Kathleen is an abandoned town located between

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

and Wiluna along the Goldfields Highway in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.

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 ...

was discovered in the area in 1897 and it was originally referred to as Kathleen Valley by the locals since gold had been found in the valley area near the town. The townsite was eventually gazetted as in 1900, once the valley part of the name was dropped. A shop and butchers was opened in 1901 and by 1902 the town supported two hotels. One of the main mines in town was the Yellow Aster mine. A 95 MW off-grid hybrid power station is being built to support the lithium mine. It has 30 MW windpower, 16 MW solar power, a 17 MW / 19 MWh battery, and

synchronous condenser In electrical engineering, a synchronous condenser (sometimes called a syncon, synchronous capacitor or synchronous compensator) is a DC-excited synchronous motor, whose shaft is not connected to anything but spins freely. Its purpose is not to c ...

s to reduce fuel consumption from 32 MW fuel engines.

References

{{authority control Mining towns in Western Australia Ghost towns in Western Australia Shire of Leonora