Strickland, CD & Ormsby, WR 2006, 'Western Australia’s Inventory of Abandoned Mine Sites', in AB Fourie & M Tibbett (eds), Mine Closure 2006: Proceedings of the First International Seminar on Mine Closure, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 169-179, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/605_9
(https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/605_9_Strickland/)
Abstract: Mining has occurred in Western Australia for more than 150 years, resulting in many thousands of workings 
that were abandoned after exploration or mining (Figure 1). Until recently, few of these workings and other 
associated mine site features were documented. The Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) 
commenced a program to accurately locate and document abandoned mine sites throughout the State in 
1999. The inventory of individual mining-related features such as shafts, open cuts, dumps and infrastructure 
focuses upon sites that are close to towns and main roads and were in production before 1990, when new 
environmental legislation took effect. The innovative use of hand-held personal computers (PC) and Global 
Positioning System (GPS) technology has facilitated the collection of a great deal of field data. This paper 
discusses the background, methodology, and progress of the inventory, and applications of the database.  
 
 
 
 
 
  a)               b) 
Figure 1 Examples of Western Australia’s legacy of abandoned mine sites. Disused 5 m 
steel headframe and remnants of historic concrete footings at the Golden Age 
mine 2.4 km south of Menzies (a).  Underground shaft at the London mine 
showing substantial collar collapse on the southern side, 16 m long, 6 m wide, 
and extremely deep (>20 m). Located 6.5 km northwest of Kunanalling (b)