Peak Hill is the name of a goldfield,Clarke, E. de C.(1913) Geological report on Mikhaburra (Holden's Find), Peak Hill goldfield. Bulletin (Geological Survey of Western Australia), No. 59, 1914, Report 37 locality and the site of a gold miningHeydon, P. R. (1991) Gold at Peak Hill Carlisle, W.A : Hesperian Press, ghost town in the Murchison Region of Western Australia. The gold mine covers 2,162 hectares and consists of four open-cut mines: Main, Jubilee, Fiveways and Harmony.
In the adjacent region to the locality, there are considerable non-auriferous mineral deposits.Montgomery, A. (1920) Report on the manganese deposits at Horseshoe Range, Peak Hill Goldfield Perth, W.A. Dept. of Mines, 1920 (Perth [W.A.]: Fred. Wm. Simpson, Government Printer Adjacent fields included the Horseshoe field.Stewart, Duke (1897) The Peak Hill Goldfield. Stewart (cycling through the district compiling a goldfields directory) reports on gold specimens from the Horseshoe and Peak Hill districts. West Australian, 23 November 1897, p.6
Early exploration at the site occurred in the 1890s,(1970) The biography of William John Wilson : discoverer of the Peak Hill Goldfields, Western Australia; and, Early history of Peak Hill / compiled by ... Freda and ... Arnold Armstrong and ... Laurence Wilson.Battye Library typescriptReed, Frank. (1897) The Peak Hill Goldfields. West Australian, 17 April 1897, p.10 when gold was discovered by William John Wilson in 1892. The townsite was gazetted in 1897, and the field has had varied fortunes even in early years.Peak Hill. Article in a series titled: Is the Murchison a failure? Murchison times and Day Dawn gazette, 18 Feb. 1899, p.2f-gArmstrong, Freda. (1940s) Early Murchison days : the discovery of Peak Hill : some rich returns Battye Library document - PR5868 originally in Geraldton Guardian. Before 1913, the mine produced some 270,000 ounces (7.7 tonnes) of gold. Peak Hill was also included as a location in a regional newspaper network of more outlying mining communities in the 1920s and 1930s. The manganese record, Peak Hill, Nullagine and Marble Bar Gazette. Meekatharra [W.A.] : Telegraph Printing and Publishing Company Ltd., 1928-1941. 22 Sept. 1928-11 July 1941. it was preceded by The Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette. Cue [W.A.] : Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette, 1894-1925. Distribution area: Cue; Day Dawn; Murchison; Peak Hill Goldfields.
The population of the town was 190 (180 males and 10 females) in 1898.
Alfred Walker, the proprietor of the Peak Hill General Store until 1954, was the last full-time resident of Peak Hill. He retired to his daughter's farm at Peppermint Grove, south of Capel.
In the 1970s, it was reduced to a ghost town with a few remaining residents, however in the 1980s activity resumed,(1988) Mining activity to resume at old gold mining site.Daily news (Perth, W.A.), 1 July 1988, p.17(1988) Peak Hill Resources Gold Mine - description of mine opened July 1988 in Murchison Australia's mining monthly, Aug. 1988, p.19, producing around 650,000 ounces (18.4 tonnes) of gold. The mine became dormant again in the 2000s.
Horseshoe mine and railway
The Meekatharra-Horseshoe Railway Act 1920, assented to on 31 December 1920, authorised the construction of the railway line from Meekatharra, where it intersected the Mullewa–Meekatharra railway, to the Horseshoe mine, north-west of Peak Hill. The private railway was short-lived, existing from 1927 until 1933, when the company mining manganese went into receivership.
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