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PAYNES FIND

Paynes Find is a former gold rush settlement approximately 430 kilometres (267 mi) northeast of Perth in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It is reachable by the Great Northern Highway. Only a roadhouse, which serves as a fuel stop, and a few other buildings remain today. The area is renowned for its wildflowers.

The townsite was gazetted in 1911, the same year the gold battery was constructed. The battery is the only currently operational battery left in the state.^[2]

The town is named after the prospector, Thomas Payne, who was the first to discover gold in the area and was the first to register a lease for gold mining with the Mines Department. He was rewarded with free use of the state's gold battery and his ore was the first to be crushed using the battery. By the 1930s the town had prospered and the population was estimated at about 500. In 1987 the battery was sold to the Taylor family who use it as a tourist attraction.

Reccomended Reading:- Paynes Find by Alex Palmer

Available from:
Hesperian Press - https://www.hesperianpress.com/
and The Eastern Goldfields Historical Soc - https://www.kalgoorliehistory.org.au/