Mount Ida, Western Australia
Encyclopedia
Mount Ida is an abandoned
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

 town located in the Goldfields-Esperance region in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. It is found between Mount Magnet
Mount Magnet, Western Australia
Mount Magnet is an old Western Australian gold rush town. The name was chosen during exploration of the region due to an isolated hill 5 km north west of the town current townsite. This hill has an extremely high iron content and affected the compasses of explorers...

 and Leonora
Leonora, Western Australia
Leonora is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located northeast of the state capital, Perth, and north of the city of Kalgoorlie. At the 2006 census, Leonora had a population of 401, about a third of whom are of Aboriginal descent. The area is extremely arid, with a...



Named after a geographical feature situated about 21km south of the town which was named by the explorer John Forrest
John Forrest
Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....

 while on expedition in the area in 1869. It is thought to be named after a lady friend of Forrest. Gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 was later discovered in the area in the 1895 resulting in a gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...

 and by 1896 the town boasted a population of 200. The area warden
Warden
Warden may refer to:Officers: having care or custody of some institution; the word is related to guardian.* Warden , head of some University colleges and academic institutions...

lobbied for a town to be declared later the same year and it was eventually gazetted in 1898. The Mount Ida hotel was constructed in 1908. A progress committee to represent the town was formed in 1910.
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