In a state that is larger than many countries around the world, you could expect to find some extraordinary stories.

Stories of hardship and courage; stories of extreme wealth and extreme poverty; stories of cultural diversity and of bonds formed in adversity; stories of the building of a national identity but also, stories of environmental vandalism. It is all there, written in the earth, and sometimes, the earth is all that is left to mark the passing of the communities that have made up the history of the state. There's one thing that brings all these stories together - the people who lived them.

At present, the list of identified ghost towns sites at around 700. Of these, perhaps the mining towns are the best known. In the 1901 census, the largest towns in Western Australia included the mining towns of Day Dawn, Kanowna, Mount Morgan and Nannine, all of which are ghost towns today.

There were many other non-mining gazetted towns that reflect Western Australia's history of building railway lines:

• A long pipeline from Perth to Kalgoorlie
• Timber towns (which supplied the railway sleepers)
• The government-initiated Soldier Settlement and Group Settlement schemes
• Towns that were created to service widespread family communities

FamilyHistoryWA has launched a project to gather everything they can find about the people who lived in the ghost towns of Western Australia by June 2029 to commemorate both the Bicentenary of European settlement and FamilyHistoryWA's 50th Anniversary. 

Christine Harris, Vice President & IT Manager of FamilyHistoryWA, has kindly agreed to present on the history and progress of the project.

Presenter: Christine Harris, FamilyHistoryWA

Start Time by Zones

Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne: 7:30pm

Darwin, Adelaide: 7pm

Perth: 5:30pm