Australia’s vast landscape hides countless abandoned settlements that once bustled with life during gold rushes, mining booms, and agricultural expansions. These ghost towns stand as eerie monuments to failed dreams and economic collapse, with many remaining remarkably intact due to their remote locations and the dry climate that preserves their structures. Unlike their American counterparts, who often become tourist attractions, many Australian ghost towns sit truly abandoned, rarely visited, and slowly reclaimed by the unforgiving outback.
Here is a list of 20 haunting ghost towns across Australia that have been left largely untouched for decades, each telling a unique story of ambition, struggle, and eventual abandonment in the harsh Australian environment.
Farina
This former railway hub in South Australia’s arid north sits baking under the outback sun, its stone ruins marking what was once home to 600 residents with grand ambitions of becoming the grain-growing capital of the region. The town’s bakery, built underground to combat the extreme heat, remains partially intact, with its original oven now restored by volunteers during annual maintenance visits.
Headstones in the cemetery tell stories of harsh lives cut short by disease, accidents, and the unforgiving climate that ultimately defeated the town’s agricultural aspirations.
Silverton
Located in the far west of New South Wales, this former silver mining settlement once housed 3,000 people before the larger Broken Hill deposit drew its population away. The dozen remaining structures include a perfectly preserved Victorian-era pub that continues to operate despite the town having only about six permanent residents.
The surrounding landscape has become famous as the filming location for numerous movies, including Mad Max 2, with abandoned mining equipment and stone cottages creating a hauntingly photogenic tableau against the endless red earth.
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Walhalla
Nestled in a deep valley in Victoria’s Gippsland region, this former gold mining town once housed 4,000 residents and was home to one of the world’s richest gold mines. The town’s cemetery dramatically clings to a 45-degree hillside—evidence of the desperate shortage of flat land that characterized the settlement during its heyday.
Many original buildings have been preserved in a state of arrested decay, with the mechanical components of the Long Tunnel mine still visible in the forest that has reclaimed much of the surrounding landscape.
Cook
Established as a railway maintenance town on the Nullarbor Plain, Cook represented the midpoint of the transcontinental railway connecting eastern Australia with the west. The town’s hospital, school, and housing blocks stand abandoned but largely intact, creating an eerie time capsule in one of the most isolated places on earth.
A faded sign reading ‘If you’re crook, come to Cook’ still adorns the disused medical facility, a ghostly reminder of the town’s gallows humor and self-sufficiency before its abandonment in the 1970s.
Goldsworthy
This purpose-built iron ore mining town in Western Australia’s Pilbara region was constructed, occupied, and abandoned within just 30 years. Unlike many older ghost towns, Goldsworthy features modern buildings designed for a 20th-century community, including a swimming pool now filled with red dust and tumbleweeds.
The town’s basketball court remains strangely intact, with hoops still attached, creating an unsettling scene where the sound of phantom cheers from long-departed residents seems to echo across the empty outback.
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Cassilis
Deep in the forests of eastern Victoria, this gold mining settlement thrived briefly before being abandoned to the encroaching wilderness that now almost completely obscures it. The remains of a massive stone-crushing battery—once the technological marvel of the region—rust slowly among towering eucalyptus trees that have grown through the floors of former miners’ cottages.
The town’s underground workings remain dangerous and unexplored, with numerous unmarked mine shafts hidden beneath innocent-looking depressions in the forest floor.
Cossack
Established as a pearling port in Western Australia’s northwest, this ghost town features impressive bluestone buildings that stand in stark contrast to the red dirt and mangroves surrounding them. The former courthouse and customs house remain in near-perfect condition, their solid construction resisting decades of cyclones that have swept away most other evidence of human habitation.
The town’s abandoned Japanese cemetery tells the little-known story of Asian pearl divers who died in dangerous conditions, their graves facing toward their homeland across the blue waters that ultimately failed to sustain the settlement.
Big Bell
This former gold mining town in Western Australia once boasted the state’s largest hotel, a three-story art deco structure that now stands roofless but with walls intact, creating a surreal architectural skeleton visible for miles across the flat landscape. The town’s power station remains remarkably complete, with massive generators still bolted to their mounts as if workers might return for their next shift despite decades of abandonment.
Personal items scattered through partially collapsed homes create a Marie Celeste effect, suggesting residents left in a hurry when the mine suddenly closed in 1955.
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Newnes
Tucked into a narrow valley in New South Wales’ Wollemi National Park, this former shale oil mining town has been slowly reclaimed by the surrounding wilderness for nearly a century. The remarkably intact ruins of industrial retorts and processing equipment create a steampunk landscape incongruously situated in a pristine forest.
The town’s railway system included six tunnels carved through solid sandstone—engineering marvels that now serve as habitats for glow worms, creating ethereal blue constellations in the darkness where steam locomotives once thundered.
Gwalia
This Western Australian gold mining town was famously managed by Herbert Hoover before he became U.S. President, with his former house still standing as a museum overlooking the abandoned settlement. The miners’ cottages remain in a state of arrested decay, their corrugated iron and canvas structures preserved by the dry climate despite being abruptly abandoned when the mine closed in 1963.
The massive timber headframe of the Sons of Gwalia mine still towers over the landscape like the skeleton of a prehistoric beast, visible for miles across the red dirt plains.
Linda
Hidden in the mountainous rainforest of western Tasmania, this former mining settlement disappeared so completely that nature has reclaimed nearly all evidence of its existence except for the imposing brick and stone hotel that once served its 800 residents. Consistent rainfall measuring over 100 inches annually has accelerated decay, with wooden structures collapsing into mossy mounds that reveal their origins only through occasional protruding machine parts or foundations.
The town’s original cobblestone street briefly emerges from the forest floor before disappearing again into the verdant undergrowth that has swallowed Linda whole.
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Maytown
Once the largest town on Queensland’s Palmer River goldfield with 10,000 residents, this remote settlement has been reclaimed by tropical forest so completely that only experts can identify the remaining foundations and mine shafts. The town’s Chinatown section, once home to 5,000 Chinese miners, has disappeared except for scattered pieces of distinctive ceramic rice bowls that surface after heavy rains. Access requires a challenging four-wheel drive journey that ensures the site remains one of Australia’s least visited major ghost towns, its secrets held within the encroaching jungle.
Broad Arrow
Named for the government survey mark found nearby, this Western Australian gold rush town briefly housed 2,400 miners before declining into its current state of picturesque abandonment. The town’s pub continues to operate despite the complete disappearance of the surrounding community, serving beer to occasional tourists in a building seemingly frozen in the early 1900s.
Corrugated iron structures lean at impossible angles without collapsing, preserved by the arid climate and creating surreal geometric patterns against the flat desert landscape that stretches to the horizon.
Altamount
This isolated copper mining town in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges was populated primarily by Cornish miners who built distinctive stone cottages with techniques transported from their homeland. The settlement’s smelter chimney remains standing like a sentinel over the abandoned mining operations that once processed some of the highest-grade copper ore found in Australia.
The former gardens of the settlement occasionally burst into bloom after rare rainfall events, with exotic plants brought by homesick miners continuing their tenuous existence despite a century of abandonment.
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Simpsons Post Office
This Queensland telegraph and mail station established in the 1880s became a ghost town almost overnight when the more direct Birdsville Track route made it obsolete. The remote desert location has preserved the simple stone buildings in remarkable condition, with glass still intact in some windows despite decades of abandonment.
A visitor logbook kept in the former telegraph room contains entries spaced months or years apart, a testament to the extreme isolation that has protected the site from vandalism and souvenir hunters.
Kiandra
Once home to 15,000 gold miners, this alpine ghost town in New South Wales witnessed Australia’s only recorded gold rush snow riot in 1860. The stone courthouse building stands as the main remnant of what was once a substantial town, surviving harsh mountain winters that reach -20°C and routinely bury the ruins in snow for months at a time.
The town pioneered recreational skiing in Australia, with miners using handmade wooden skis as transportation during winter, a legacy commemorated by rusting remains of one of Australia’s first ski lifts slowly disappearing into the mountain landscape.
Broken Hill Junction
This former railway settlement in South Australia’s desert interior features a surreal collection of railway carriages repurposed as homes, now slowly disintegrating in the harsh sun. The town’s water tower remains the tallest structure for hundreds of miles around, still bearing the faded railway insignia and periodically serving as a navigation landmark for outback pilots.
The former station master’s residence contains furniture, photographs, and personal items left behind during the final abandonment, creating an unsettling time capsule rarely disturbed by visitors.
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Ravenswood
Unlike many completely abandoned towns, this Queensland gold and silver mining settlement retains about 100 residents among ruins that once housed 5,000 people during its 1870s heyday. Two grand hotels continue to operate despite the town’s collapse, their ornate iron lacework verandas overlooking streets of ruins and abandoned mining machinery.
Mullock heaps containing discarded mine tailings create an alien landscape surrounding the town, their lack of vegetation even after a century demonstrating the harsh environmental legacy of historical mining practices.
Kanyaka
This former sheep station in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges features imposing stone ruins indicating the substantial nature of the original settlement that once housed over 70 families. The station’s massive stone barn and homestead walls stand roofless but otherwise intact, their solid construction testament to the optimism of early settlers before drought forced abandonment.
Aboriginal stone tools found among European ruins tell a deeper story of displacement and changing land use spanning thousands of years rather than mere decades.
Tingha
This New South Wales tin mining town has gradually declined rather than experiencing sudden abandonment, creating a living ghost town where a handful of residents remain among numerous abandoned structures. The former Masonic lodge features distinctive architecture with esoteric symbols still visible on its facade, slowly decaying on the main street alongside empty shops with vintage advertisements still visible in faded paint.
Mining dredges used to extract tin from the landscape stand as massive rusting monuments in the surrounding countryside, too large to remove when the industry collapsed.
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Whispers From the Past: Australia’s Forgotten Frontier Communities
These 20 abandoned settlements represent more than just historical curiosities—they stand as monuments to Australia’s boom-and-bust resource economy and the harsh environmental realities that have shaped the nation’s development.
Unlike historic sites in more populous regions, these ghost towns remain largely unrestored and uncommercial, offering authentic glimpses into the past for those willing to venture into the remote landscapes that ultimately defeated their inhabitants. As climate change intensifies the already challenging conditions in Australia’s interior, these remnants of optimistic expansion serve as powerful reminders of human vulnerability against the continent’s ancient, unforgiving nature
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