Malcolm is an abandoned town located between Leonora and Laverton in the

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

in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. It was also known as Mount Malcolm.

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 1895, and in 1896 the local provisional committee lobbied the government to perform a survey and declare a townsite. The town had six stores, three hotels and two bakeries at this time. The townsite was gazetted in 1897. In 1900 the town was incorporated and had

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

street lights and a swimming pool. In 1903 over 200 buildings were located in town and the population had reached 450. By 1904 the town had a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 400 along with six hotels and a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

. The town derives its name from a geological feature located just outside the town called Mount Malcolm, which was named by

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 in ...

while he was exploring in 1869. Forrest had named the feature after his friend and fellow explorer Malcolm Hamersley. The total area of the town was . The town was also the centre of the Mount Margaret goldfield. Malcolm 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 the junction for the branch line to Laverton.

References

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