Outback Graves Markers

Mertondale

Mertondale

Mertondale

Mertondale

Mertondale

Mertondale Map

Mertondale Map

See people buried at Mertondale

Location Information

Region: Goldfields-Esperance
Coordinates: -28.9675, 121.4855556
Directions: Mertondale is 35 km north-east of Leonora and just east of the Leonora-Nambi Road where it turns north-east to north if travelling from Leonora.

Cemetery

Number of Graves: 2
First Burial: 6th December 1899 Thomas Crehan a prospector at the age of 35 died from heart disease
Last Burial: 3rd June 1904 baby Matilda Harris aged 5 weeks and 4 days died. Martin Johnsen (d 5/01/1906) and Thomas Porter (d 29/01/1906) died at Mertondale but were buried at Lake Raeside.

The former Mertondale town site borders the road but there is nothing left to see. The large north-south striking Mertondale 3-4 Gold Mine is 200 metres north. The historic Merton's Reward Gold Mine, is 100 metres south, and the three quarries mined over 100 years ago for this site can still be seen.

Age at death

0 – 1 year 

1

20 – 29 years 

0

60 – 69 years

 0

2 – 5 years

 0 

30 – 39 years

1

70 – 79 years

0

6 – 9 years

 0 

40 – 49 years

0

80 + years

 0

10 – 19 years

 0

50 – 59 years

 0

Unknown

0

Occupations

Prospector     1

Cause of death

Heart Disease    1

 

Discovery
On the 4th March 1899, while looking for a lost horse, Fred Merton found several nuggets and traced them to an undiscovered gold reef. After a legal battle with his partner over ownership of the find, Merton developed the Merton's Reward Mine employing 30 men to actually mine the ore. Merton was the mine manager, assayer, gold escort, engineer, and accountant. The mine become one of the richest in the northern goldfields and made him a rich man until 1908 when he sold it.
Early History
When the richness of the local gold find was realized, Archibald Burt, the Mining Warden, recommended a townsite be declared in 1899 and it was gazetted later the same year. The gold mining lease was named Merton's Reward, and also referred to as Merton's Find, but when Burt recommended the townsite he nominated Mertondale as the name. The townsite was gazetted in 1899, and by 1902 there was a branch of the National Bank with a police station opened in February 1903 (but was closed in October the same year). Also, by 1903 there were three hotels and four stores. The gold petered out by 1910 and the town was deserted shortly afterwards.

Interesting Information

In 2020, the Department of Defence bought the pastoral lease, Mertondale Station, which takes its name from the old townsite, which is situated within the station boundaries, to protect the Jindalee Operational Radar Network against Chinese attention. The Jindalee Operational Radar Network is a significant surveillance system for Australia's north. A department spokesman said it acquired the Mertondale pastoral lease near Leonora "for the purposes of establishing buffer land for nearby Defence facilities," which he confirmed was the JORN. Shire of Leonora CEO, Jim Epis, said he believed the department got involved after a Chinese-owned company showed interest in Mertondale — a former cattle station now overrun with camels, wild dogs, and coral cactus infestations.

November 2, 2017 —November 2, 2017 —A string of gold nuggets, weighing up to 21 ounces or 670 grams, have been recovered from Mertondale in the goldfields of Western Australia. Over the last few months, prospectors using metal detectors have uncovered more than 50 ounces of large gold nuggets within an area being prospected by mining company Magnetic Resources. The nuggets are considered very large with the latest measuring 10cm long by 5cm.They were found just below the soil surface. Gold is trading at $US1,277 an ounce this morning, valuing just the 50 ounces found so far at $US63,850 ($A82,700).

See https://www.mindat.org/loc-268443.html for the story of Fred Merton

References

Wikipedia
Mindat
Watoday