The completed sealing of the road linking Geraldton in the Mid-West with Leonora through Mullewa, Yalgoo, Mt Magnet, Leinster and Sandstone, has resulted in an increase in visitor traffic to the North East Goldfields.
The growing passion for outback adventure is also bringing travellers through Wiluna from the Canning Stock Route from the Northern Territory and the Gunbarrel Highway from Uluru. Leonora, 235 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, was named by one of Western Australia’s favourite sons, explorer John Forrest in 1869.
Twenty-five years later prospectors started moving into the area and by 1896 the first claims were pegged by Edward Doodah Sullivan at the Johannesburg Lease and mining commenced around Leonora and Gwalia soon after.
But Leonora and Gwalias fame as a tourist attraction was partly due to one man - Herbert Hoover - who was the first manager of the Sons of Gwalia mine. Herbert Hoover later became President of the United States from 1929-33. The official town site of Leonora was declared in April, 1898, with a large population living on leases at Gwalia, contributing to the twin town development. Leonora became the largest centre on the North Eastern Goldfields with seven hotels plus general stores, chemists, tailors and bakeries, all an indication of the prosperity in the area in the early years.
Broad Arrow is about 43 kilometres north along the railway line from Kalgoorlie. The township dates from late 1893, but didn’t really take off until 1898 after some excellent gold discoveries. The opening of the railway in 1897 helped make the town a service centre for Ora Banda and other nearby areas and at one stage had a population of 2,400, eight hotels, two banks, two breweries, a stock exchange and a hospital. Today the main attraction is the Broad Arrow Tavern, built in 1896 and featured in the 1971 film The Nickel Queen.Ora Banda is a further 63 kilometres west.
In 1906 rich ore bodies were found about 3km south of Ora Banda and by 1910 there were approximately 2,000 miners and their families living in the area. It maintained its mining importance and in 1911 the Ora Banda Hotel was constructed by Alfred E Garnett using stone and brick, and for 40 years it traded successfully surviving fires and extensive hailstone damage until the inevitable happened. By the late 1950s mining at Ora Banda was no longer financially viable and the hotel and the last remaining shop closed. Vandalism and time took its toll and the hotel was reduced to a shell until it was restored and re-opened in 1981 under a tavern licence.
In 1995 the hotel was purchased by the family of former WA detective Don Hancock and it once again became a popular meeting place for locals and visitors. In October, 2000, the hotel and several other buildings in the township were bombed. The badly damaged hotel building was later purchased and restored again and re-opened for public trade in October, 2002.
