Travel

6 Western Australia Ghost Towns Worth the Spooky-Stopover

Go your own ghost-busting mission by visiting these WA's ghost towns for a spooky outback experience.

Although Western Australia’s golden era died many years ago, signs of its heyday remain with a slew of twentieth-century gold rush towns still standing—or barely—throughout the state.

It’s an eerie sight, all right, seeing the dilapidated buildings, old town sites and timeworn furniture dot the once-prosperous towns, now living museums into WA’s past. 

Go your own ghost-busting mission by visiting these WA’s ghost towns for a spooky outback experience.

Leonora

Leonora is the regional hub of the Northern Goldfields, located 233 kilometres north of WA’s golden town, Kalgoorlie. 

Although Leonora technically isn’t deserted, you can see the relics of its former glory days by following the town’s Heritage Trail featuring 30 historic buildings dating back to 1896. 

Gwalia

Located 2.5 kilometres south of Leonora is Gwalia, one of WA’s Instagrammable ghost towns.

The once-thriving town now stands soulless, an eerie time warp into WA’s gold rush era. Gwalia’s doomsday resulted from the nearby Sons of Gwalia mine suddenly cessing operations in 1963. Abandoned miner cottages, a towering windmill, rusting cars, last-century furniture and household items scattered across the old township as if hastily deserted. (And it was.)

Today, some of the former boomtown’s 31 buildings have been preserved to safeguard its heritage. This includes the Gwalia Museum and Hoover House, named after Gwalia’s first mine manager, Herbert Hoover, who later became the 31st President of the United States. Despite President Hoover never living in the house, the namesake hilltop abode has become a luxury bed and breakfast accommodation overlooking the open-pit gold mine and the ghost town. How’s that for quirky hotel views?

Kookynie

From its heyday to ney-day, an outback pub horse has helped usher a new era to Kookynie, 114 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie. Once a booming goldfields town boasting 2500 people in 1903, it’s slowly achieving ghost town status – well, almost!

The living ghost town is home to 13 people and one thirsty horse named Willie, who likes to lurk outside the 1902-built Kookynie Grand Hotel. According to the owner, the runaway horse regularly positions himself between the pub entrance and petrol pump as if guarding the venue (and a living meme). Willie has become an iconic figure in the region, even having a Facebook page dedicated to his latest outback pub antics.  

It makes for a very kooky Kookynie sight and if you are keen to check out the town that once was, visit the ruins of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, a cemetery, and the restored Cumberland Street shops.

Big Bell

Calling it a day after 19 years is the mid-west mining town Big Bell.

Located 32 kilometres northwest of former mining hub Cue, Big Bell’s life as a remote gold rush town lasted less than two decades from 1936 to 1955. Today, the town bears the brunt of the outback’s harsh elements. 

The two-storey Big Bell Hotel that allegedly had the longest bar in the country is the biggest remainder of the town that once was. Its striking art deco skeleton is an imposing landmark at the town’s entrance.

Ruins are also present at another place of worship – a church – that tower concrete slabs of former housing and wind-strewn metal scraps across the almost barren town.

READ MORE: 7 Eerie NSW Ghost Towns To Visit For A Thrill

Cossack

Mix a trip to the coast with ghosts visiting former pearling town Cossack, 52 kilometres west of Karratha.

The Pilbara town was founded in 1863 and is considered the birthplace of Australia’s pearling industry. Although the opening of Point Samson jetty spelt the end of the once-thriving regional town, dissolving in 1910 and finally abandoned in 1950, its opulent past still remains for all to admire. 

Thanks to its heritage protection status, the town has been beautifully restored, with multiple bluestone buildings remaining intact, including the impressive Cossack Courthouse and Police Station.

But not all is ‘dead’ in Cossack. The town is due to be brought back to life with the ghost town previously listed on the market for tourism development opportunities. 

In the meantime, ghost town enthusiasts can follow the Cossack Heritage Trail to better understand Cossack’s former existence and its impact on local indigenous communities. It’s also worth checking out the Tien Tsin lookout for a panoramic view of the Indian Ocean.

Ora Banda

Another goldfields settlement on the verge of ghost town status is Ora Banda, 67 kilometres northwest of Kalgoorlie.

Once with a population exceeding 2000 in 1910, its population has since dwindled.

The only souls to be found in this town are at the pub, the tin-roofed Ora Banda Historical Inn—the epitome of an outback pub. Although the pub was badly damaged by a fire in 2019, progress is being made to reopen to historic pub’s doors and restore it back to its former glory—serving ice-cold pints included.

Visitors can still glimpse the mining town, with decaying timber buildings and isolated homesteads still standing from over 50 years ago since nearby mining operations ceased.

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Travel

Ditch your Phone for ‘Dome Life’ in this Pastoral Paradise Outside Port Macquarie 

A responsible, sustainable travel choice for escaping big city life for a few days.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

The urge to get as far away as possible from the incessant noise and pressures of ‘big city life’ has witnessed increasingly more of us turn to off-grid adventures for our holidays: Booking.com polled travellers at the start of 2023 and 55% of us wanted to spend our holidays ‘off-grid’.  Achieving total disconnection from the unyielding demands of our digitised lives via some kind of off-grid nature time—soft or adventurous—is positioned not only as a holiday but, indeed, a necessity for our mental health. 

Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, an accommodation collection of geodesic domes dotted across a lush rural property in Greater Port Macquarie (a few hours’ drive from Sydney, NSW), offers a travel experience that is truly ‘off-grid’. In the figurative ‘wellness travel’ sense of the word, and literally, they run on their own independent power supply—bolstered by solar—and rely not on the town grid. 

Ten minutes before you arrive at the gates for a stay at Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, your phone goes into ‘SOS ONLY’. Apple Maps gives up, and you’re pushed out of your comfort zone, driving down unsealed roads in the dark, dodging dozens of dozing cows. Then, you must ditch your car altogether and hoist yourself into an open-air, all-terrain 4WD with gargantuan wheels. It’s great fun being driven through muddy gullies in this buggy; you feel like Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park.  As your buggy pulls in front of your personal Nature Dome, it’s not far off that “Welcome…to Jurassic Park” jaw-dropping moment—your futuristic-looking home is completely engulfed by thriving native bushland; beyond the outdoor campfire lie expansive hills and valleys of green farmland, dotted with sheep and trees. You’re almost waiting to see a roaming brachiosaurus glide past, munching on a towering gum tree…instead, a few inquisitive llamas trot past your Dome to check out their new visitor. 

To fully capture the awe of inhabiting a geodesic dome for a few days, a little history of these futuristic-looking spherical structures helps. Consisting of interlocking triangular skeletal struts supported by (often transparent) light walls, geodesic domes were developed in the 20th century by American engineer and architect R. Buckminster Fuller, and were used for arenas. Smaller incarnations have evolved into a ‘future-proof’ form of modern housing: domes are able to withstand harsh elements due to the stability provided by the durable materials of their construction and their large surface area to volume ratio (which helps minimize wind impact and prevents the structure from collapsing). As housing, they’re also hugely energy efficient – their curved shape helps to conserve heat and reduce energy costs, making them less susceptible to temperature changes outside. The ample light let in by their panels further reduces the need for artificial power. 

Due to their low environmental impact, they’re an ideal sustainable travel choice. Of course, Tom’s Creek Nature Domes’ owner-operators, Cardia and Lee Forsyth, know all this, which is why they have set up their one-of-a-kind Nature Domes experience for the modern traveller. It’s also no surprise to learn that owner Lee is an electrical engineer—experienced in renewable energy—and that he designed the whole set-up. As well as the off-grid power supply, rainwater tanks are used, and the outdoor hot tub is heated by a wood fire—your campfire heats up your tub water via a large metal coil. Like most places in regional Australia, the nights get cold – but rather than blast a heater, the Domes provide you with hot water bottles, warm blankets, lush robes and heavy curtains to ward off the chill.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

You’ll need to be self-sufficient during your stay at the Domes, bringing your own food. Support local businesses and stock up in the town of Wauchope on your drive-in (and grab some pastries and coffee at Baked Culture while you’re at it). There’s a stovetop, fridge (stocked as per a mini bar), BBQs, lanterns and mozzie coils, and you can even order DIY S’More packs for fireside fun. The interiors of the Domes have a cosy, stylish fit-out, with a modern bathroom (and a proper flushing toilet—none of that drop bush toilet stuff). As there’s no mobile reception, pack a good book or make the most of treasures that lie waiting to be discovered at every turn: a bed chest full of board games, a cupboard crammed with retro DVDs, a stargazing telescope (the skies are ablaze come night time). Many of these activities are ideal for couples, but there’s plenty on offer for solo travellers, such as yoga mats, locally-made face masks and bath bombs for hot tub soaks. 

It’s these thoughtful human touches that reinforce the benefit of making a responsible travel choice by booking local and giving your money to a tourism operator in the Greater Port Macquarie Region, such as Tom’s Creek Nature Domes. The owners are still working on the property following the setbacks of COVID-19, and flooding in the region —a new series of Domes designed with families and groups in mind is under construction, along with an open-air, barn-style dining hall and garden stage. Once ready, the venue will be ideal for wedding celebrations, with wedding parties able to book out the property. They’ve already got one couple—who honeymooned at the Domes—ready and waiting. Just need to train up the llamas for ring-bearer duties! 

An abundance of favourite moments come to mind from my two-night stay at Tom’s Creek: sipping champagne and gourmet picnicking at the top of a hill on a giant swing under a tree, with a bird’s eye view of the entire property (the ‘Mountain Top picnic’ is a must-do activity add on during your stay), lying on a deckchair at night wrapped in a blanket gazing up at starry constellations and eating hot melted marshmallows, to revelling in the joys of travellers before me, scrawled on notes in a jar of wishes left by the telescope (you’re encouraged to write your own to add to the jar). But I’ll leave you with a gratitude journal entry I made while staying there. I will preface this by saying that I don’t actually keep a gratitude journal, but Tom’s Creek Nature Domes is just the kind of place that makes you want to start one. And so, waking up on my second morning at Tom’s —lacking any 4G bars to facilitate my bad habit of a morning Instagram scroll—I finally opened up a notebook and made my first journal entry:

‘I am grateful to wake up after a deep sleep and breathe in the biggest breaths of this clean air, purified by nature and scented with eucalyptus and rain. I am grateful for this steaming hot coffee brewed on a fire. I feel accomplished at having made myself. I am grateful for the skittish sheep that made me laugh as I enjoyed a long nature walk at dawn and the animated billy goats and friendly llamas overlooking my shoulder as I write this: agreeable company for any solo traveller. I’m grateful for total peace, absolute stillness.” 

Off-grid holiday status: unlocked.

Where: Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, Port Macquarie, 2001 Toms Creek Rd
Price: $450 per night, book at the Natura Domes website.

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