And All So Far From Home....

Mount Margaret
Western Australia

Mount Margaret is an abandoned goldfields townsite located between Leonora and Laverton, about 900 km north east of Perth. The townsite derives its name from the nearby feature of the same name. The hill was named by the explorer John Forrest in 1869 after Margaret Elvire Hamersley whom he later married in 1876. The Aboriginal name for the hill is recorded as "Kalgara". Gold was discovered in the Mount Margaret area in the mid 1880s, and by September 1896 the Mount Margaret Progress Committee were agitating for the declaration of a townsite. Lots were surveyed in early 1897, and the townsite gazetted in May 1897. At first the government were keen to use the Aboriginal name "Kalgara" for the townsite, but decided that locally used name of Mount Margaret should prevail.