Ghosts and Hauntings: Mad Micks Mine

Mad Micks Mine
Ghosts and Hauntings

If you are ever fossicking the abandoned gold claims up around Warrego mines just outside of Tennant Creek, Australia, you might stumble upon a legend. Although you may get lucky and find a piece of gold or two left over from one of Australia's later gold rushes you may also bump into the spectre of an old miner.

The early history of European settlement in the area has been discussed in a previous article (The Devils Marbles) but we shall pick it back up here with the 1920's and the discovery of some gold. In 1926 and 1927 gold was found in the ranges close to Tennant Creek but it was not until 1932 when local indigenous man Frank Juppurla found a sizable amount of gold that one of Australias last great gold rushes began.

Within a matter of months the local population grew to about 600 people, a majority men who were to find and make their claims in the gold fields. In 1934 the Tennant Creek Hotel was built and three years later a bakery and cafe were opened by Cecil Armstrong who began baking bread the day after he arrived. Also around this time a church was brought to Tennant Creek plank by plank from Pine Creek and is still there to this day.

The gold rush lasted about ten years before a majority of the gold mines closed down in 1942. Although there was still gold present the extraction of gold was a tough, time and money consuming process and soon many mines closed. The mine that remained was a large one capable of doing all its own crushing on site, besides this there were a number of men alone or in groups mining their own small claims.

About thirty years later is when we catch up with the infamous 'Mad Mick'. Mick was a miner employed by the Peko Wallsend Mining Company in the 1970's. He was described as probably being of Eastern European heritage and his English was hard to follow.

One Day Mick came across a large nugget of gold in the fields and soon took out a miners lease and started working on his own. Although many people knew where Mick was working, no one would dare approach as Mick had a habit of firing off his gun as a warning to keep far away. This along with his fast paced broken English speaking earned him the name 'Mad Mick'.

It was in the 1980's that a man went missing out near Mad Micks claim. Although people searched for the missing man it was not until a few years later that his body was discovered. A short while later it was noted that Mick had not been heard firing his gun for a while or been to the local general store for supplies.

Mick was gone, missing after having worked his claim alone for ten years.

Police searched extensively over the course of a week for Mick but he was never found, his Four Wheel Drive still located at his shack. The disappearance is a complete mystery that is still talked about today.

If you look around on the internet through fossicking forums (fossicking being a term for prospecting or rummaging) they do talk about the gold still being found up at Tennant Creek and especially around the land near Mad Micks shack. However the information comes with a warning of never to enter the little abandoned home even if it looks like rain is coming in.

Strange wailing sounds have been heard coming from the shack as has the clattering of metal tools.
There are two theories about the ghost of Mad Micks Shack: one, that Mad Mick disappeared into an abandoned mine shaft or had one of his own shafts cave in on him or two (and more disturbing) that Mad Mick found the missing man a little too close to his claim, killed him and when the body was discovered years later made a mad run from town, the dead mans ghost remains haunting the area.

Or maybe it is all just legend?

By Ashley Hall 2012

Left: Old abandoned mine.
Right: Warrego Mine 1980.
Lower: Old Gold Ore Crushing Plant.

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