Leonora - Culture and History

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This was published 15 years ago

Leonora - Culture and History

The first European explorer through the area was John Forrest who, on his 1869 expedition in search of Ludwig Leichhardt, named the nearby 420 m high landmark, Mount Leonora.

It was the discovery of gold which changed everything. The eager searching beyond Kalgoorlie's 'Golden Mile' resulted in alluvial gold being found in 1896. Immediately a rush was on. Later that year two reefing claims - 'Johannesburg' and 'Sons of Gwalia' - were pegged. For a short time the latter claim grew to become the largest gold mine outside Kalgoorlie.

The town grew quickly. The Leonora townsite was declared in 1898 and two years later the thriving settlement became a municipality. In 1900 a steam tramway linked Leonora and Gwalia. Two years later this small service was linked to Menzies and thus to the main railway line to Perth.

Leonora is always vulnerable to changes in world gold prices. After a long and slow decline (it was only sustained by its importance as an administrative centre for the surrounding pastoral holdings) it was revitalised by the boom in world gold prices which occurred in the 1980s. The famous Tower Hill mine was reopened in 1983 and the Harbour Lights mine came into existence in 1985.


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