Peak Hill - WA

This Peak Hill is in WA (not to be confused with the one near Parkes in NSW). Peak Hill is an abandoned gold mining locality with fascinating ruins, and an adjacent abandoned open cut mine. It is a spectacular looking, but remote, ghost town/goldfield site in the Murchison region of Western Australia, located roughly 120 km north of Meekatharra and about 885 km north-east of Perth by road.

At its peak, Peak Hill supported a small town and several productive mines, but as ore declined the settlement was gradually abandoned, leaving behind a scattered historic landscape rather than intact buildings.

If you decide to make the journey out here, you will find open mine workings and cut faces, along with stone and brick footings, collapsed corrugated-iron structures, and rusting machinery remnants spread across the old townsite and mine areas. The ruins are low-key and weathered, blending into the surrounding bush, and give a strong sense of the isolation, hardship and impermanence of early goldfields life in remote Western Australia.

The most common access is via sealed and then unsealed outback roads from Meekatharra, with 4WD or high-clearance vehicles recommended for the last sections through the old town and mining areas due to rough surfaces and soft terrain. There are no formal visitor facilities or sealed carparks at the old mine ruins — you’re effectively exploring an open outback mining landscape, so plan accordingly.