Youanmi, Western Australia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids YouanmiWestern Australia |
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 Youanmi
Location in Western Australia
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| Established | 1907 |
| Postcode(s) | 6638 |
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| LGA(s) | Shire of Sandstone |
Youanmi is an abandoned town located in the Murchison area of Western Australia. It was officially made a town in 1910. However, it became almost completely empty in 1942 when its local gold mine closed down.
Contents
History of Youanmi
Early Explorers and Gold Discovery
The first Europeans to visit the Youanmi area were explorers. The Robert Austin group came through in 1854. Later, John Forrest's team passed by in 1869 while looking for another explorer, Ludwig Leichhardt.
Gold was found in Youanmi around 1894 or 1895 by a prospector named Tom Payne. This first discovery was at the Golden Crown Mine, about 2 kilometers southwest of where the main mine is now. Not much happened right after this, but a lot more prospectors moved into the area in late 1907.
Town Growth and Official Naming
By 1908, the Youanmi Gold Mine was set up and running. So many people moved to the area that a local group, the Youanme Progress Committee, asked for the area to be made an official townsite in 1910.
The town's name was first spelled Yuani. People thought this was the correct way to write the Aboriginal name. However, this spelling was soon changed to Youanmi. The name Youanmi was first written down by a surveyor in 1887. He learned it from a local Aboriginal person who told him it was the name of a nearby spring. After the land was surveyed, the townsite was officially named Youanmi in August 1910.
Around this time, the first large farms for raising animals, called pastoral leases, were also being started in the area. The gold mine itself was owned by a company from London called Yuanmi Gold Mines, Limited.
Abandonment and Later Mining
When the gold mine closed in 1942, Youanmi became almost completely abandoned. It is now known as a "ghost town."
Interestingly, Youanmi is the setting for a stage musical from 1957 called Nex' Town.
Mining started again in Youanmi in the 1980s when the gold mine reopened. However, the town was not rebuilt. This is because modern miners often use a "fly-in fly-out" system. This means they fly to the mine for work and then fly back home, instead of living in a town nearby. Mining continued until 1997, when the mine closed for a second time. By the time it closed, the Youanmi mine had produced a total of 670,000 ounces of gold over its lifetime.
