Big Bell Ghost Town
Once a bustling mining hub filled with activity, the now deserted township of Big Bell bakes in the arid West Australian desert. Established in the mid 1930’s, the area catered to miners and families who congregated on the gold and mineral rich area. With a population peaking at 850 in 1954, the now deserted space is an abandoned patch where only a few traces of its once urbanised landscape remain.
Revealing the villages original layout, rows of gridded dirt tracks run parallel to each other. Once aligned with small houses and front yards, only a small number of concrete foundations remain. All since removed apart from a handful of stone ruins, the area once included churches, schools, a cinema and shopping areas. The former hotel still stands erect in the dust. Once famous for holding the record as the pub with the longest bar in Australia, the dilapidated structure is now a roofless empty shell.
Big Bells population declined rapidly upon the closure of a nearby mine in 1955. Leaving in their wake a deserted village filled with shrubs and sand, its former residents were never to return.
