Apparently there's an old town for sale -
Joadja NSW....
This was in the paper today, and immediately the idea appealed to me. I'd love to have my own town, albeit a ghost town in the middle of nowhere.
The
town's history goes that a cattle grazer's son discovered shale in the area and began mining in 1874.
"The Australian Kerosene Oil and Mineral Company was formed in 1877. They built a refinery, a railway line to Mittagong (which operated from 1880 to 1903) and began to erect a town for their employees. Coal was also mined with railway trucks being hauled up the steep inclines by rope.
Joadja's population passed 400 in 1879, well in excess of other Southern Highlands towns. A post office opened in 1878. There was soon a theatre, a store, a butcher's, a bakery and a school of arts. Joadja was also one of the first towns in the colony to be connected to the outside world by telephone The miners were largely experienced men from Scotland, perhaps enticed by the Scottish manager. They were housed in cottages made of local bricks.
In 1878 the employees extracted 5200 tons of shale. With the introduction of a mechanical coal-cutter in 1881 (the first to be used in NSW) output doubled to 28 000 tons in 1882. By 1890 it had increased to nearly 37 000 tons. However, reserves dwindled and went into a sharp decline after 1893. Employees were laid off. The post office closed in 1900 and operations ceased in 1903. The company closed and destroyed the plant and a fire swept through the town. A few residents stayed on to work orchards originally established by the mining company. The property was sold in 1911. Attempts were made to reestablish operations in the 1920s and 1930s but to no avail and Joadja became a ghost town." {quoted from above link}
Apparently "the only way into Joadja was the white knuckle railway line, which ran down a 45-degree slope. The mine closed in 1906. Picture is of the mine at Joadja in the 1800s." I don't think that this is still the only way into town, but it would definitely keep the door to door marketers away when you're trying to eat your dinner. Or we could put them here...
No idea who this family are, I got the picture from the cover of
this book, which is now out of print. I wonder who they are and what happened to them?
Included, a cemetery to call your own.
Although my Google search suggested that there might be some resident "ghosts"...
This one can be my house:
Now I just need an odd $3 million or so...
[pics from
here unless otherwise credited]
