The now-abandoned town of Gwalia, more than 800 kilometres east of Perth in Western Australia, was once a bustling 1960s township that served hundreds of families working in the local gold mine.

Key points: The gold mine in Gwalia closed down in 1963

The gold mine in Gwalia closed down in 1963 People left in such a hurry, the interiors of many houses appear frozen in time

People left in such a hurry, the interiors of many houses appear frozen in time Herbert Hoover ran the town's mine before becoming US president

But the community vanished almost overnight when the Sons of Gwalia gold mine was permanently closed, leaving the homes and buildings in the town to slowly decay.

Tourists now visit Gwalia to experience the intriguing charm of the well-preserved details of the lives residents once lived in the town's remote desert conditions.

A sudden exodus

The exodus happened in one afternoon as hundreds of families grabbed what they could with the time they had, leaving Gwalia for good.

By morning, the town was virtually empty.

The ramshackle cottages that lined its streets were left to deteriorate over the decades.

Many Gwalia residents felt trapped by low wages and precarious work. ( ABC Goldfields: Andy Tyndall )

Terry Demasson, a teenage apprentice at the time, remembers the day the town was abandoned.

"The next day when we came for work, there was no-one in Gwalia," he said.

"They'd all gone. Got on the train and just left overnight."

On a sweltering December afternoon in 1963, the last whistle had blown at the Sons of Gwalia gold mine and its owners announced the permanent closure of the mine.

Tables were left laid with crockery waiting for a meal that was never served.

Eggs freshly laid that morning still sat in the chicken coop.

Tourists visiting Gwalia can see well-preserved details of the lives led in harsh conditions in the 1960s. ( ABC Goldfields: Andy Tyndall )

"They only took what they could carry because of the fact there was no money and they had to get to Kalgoorlie to get the jobs [going there]," Mr Demasson said.

Gwalia's residents were a mix of mine workers and their families, some of whom had come from as far afield as Italy and Yugoslavia.

Local Indigenous man Aubrey Lynch also worked in the gold mine until its closure.

"We had a good working relationship," Mr Lynch said.

The migrant workers grew fresh vegetables on their properties and swapped their surplus produce with Mr Lynch and other Indigenous workers.

"They were really good guys," he said of the migrant families who had settled in Gwalia.

"Aboriginal people used to get wild goats for them — they liked eating wild goats."

The revival of a ghost town

Today Gwalia is a shadow of what it once was, with the deserted buildings remaining as evidence of the once-bustling community.

Gwalia's residents were a motley mix of workers and their families, some of whom had come from Europe. ( ABC Goldfields: Andy Tyndall )

Since its founding in the late 19th century, many residents had felt trapped, with low wages and precarious work making it almost impossible to move elsewhere.

"Once you are here, you lose contact with the rest of the world to a certain extent," one resident wrote to family members.

"All these places people lived and they left in a hurry, so history is in those," said Donna Reid, who was one of the few to live in Gwalia in the 1970s.

Ms Reid and her husband were living in Hoover House — named for its most famous occupant — on a hill above the town, when she first took an interest in saving it for future generations.

Hoover House was designed by the mine's manager, Herbert Hoover, who went on to become President of the United States.

As officials arrived to raze Gwalia's tin cottages, Ms Reid convinced the local council to stop them.

"I thought 'We just can't have this going on'. We got here just at the right time to stop the bulldozers," she said.

Donna Reid, with husband Don at Hoover House, was one of the volunteers credited with helping to preserve the town. ( ABC Goldfields: Rhiannon Stevens )

Many volunteers and small amounts of funding over the years established a museum on the hill overlooking the mine.

The opulent house where the mine manager lived became Hoover House bed and breakfast, and many of the miners' cottages and the headframe were moved to a central part of town.

Celebrating move to preserve town

At the weekend, hundreds of curious tourists and former residents returned to Gwalia 55 years after it was abandoned.

For the first time since then, the towering State Hotel — a government-owned premises built in 1903 to curb the sly grog trade — was opened to visitors.

The crowds were there in part to celebrate $3.2 million in state, federal and private funding to properly preserve the town.

Photographer Kate Ferguson outside the State Hotel, the first government-owned hotel in WA, built in 1903 to curb the sly grog trade. ( ABC Goldfields: Rhiannon Stevens )

A photography exhibition capturing the stories of Gwalia's people by journalist Kate Ferguson was also on display.

Over the past five decades, a few residents have stayed on its fringes, but for the most part it has become a tourist attraction — just as Ms Reid imagined.

Visitors come and go easily, keeping the tiny town of Gwalia from fading into obscurity.

"I always imagined that Gwalia could become a tourist centre and be alive again in a different way," Ms Reid said.