Waverley, or Siberia, is a

ghost 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 ...

located between

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 ...

and Leonora. It is on the Davyhurst to Ora Banda Road in the Goldfields-Esperance 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 ...

and has formed part of Maduwongga territory. Two

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 ra ...

s Billy Frost and Bob Bonner 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 the late 1893, resulting in a gold rush to the area. The increasing population indicated a need for a townsite to be planned and lots were surveyed in 1898, which was initially to be named Siberia. The local progress association decided that the town should be named Waverley after a nearby mine. The townsite was gazetted as Waverley in 1898. Some of the mines close to town include ''Siberia'', ''Waverley'', ''Mexico'' and the ''Pole'' leases. In 1911 the

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. History The practice of having a government official ...

raised concern about the duplication of town names in Australia, including Waverley. Alternative names such as Wongi (the name of a nearby soak) and Siberia. The locals preferred Siberia and the name was officially gazetted in 1914. The name comes from Siberia Tank, a water supply that is close to the town. In 1924, two

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

s, Emery and MacLachlan, picked up on the continuation of a deep

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

lead and obtained satisfactory results. The last resident left town in 1954.

References

{{authority control Ghost towns in Western Australia Goldfields–Esperance