Burtville is an

abandoned town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in the Goldfields-Esperance region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, located south east of Laverton.

History

In 1897, gold was discovered in the area by two prospectors, B. Frost and James E. Tregurtha. The

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...

, J. Rowe, planned the town lots in accordance with the Goldfields Act in 1901. The settlement was initially known as Merolia which is the

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

name for the district. The town was eventually named after the grandson of the first chief justice of the

Supreme Court of Western Australia The Supreme Court of Western Australia is the highest state court in the Australian State of Western Australia. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters (although it usually only hears matters involving sums of or more ...

, Sir

Archibald Burt Sir Archibald Paull Burt QC (1 September 1810 – 21 November 1879) was a British lawyer, politician and judge. He grew up on the island of Saint Christopher in the West Indies, where both he and his father owned slaves. He studied law in Engla ...

. Archibald Edmund Burt JP was the chief mining warden of the Mount Margaret Goldfield. The town was gazetted as Merolia in 1902 but was regazetted to compliment Archibald Edmund Burt later the same year. The population of the town and district rose to approximately 400 by 1903 as a result of gold mining. The town also had a water supply from a government well and a sealed pan

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...

system. A police station was opened in 1903 along with a school and two hotels. A ten stamp state battery and five stamp battery known as ''The Burtville Ore Reduction works'' were operated within the town from 1903 to 1906. Another privately owned ten stamp battery that allowed public access known as ''The sons of Westralia'' was also operating at the time. By 1916 the population had reduced to 45 and the police station was closed. All that remains of the town today is the entrance door arch of one of the town's hotels.

References

{{authority control Ghost towns in Western Australia Shire of Laverton