Yunndaga – ghost town

Yunndaga was originally known as Woolgar:

The staff of the Menzies Consolidated Gold Mine 1916-
Thomas ELLIS back row far left, Centre back row is Arthur BELDON.

Menzies Consolidated GM, Woolgar – Western Argus 3 December 1901, page 26

A new town has recently been added to the Outback Family History website. Yunndaga, is a small town about 7 km South of Menzies. The above photograph is of the staff of the Menzies Consolidated Gold Mine 1916, taken when the town was called Woolgar.

YUNNDAGA   from:- Landgate –
Latitude 29° 45′ S Longitude 121° 03′ E

Yunndaga is an abandoned Western Australian goldfields townsite located 718 km east northeast of Perth and 7 km south of Menzies. Gold was discovered in the area in the mid-1890s, and in 1898 a business and residence subdivision was laid out, at what was then referred to as Woolgar. Business and residence subdivisions were very temporary and gave no secure tenure to the inhabitants.

Yunndaga Street Map – 1908 – Image SLWA

By 1904 there was a feeling of permanency about Woolgar, and the mining warden advised it was time to gazette the place as a townsite. As there was already a place in Queensland with this name, an alternative name was required, and the mining warden made three suggestions, one of which was Yunndagar. The Department of Lands and Surveys then applied spelling rules it had adopted for Aboriginal names, and the townsite of Yunndaga was gazetted in March 1904.

Bonzle Map – Location of Yunndaga

Studio group portrait of 2402 Private Pte Henry Alexander Spalholtz, of Yunndaga, WA, left seated an and 2387 Pte John William Reilly of Woolgar, unidentified soldier centre standing, holding a piece of rope tied to a toy dog- Photo SLWA & AWM – Photo Ancestry.com
Henry Alexander ‘Alik’ Spalholtz was the son of Bernard Henry Martin Spalholtz and Matilda Rooke. Bernard died in Woolgar on the 13th of June 1918 only eight months after hearing of his sons Henry’s death in Belgium when he was killed in action aged 19yrs. He was a storekeeper in Woolgar for many years and is buried in the Menizes Cemetery.

Harry Spalholtz and Matilda nee Rooke – parents of Henry Spalholtz – Photo Ancestry.com

John William Reilly was the son of Thomas Edwin Reilly and Mary Josephine Smith, he was from Bendigo Victoria, and his occupation before enlistment was a miner. This was perhaps how he came to be in Yunndaga. He married Eleanore ‘Nellie’ Richardson in Kalgoorlie in 1914 and died in Perth WA in 1973.

Scenes of Yunndaga – Photo SLWA

Drilling at Woolgar – Sunday Times 21 June 1936, page 16

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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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