Its an eerie feeling walking through a town that was once bustling with activity.
As you can see from the previous post/video we visited the town of Big Bell which began as a service town back in 1936 for the Big Bell Gold Mine. It’s situated approximately 30kms north-west of Cue in Western Australia and apparently had a population of up to 1,000 people before its demise in the early 1950’s. By 1955 the town was virtually deserted. The last part of the road in is dirt and in good condition as it services trucks and cars for one of the active mine sites.
The town streets are filled with many ruins and most of the houses were relocated elsewhere. The most majestic ruin is the Big Bell Hotel that supposedly had the longest bar in Australia. There is also a Church and another building with a fireplace which from what we could see has recently been used by campers. The town in its day had a post office, bakery, movie theatre, two schools and three churches, police station, various shops and of course the pub. There are a few information boards around the streets and one which gives a map of the former town so you can work out where different buildings were situated.
👉If you do decide to camp you will need to be totally self-contained as there are absolutely no facilities, like water. Make sure you take your rubbish with you. Watch 👀 out for rubble as there are a lot of sharp pieces like metal, broken glass and other rubble.