Kookynie, Western Australia

Kookynie is a town located in the Eastern Goldfields region in Western Australia. The name of the town is believed to be an aboriginal word which means 'water hole' or 'spring'. From being a busy town with a population of around 1,500 in 1905, Kookynie has become a ghost town with around 77 inhabitants in 2006, decreasing to 13 in 2010.OverviewThe town originates from when gold was discovered close to the present townsite in 1895 by a group of prospectors including W.A. Miller who took up the lease of the Englishman mine in the same year. By 1899 the townsite was declared by the government and was gazetted in 1900. The town was named by Mr Beaumont, who managed the Lady Shenton gold mine.By 1905 the town was lit by electricity and the main employer was the Cosmopolitan Proprietary mine that employed over 500 men. Other mines included the Britannia and the Cumberland Niagara Champion Proprietary. The town was an important distribution centre for other towns in the area such as Yerilla, Yarri, Yundamindera and Edjudina.Kookynie grew at an impressive rate on the back of a gold rush and by 1907 the town had a population of well over 3,500, a public swimming pool, eleven hotels, a brewery and received four trains a day from Kalgoorlie.