When driving to Perth from Kalgoorlie you may have seen a sign on the left not long after the Yellowdine Road House and before Moorine Rock, directing you to Mt Palmer. But have you ever ventured there???
Google Maps
In 1935 it was thought that Palmers Find (AKA Mt Palmer), 23 miles from Southern Cross, would become the centre of a major gold-producing area. Late in 1934, Augustus Palmer, a prospector of many years of experience, erected a 20 head battery there and by 1935 provided employment for 130 men. This saw the virgin bush transformed into a hive of industry. A townsite a mile square was surveyed and five streets named. The majority of the town lots were sold, and the building was going on apace. A few months later saw a regular town in place of the previous canvas city with its own municipal authority in control of civic affairs.
Southern Cross News 2 May 1941, page 4
Some 67 residential blocks were auctioned at the Southern Cross Courthouse, raising £3,969 for land that was worthless a few months earlier, and destined to be worthless again when the gold ran out a few years later. The average lot price was £40-£50. The surveyor reserved areas for a post office, police station, public hall, and churches. The town boasted boarding houses, bakeries, butchers, a school, and a medicine shop. As well there were three billiard saloons where two-up, dice, and SP betting were conducted.
Consequently, a grand hotel was planned for the centre of the town.
The above is an artist’s impression of the front elevation of the proposed Palmers Find Hotel.
The Beginnng -Sunday Times – Perth – 11 August 1935, page 17
Newly Completed Palmers Find Hotel – Shire of Yilgarn
Kalgoorlie, — Preliminary work has started on the erection of a modern store in Hannan Street for Selfridges (W.A) Ltd The building of the new premises will be from old material recovered from the deserted Mt. Palmer Hotel.
The remains of the Palmers Find Hotel – Photo Cockburn 4WD Club
Ref:
Shire of Yilgarn (web site)
Book ‘Yellowdine’ by Delys Howlett
TROVE
State Heritage WA
Recommended further reading on the area: Yellowdine Reen’s Soak, Bronti, Kellandi, and Mt Palmer Treasures in the bush by Delys Howlett.
Moya Sharp
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I am eternally grateful for the people who uswe theuir skills t5o produce these marvellous local histories. I’ve been unaware of the tlown of Palmer’s Find annd its hotel. The savinf of the hotel’s entrance as a memorial to the vanished town is both inspiational and sad.