a day ago
Gwalia resident works to save century-old home in 'living ghost town'
Vanessa Williams feels lucky to call Gwalia home.
She has lived in the ghost town, 800 kilometres north-east of Perth in WA's northern Goldfields, for just over a year.
But her family's connection to the community goes back generations.
"I think that's probably been the main factor for me coming home," she said.
"But it's also just a really amazing place to live, there's no road rage, there's no traffic lights — very calm."
She said she was pitching in to help preserve her historic neighbourhood after a freak microburst storm sent tin sheets flying earlier this year.
The storm, which rolled through the town and nearby Leonora in a matter of minutes, caused significant damage to several of the near-century-old buildings.
While Leonora Shire remains committed to rebuilding the historical precinct, one of the former miner's cottages was so badly damaged it was earmarked for demolition.
With the shire's budget limited, Ms Williams and her father, Norm, saw an opportunity to help, offering $2,000 for a 99-year lease on the cottage.
"But my dad and I thought we may as well approach the shire [and see] if we can slow down the plans to demolish it," she said.
"Let's see what we can do."
Leonora's councillors unanimously accepted the offer, and the pair got to work.
Despite securing what is likely one of the cheapest rents in Australia, Ms Williams and her father have a big job ahead of them.
The storm tore off most of the roof.
"We had to do a bit of work getting out the insulation that fell on the floor."
The town site grew alongside the Sons of Gwalia gold mine from 1897.
It was the home of former US President Herbert Hoover, who took up a position as the mine's first manager.
A once-thriving community of 1200 residents became largely abandoned in just weeks, when the mine closed in 1963.
Almost a decade later, it was the vision of a Goldfields couple to preserve the town as a museum precinct.
But despite its "ghost town" label, Gwalia still has a handful of residents.
"It's actually really exciting, I've had a couple of neighbours move in recently at the street I live on," Ms Williams said.
Historian Chris Harris has been developing a database of Western Australia's ghost towns in the lead-up to the state's bicentennial in 2029.
She said a ghost town was one with a population of less than 10 per cent of what its population was in its heyday.
She said a ghost town might have been formed for a specific purpose, and when that purpose ended, the community dissolved.
"A ghost town can cease to exist right up until the current day," she said.
"The most recent one that everyone knows about, of course, is Wittenoom."
Ms Harris said the label could also be a tourist drawcard.
She said the list of towns in the project was ever-growing as records and family histories uncovered previously undiscovered ghost towns.
The project has grown from a list of 251 towns to more than 500.
Sections of the Williams's cottage's seemingly untouched charm can be found among the rubble of the storm damage.
Ms Williams said there were sections of pressed tin a previous resident had painted over in the shape of flower petals.
"We'll see what we can do to make it solid, but also respect it's history."
"Once it's gone, it's gone."
Ms Williams said the restoration had given her and her father a chance to bond, saying she was fortunate to have his help.
"There's not much he can't fix," she said.
The town's small number of permanent residents have plenty of visitors for company.
Ms Williams said people occasionally wandered into the wrong houses.
"I think sometimes they're just so enamoured with the place that they're head down, walking around, looking at everything," she said.
"And they actually forget sometimes when they stumble into people's yards."
But she said there was plenty of room for everyone.
"It's a unique opportunity that we've got tourism, we've got the community that live here, and we've also got mining," Ms Williams said.
Another cottage sits empty at the other end of Ms Williams' street.
She said she hoped someone else would join in the work to preserve Gwalia's living history.
