Goongarrie is an

abandoned town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in Western Australia, located in the Goldfield region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

north of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just 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 referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

. 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 by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

s named Pickersgill, Cahill, Frost and Bennett, discovered

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

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. Goongarrie was a stop on the

Kalgoorlie to Leonora railway line The Kalgoorlie to Leonora railway line or Leonora branch line is a railway line in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, connecting Kalgoorlie via Malcolm to Leonora. The line is long and formerly also had a branch line fro ...

and is still listed as such on contemporary maps. 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, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

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 of the same name and is now part of Goongarrie National Park.

References

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