IN the middle of nowhere, bordering desert country and an abandoned mine shaft stands the National Hotel at Sandstone.
This iconic location, 700 kilometres north east of Perth, has a history dating back to 1907 when the hotel was built.
In its heyday, between 1906 and 1919, the hotel was the smallest of four in the town when there was a booming population between 6000 and 8000 people.
The population then quickly disappeared, with only 200 people remaining and in 2011, according to Census figures, the town had a population of 105.
The National Hotel is the only pub left in the town and is still in operation.
When mining deserted Sandstone, the many buildings that resembled a town were disassembled and moved to other areas as part of the gold rush.
This history of Sandstone is what current publican Donna Bennett said was so important to the character behind the licensed venue.
To get an understanding of the settlement it is worth looking at how it started in 1869 when the first European in the east Murchison area was explorer and Western Australian premier John Forrest, who led an expedition looking for the remains of German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, who was last seen in 1848.
After the discovery of the area, the gold rush of the 1880s led to the opening of the Murchison and in 1895 prospector Ernest Shillington discovered gold 20km south of Sandstone.
In September 1906 the town of Sandstone was gazetted, three years after George Dent and two brothers from the Hack family found gold only a few hundred metres from the current town site.
As the gold rush continued through the Gascoyne-Murchison area, one Sandstone mine produced 930,000 ounces of gold over its 13-year operation (today amounting to 26.4 tonnes) along with 700t of iron ore extracted from the mine which reached a depth of 332 metres.
With more reefs of gold being discovered from 1903 onwards, Sandstone was tipped to become a boom town that would last a lifetime.
Along with the four hotels there were two banks, a railway line that was completed in 1910, a brewery and a State-run gold battery which closed in 1982.
The brewery was built in 1907 by an Irishman by the name of I.V. Kearney who built it on a breakaway on top of a cliff to satisfy the thirst of the locals.
Like many gold rush towns, an era ended at the start of World War 1 with many miners leaving to serve overseas – and many never returned.
After its downfall, Sandstone became home to many hopeful prospectors and a service centre for surrounding pastoral companies.
Today it continues to be a hotspot for tourists and passersbys, with the National Hotel providing a great community hub for residing locals.
The hotel was built by W.A. Richardsons in 1907, using bricks fired in a local kiln near the Hacks mine.
Ms Bennett said two local brothers were responsible for building the hotel.
Over its time the hotel has seen numerous changes and now includes an adjoining general store, dining room, pool table and a bar.
“We have repaired a lot of the walls and restored the kitchen, trying to keep it in character,” Ms Bennett said.
The hotel’s purpose has always been to serve food, alcohol and accommodation over its 112 years.
Ms Bennett said there were a lot of different owners over that time.
“We bought it off Peter Stinson in September 2011 and he bought it off John Clune in 2005,” she said.
Ms Bennett said it had always been called the National Hotel and the 21 rooms in the building have housed many geologists, drillers, miners, workmen and tourists.
In 2016 the walls of the hotel were painted to represent the pub’s locals, past and present.
“My husband and I had all the paintings done, and it’s pretty cool when people come in and they see people in the bar that are also on the wall, including myself,” Ms Bennett said.
Other paintings on the outside of the hotel feature popular destinations for people to see in the area.
These include the Peter Denny Lookout, which was named after Peter Denny who oversaw the sealing of the road between Mt Magnet and Leinster.
Then there is the London Bridge, a local attraction that is part of a larger formation about 800 metres long and varies in height from around three to 10 metres.
The bridge is formed of weathered basalt, with the rock believed to be around 350 million years old.
Local metal artist Roz has contributed to the atmosphere of the hotel by creating the old fireplace in the courtyard, as well as the barbecue area in the beer garden.
Ms Bennett said Roz also donated the old car that was in front of the pub.
Other artefacts and metal artwork are placed around the hotel, with old bottles sitting above the fireplaces and metal signs outlining the male and female toilets.
The male toilet is marked by an old prospector and the ladies toilet is marked by a cut-out metal frame of a woman mopping the floors, which seems like a massive task with the red dirt in Sandstone.
Framed photographs of the early prospectors are hung around the bar, showing the foundation of the town and an insight into how much it has changed.
The hotel is very aware of the traditional owners of the land, with a lot of Aboriginal art for sale in the store that also sells gold.
Ms Bennett lived in Queensland and was a cook in a nursing home before she decided to travel around WA on her own.
When she reached Sandstone she met her now husband who was there with his father.
“We bought the pub to save it from being shut down,” Ms Bennett said.
Now after seven years there are grave fears for the National Hotel’s future with the population slowly dwindling.
With the closest town Mt Magnet, 150km away, the pub/hotel/grocery store is the only place for locals to get food in town, making it an important establishment for the people of Sandstone.
Ms Bennett said the future of the pub was unknown.
“If we don’t attract more people there will be no future for us in Sandstone,” she said.
In the meantime the hotel continues to operate after surviving the test of time, a declining gold rush, world wars and harsh conditions of the WA outback.