Established 1897 State electorate(s) Kalgoorlie Founded 1897 Lga Shire of Laverton | Postcode(s) 6440 Elevation 418 m Postal code 6440 Federal division Division of O'Connor | |
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Location 900 km (559 mi) North-east of Perth
28 km (17 mi) South-west of Laverton, Western Australia Weather 18°C, Wind E at 24 km/h, 66% Humidity | ||
Mount Margaret also once known as Craiggiemore is an abandoned town in Western Australia located 900 kilometres (559 mi) east of Perth north of Lake Carey and south-west of Laverton in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.
The first European through the area was the explorer John Forrest who visited the area in 1869. He named a nearby hill Mount Margaret after Margaret Elvire Hamersley whom he later married in 1876. The Indigenous Australian name for the same hill is Kalgara.
Gold was discovered in the area in the 1880s and was discovered close to the town in 1894 by James Ross and R. McKenzie. The main mine's name was Craiggiemore which is situated on the Eastern side of the town. By 1896 the local progress association began campaigning for the townsite to be declared. By 1897 lots had been surveyed and the townsite was gazetted in the same year.
A police station opened in the town in 1898 but was closed in 1899.
Following a drought in the area in 1921 Rod Schenk established the Mount Margaret Aboriginal Mission in 1922. In 1924 many Aboriginal people were forced to go to Mount Morgans for food following another drought and hostility towards them by local station owners.
When the Mount Morgans and Linden food depots were closed in 1927, the Aboriginal peoples moved to the mission at Mount Margaret.