goldfield, Arizona, the former name of Youngberg, Arizona, a populated place in the United States * Goldfield, Colorado, a community in the United States * Goldfield, Iowa, a city in the United State ...

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 ...

, and the centre of administration for the

Shire of Laverton The Shire of Laverton is a local government area in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, about northeast of the city of Kalgoorlie and about east-northeast of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its s ...

. The town of Laverton is located at the western edge of the

Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cros ...

, north-northeast of the state capital,

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 is ...

, and east-northeast of the town of Leonora, with an elevation of . About 20% of the population is of Aboriginal descent. The area is semi-arid, with a mean annual rainfall of . It is also quite warm, with mean daily maximum temperatures ranging from 17 °C (62 °F) in July to 36 °C (97 °F) in January. Laverton is the westernmost town on the

Outback Way The Outback Highway or Outback Way is a series of roads and dirt tracks linking Laverton, Western Australia and Winton, Queensland. At , it crosses Central Australia (colloquially known as the Outback), passing through Western Australia, the ...

a proposed highway which goes through the Northern Territory to Winton in outback Queensland.

History

A number of early explorers travelled over the Laverton area, including

John Forrest Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister i ...

, David Carnegie and

Frank Hann Frank Hugh Hann (19 October 184521 August 1921) was an Australian pastoralist and explorer. Early life Hann was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Hann. Fellow explorer William Hann was his older brother. They were born in Wiltshire, England a ...

. Gold was discovered in the British Flag area in 1896 and many prospectors and miners moved into the area. Among them was Dr Charles W. Laver, who became an enthusiastic supporter and promoter of the region. One of the most successful mines was Craiggiemore, and by 1897 a residential and business area known as British Flag had sprung up on the west side of the mine. In March 1898 a townsite was approved as Laverton, in honour of Laver. In 1899, the residents sought to have a townsite surveyed, but by then the original Craiggiemore location had become unsuitable, so a new site was chosen about north of the original lots. The new site was surveyed in July 1899 and the town of Laverton gazetted in July 1900. By the late 1960s, Laverton was in decline, mainly because of the very low price of gold. In 1968 a Poseidon

prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * '' Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ...

Ken Shirley discovered nickel-bearing rocks at Windarra, northwest of Laverton. In 1969 Poseidon began drilling Windarra. In September rumours of a nickel strike prompted the

Poseidon bubble The Poseidon bubble was a stock market bubble in which the price of Australian mining shares soared in late 1969, then crashed in early 1970. It was triggered by the discovery by Poseidon Nickel of the early indications of a promising nickel d ...

. The deposit was developed by Western Mining and its partners into the Windarra Nickel Project, which mined and processed nickel ore from 1974 to 1991.

Modern industry

Laverton is primarily a

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

area. There are two major operating

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 ...

mines in the district: the Wallaby Mine near

Granny Smith The Granny Smith, also known as a green apple or sour apple, is an apple cultivar which originated in Australia in 1868. It is named after Maria Ann Smith, who propagated the cultivar from a chance seedling. The tree is thought to be a hybrid ...

, owned and operated by

Gold Fields Gold Fields Limited (formerly The Gold Fields of South Africa) is one of the world's largest gold mining firms. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the New York Sto ...

, and the

Sunrise Dam Gold Mine The Sunrise Dam Gold Mine is located 55 km south of Laverton, Western Australia, on the eastern margin of Lake Carey. It is fully owned by AngloGold Ashanti and comprises a large-scale mechanized underground mine with a conventional grav ...

, owned and operated by

AngloGold Ashanti AngloGold Ashanti Limited is a global gold mining company. It was formed in 2004 by the merger of AngloGold and the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation. It is now a global gold producer with 21 operations on four continents. The company is listed ...

. Both

open pit 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 minin ...

and underground mining is conducted at these mines. The Murrin Murrin laterite

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

project is located to the west, midway between Laverton and Leonora. The area has a long history of

pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal ...

with sheep, cattle and goats, and a substantial area of land is used in this way.

Demographics

According to census results from the

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for statistical collection and analysis and for giving evidence-based advice to federal, state and territory governments ...

, the population of the Laverton urban centre fell 23%, from 439 to 340 in the 15 years from 2001 to 2016. Over this same period, the population of Indigenous Australians decreased from 37.6% (165 people) to 20.8% (71 people) of the town.

Climate

Laverton has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

with hot summers and mild to cool winters.

References

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Mining towns in Western Australia Shire of Laverton

History

Modern industry

Demographics

Climate

See also

References