A Perth carpenter says the complete restoration of a 118-year-old mining headframe will be the biggest challenge of his career.

Jayden Catalano is overseeing restoration of the heritage-listed headframe at the Gwalia gold mine, around 830 kilometres north-east of Perth in Western Australia's northern Goldfields.

The Gwalia headframe was carefully dismantled in the first step of the ongoing restoration process. ( Shire of Leonora: Elaine Labugschagne )

The 20-metre high structure was designed by Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, when the then-geologist and engineer was the mine's manager.

Built in 1899 using timber shipped from Oregon in the United States, the structure was used to haul miners, horses and gold-bearing ore out of the underground mine.

It was moved to its current location in 1987, and now sits down the hill from the old mine manager's quarters, known as Hoover House.

While the historic headframe has been successfully dismantled, Mr Catalano said erecting the restored headframe would be a more difficult step.

The carpenter, who spent four years in exotic locations while working as crew on the US television show Survivor, described the challenge of reassembling the headframe as "unique".

"It's not a kitchen from Ikea, I'll tell you that," Mr Catalano said.

"It's one of the most challenging things I've ever been involved in.

"We've come up with a plan before we started pulling it down [and] the more photos the better, because it gives us extra dimensions as we go along."

More than 1,000 photographs have been taken of the headframe at various stages of the deconstruction to ensure it can be perfectly rebuilt.

Gwalia was a bustling mining community in 1902, shortly after the headframe was built. ( Supplied: Shire of Leonora )

Mr Catalano said the restoration should ensure the headframe lasts at least another 50 years.

"It's amazing. When I was coming up on the plane, I was reading the history about it," he said.

"It's the largest headframe in Australia and going back with the history of Herbert Hoover engineering it, it's a pretty special project to be on."

Timber headframe stood the test of time

As much of the original timber as possible is being reused while the rest will find a use in the Gwalia Museum.

Most of the rebuild will be done using local timber — karri harvested from Manjimup, which should arrive before the end of the month.

Mr Catalano said it was "an amazing feat" that the original timbers had lasted so long in harsh conditions.

One of the preserved timber and iron cottages at Gwalia. ( ABC Goldfields-Esperance: Jarrod Lucas )

The new timbers will be green when they arrive, and will shrink over the next two years, requiring maintenance.

"It'll actually be moist and wet and then in the summer, it's going to dry out so it's going to shrink [and] a lot of things are going to start moving," Mr Catalano said.

"We'll come up probably for a week to do maintenance and make sure everything is okay, and two seasons down the track it'll stay in place."

Preservation sets site up for tourists

The headframe work represents $1.4 million of the $4 million project to preserve Gwalia as a tourist attraction.

Gwalia — an archaic Welsh name for Wales — saw its population plunge from 1,200 to just 40 in three weeks after the gold mine closed in December 1963.

The ghost town on the outskirts of Leonora remains a tourist drawcard with more than 8,000 visitors last year, including a significant rise in international tourists.

The Federal Government is providing $980,000 towards the preservation of 11 timber and iron miners' cottages, three brick buildings and the headframe.

If everything goes to plan, the work should be completed by December next year.

Former Gwalia resident Bob Biggs in front of the steam engine he helped restore. ( ABC Goldfields-Esperance: Jarrod Lucas )

Former local remembers last days of ghost town

Serpentine retiree and water diviner, Bob Biggs, moved to Gwalia when he was six and worked underground at the mine as a boilermaker remembers the last days of the town.

"Everyone just packed up and left. Most went to Kalgoorlie," he said.

"It was pretty sad ... I ended up going to Yeelirrie station for work."

Mr Biggs saved some Gwalia history a few years back when he helped restore an old steam engine, which he worked on as a teenager.

"It's nice to see that history is not being lost," he said.

"I remember working underground and seeing big clumps of gold. A lot of it was never mined because the mine closed."

The restored ghost town remains one of the most popular tourist attractions in the northern Goldfields. ( ABC Goldfields-Esperance: Jarrod Lucas )

'Snapshot' of life in Gwalia's glory days

Shire of Leonora manager of economics and heritage services Elaine Labuschagne said the "mass exodus" was what made Gwalia so special.

"It wasn't always an easy life [in Gwalia]," she said.

"I've read stories of women arriving at the train station and saying 'this is a mistake ... this can't be where we have to get off'.

Ms Lauschagne said people took what they had when they left, leaving the town "a snapshot in time of what it was like".

"It's really significant and [these are] one of the only examples of miners' cottages in Western Australia," she said.

"It's a lot of funding that's required to maintain a place like this, but because of its significance — not just for the Goldfields and Western Australia, but for Australia as well — it is important that we maintain it and preserve it.

"There was such a good sense of community here and that's what people remember."