Mount Magnet is a typical gold mining town - what remains after the haydays of the gold rush - but don't think it's over , there are plenty of active gold mines still going strong .
The older buildings have been looked after , this one is the Shire Council office .
Self explanatory this one - it's open whenever he's there and closed whenever he isn't - seems he has a sense of humour , he has a sign in the window stated this .
This is one of the 3 hotels in town that are still operational - not sure where they get the clientele from though , the town doesn't seem large enough for one , let alone 3 !
This is another one about 200m up the road .
There's a drive that takes you to various sites , this is the view from Warramboo Hill Lookout to one of the mines just northwest of town . Colours in the pit wall are quite varied .
Next stop up the road was the Amphitheatre - a stand of Laterite Rock that is a lot harder than the surrounding rock . There was an interesting shape a hole in the rock .
This is the Amphitheatre - it is believed that it was once a waterfall - good imagination !
We walked around and climbed the side section to get an idea of what was there , the top level is mainly flat with small scrubby trees growing out of the rock . Kangaroos & goats like the security of the caves & cliffs . There's not much in the way of ground cover , it's mainly rock & occasional spinifex & gravel .
On the hill behind where the above photo was taken were some caves in the upper layers .
The colours of the outback are quite vivid and there's a broad range from white to red & green .
Every now & then there will be a burst of pink from a few hundred / thousand tiny pink flowers . It is quite a contrast when there's nothing else growing in the bare ground .
Previous flowering ground covers are now going to seed , this one looks like the stuffing from a pillow .
Next stop / drive by was Lennonville Cemetery and town site . There's the old train platform still in place , the cemetery is basically a fenced off very rocky section of flat ground , and the town site has been removed , mainly due to the current mining nearby - seems all the old gold mines are being revisited with all the newer technology extracting the remaining gold .
There's a movie being filmed here at the moment " The Furnace " , so there's plenty of activity in town with all the extra people here . It is also employing a lot of the locals as well which is good for the local economy .
Filming was supposed to be happing at The Granites - a large area of breakaways just north of town . We have been into areas like this before at Cue , Meekatharra and other spots in the southern areas . They are all similar , but different , this was quite good with access tracks taking us all around for about 8 kilometres , it was a great drive around and we emerged from the bush via a network of tracks a bit closer to town .
There's a variety of rock , granite & sandstone mainly , sculpted into various shapes and caves , white seems to be the main underlying colour .
As we drove back there was a small bush in the middle of the track , flowering quite happily .
These are The Granites from above , highlighting the colours of the outback .
That covers our 3 days here , the Great Northern Highway goes through town and we were amazed how many triple road trains went through all day and some of the night , a very busy road .
Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HRQFZricowHZwwbkfa1_IHPai8mwnr0G&usp=sharing
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