b'18778078 7977A rare MALCOLM Western Australian townsite. At that time there were already 3 hotels, six stores, goldfields brooch, late 19th century, 2 bakeries, a butcher and other businesses established. In housed in a period plush box with a Ballarat 1904 Malcolm had 5 hotels and a brewery and a population of newspaper clipping, 400. The townsite was gazetted in 1897.5.5cm wide, 5.6 grams. Gold was discovered at the North Star Gold Mine site Illustrated in GOLD & SILVERSMITHING IN WESTERNsometime before 1895. At its height the town contained 450 AUSTRALIA by Dorothy Erickson [U.W.A. Press, Perth,people, but by 1906 was on the wane. The town was heavily 2010], page 75-76. reliant on the mine, which was taken over by the Malcolm Malcolm is today an abandoned goldfields town, 852 kmProspecting Syndicate in 1905, owned by local Malcolm northeast of Perth and 20 km east of Leonora. The townsitebusinessmen. This was an effort by the businessmen to derives its name from the nearby mountain of the same nameprotect their investment in shops and hotels in the town, by which was named by the surveyor John Forrest during hisretaining a paid workforce. When the mine closed in 1916, exploration of the area in 1869. The name honours Malcolmthe town quickly folded. The Websters Find Gold Mine to Hamersley, a settler who was with Forrest on an expeditionthe north-west, was also important for a time shortly after in search of the remains of the late Dr Ludwig Leichhardt1900, however flooding and bad management sealed its and party. fate. Many old minor gold mines are in this area, with limited Gold was discovered in the area around 1895/6, and inaccess. Some modern prospects are also found to the November 1896 the Mount Malcolm Provisional Committeesouth-west of Malcolm.requested that the W.A. government survey and declare a$10,00015,000'