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Kookynie
Western Australia

Cumberland Street
Kookynie

Kookynie (pronounced koo-ky-nee) is a townsite in the eastern goldfields, located between Menzies and Leonora, 796 km from Perth. Gold was discovered in the area in the late 1890s, and in 1899 the government decided there was sufficient interest in the area to declare a townsite. It was gazetted as Kookynie in 1900, and is believed to have been named by Mr Beaumont, the manager of the Lady Shenton Gold Mine after a holding near Clare in South Australia. Kookynie is situated 197 kms by road north east of Kalgoorlie.  Although now commonly refered to as a ghost town Kookynie caters for many thousands of tourists, prospectors, fossikers, mining and exploration companies, pastoralists and has a very active population of 13.  Kookynie was first discovered by prospectors in 1895, the population grew at an astonishing rate with a population of 3500 and as many transient prospectors and by 1907 it could boast to have the first public swiming baths on the Goldfields, 11 hotels, a workmans club, State School, Hospital, Police Station, Mining Wardens Office, and a Post and Telegraph Office. There were businesses of every kind Newsagent, Chemist, Cycle Works, 2 Blacksmiths, 2 Banks, 5 General Stores and red light areas run by the Japanese Ladies.  The Kookynie Turf Club held three meetings a year, there was a brewery and 2 cordial factories and at one stage 4 trains a day arrived from Kalgoorlie.

For all enquiries about Kookynie & Niagara contact:

Margaret & Kevin Pusey
The Grand Hotel
Kookynie
via Menzies
Western Australia 6436

Books of interest

Niagara Kookynie - How It Was by Margaret E Pusey
Self Published 2002
ISBN 0 646 39061 9
A big A4 Book full of photos and details -
great if your family lived in the area.