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Leonora, Western Australia

 
Leonora, Western Australia

 
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Leonora, Western Australia
 
 
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Leonora is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia
Western Australia

Western Australia is a States and territories of Australia occupying the entire western third of the Australia . The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state....
, located northeast of the state capital, Perth
Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the List of Australian capital cities and largest city of the Australian States and territories of Australia of Western Australia. With a population of 1,554,769 , Perth ranks fourth amongst the nation's cities, with a growth rate consistently above the national average....
, and north of the city of Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia

Kalgoorlie-Boulder is a Western Australian city located east-northeast of Perth, Western Australia located in the Eastern Goldfields.The city was founded in 1893 during the Yilgarn-Goldfields gold rush, and is located close to the so-called "Golden Mile"....
. About 1,500 people live in the town of Leonora, about a third of whom are of Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands and their descendants. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Australian Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up about 2.6% of Australia's population....
 descent. The area is extremely arid, with a mean annual rainfall of just . It is also quite warm, with mean daily maximum temperatures ranging from 18°C (64°F) in July to 37°C (99°F) in January.

Leonora is primarily a mining
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
 town.






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Leonora is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia
Western Australia

Western Australia is a States and territories of Australia occupying the entire western third of the Australia . The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state....
, located northeast of the state capital, Perth
Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the List of Australian capital cities and largest city of the Australian States and territories of Australia of Western Australia. With a population of 1,554,769 , Perth ranks fourth amongst the nation's cities, with a growth rate consistently above the national average....
, and north of the city of Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia

Kalgoorlie-Boulder is a Western Australian city located east-northeast of Perth, Western Australia located in the Eastern Goldfields.The city was founded in 1893 during the Yilgarn-Goldfields gold rush, and is located close to the so-called "Golden Mile"....
. About 1,500 people live in the town of Leonora, about a third of whom are of Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands and their descendants. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Australian Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up about 2.6% of Australia's population....
 descent. The area is extremely arid, with a mean annual rainfall of just . It is also quite warm, with mean daily maximum temperatures ranging from 18°C (64°F) in July to 37°C (99°F) in January.

Leonora is primarily a mining
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
 town. There are a number of major gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
 mines in the Shire, and the Murrin Murin laterite nickel project
Murrin Murrin Joint Venture

The Murrin Murrin Joint Venture is a major nickel-cobalt mining operation being conducted in the Eastern Goldfields, approximately 60 km east of Leonora, Western Australia....
 is located in the shire. The area is too arid to support agriculture
Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
, but there is a substantial pastoral industry.
Leonora 1899
The Leonora area was first explored by John Forrest
John Forrest

Sir John Forrest Order of St Michael and St George was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....
, who visited the area in 1869. Forrest's party made camp near a hill, which Forrest named Mount Leonora, after a lady friend of his, Miss Phylis Leonora Hardey. In 1894, gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
 was discovered in the area by a prospector named Morrisey, and in the following two years a number of rich finds resulted in rapid development of the area. The Gwalia
Gwalia

Gwalia is an archaic Welsh language name for Wales. It dervies from the Medieval Latin Wallia, which in turn is a Latinisation of the English 'Wales'....
 and Sons of Gwalia
Sons of Gwalia

Sons of Gwalia is a Western Australian mining company which mines tantalum, spodumene, lithium and tin. The original "Sons of Gwalia" was a gold mine established in the late 19th century, and which gave its name to the nearby town of Gwalia....
 gold mines brought Leonora to the attention of the world. By 1897 a residential and business area had been established, and the town was gazetted as Leonora in 1898.

Leonora had an urban tramway system between 1901 and 1921: perhaps it was the smallest town in the world to have an electric tram.

See also

  • Leonora Airport
    Leonora Airport

    Leonora Airport is an airport in Leonora, Western Australia, Western Australia. The airport is located 2 km from the central business district....


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