{"id":562534,"date":"2026-03-25T04:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562534\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T04:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:02:10","slug":"regional-wa-shire-agrees-to-sell-22m-workers-camp-to-westgold-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562534\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional WA shire agrees to sell $22m workers’ camp to Westgold Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

A regional council in Western Australia’s Goldfields has agreed to sell a controversial mining camp for $22.05 million.<\/p>\n

The sale is part of the Shire of Coolgardie’s plans to clear massive debts, which led to a show-cause notice from the local government minister last year.<\/p>\n

The shire has agreed to sell the 328-bed Bluebush Village at Kambalda, about 630 kilometres east of Perth, to ASX-listed gold miner Westgold Resources. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The sale by public tender includes $1.95 million for adjacent undeveloped land, covering 9,835 square metres, to accommodate future expansions. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Councillors unanimously voted on Tuesday night to proceed with the sale, following the recommendation of acting CEO Sabine Taylor, who described the Westgold bid as “the greatest value for money”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Shire of Coolgardie president Paul Wilcox says the council’s financial position will improve significantly following the sale of Bluebush Village. \u00a0 (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)<\/p>\n

Proceeds to pay down debt<\/p>\n

Westgold has already paid a $441,000 deposit, and the sale is expected to proceed to settlement in the coming weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a lengthy public consultation process, including three community forums, the Shire received just three public submissions about the proposed sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One public submission was against the transaction proceeding in any form. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Two long-term residents, Marilyn Ward and Jan McLeod, supported the sale of the existing camp but not the sale of the neighbouring land. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Construction<\/p>\n

Bluebush Village cost the Shire of Coolgardie $24.8 million to build and the council took out $22.5 million in loans to cover the cost. \u00a0\u00a0 (ABC Goldfields: Giulia Bertoglio)<\/p>\n

Shire president Paul Wilcox said the proceeds from the sale would be used to pay down debts, which totalled $25.4 million at the end of January. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have to go through the process of settlement and ensure contracts are in order, but essentially the current debt associated with the camp is about $16 million, and we also have several other debts which we can look at resolving,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“As a result of this process, we will review our entire long-term financial plan to get a full picture of where we sit financially in terms of the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We don’t expect any less scrutiny over time; we have a lot more work to do, but I believe this is a significant step in leading us towards the right direction and restoring some vital confidence in council from the community.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley says she has been closely monitoring the Shire of Coolgardie’s financial progress. \u00a0 (ABC Perth: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

Minister supported camp sale<\/p>\n

In October last year, Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley gave the Shire 12 months<\/a> to get its finances in order, or she would look at options, including a potential merger with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

She has supported the Bluebush Village sale, and in her most recent interview with the ABC last month, she said the Shire’s new leadership was making solid progress, which includes monthly financial updates. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Shire of Coolgardie are currently meeting the milestones that we have put in place for them, so that’s really good news,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They are not out of the woods yet. They are halfway through a 12-month journey, at which point we will reassess.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So I’m looking forward to seeing what they can achieve over the next six months, but we continue to keep an incredibly close eye on the Shire.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Westgold Resources managing director Wayne Bramwell at the Beta Hunt underground mine near Kambalda. \u00a0 (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)<\/p>\n

Miner has expansion plans<\/p>\n

Westgold’s acquisition of Bluebush Village follows a $100 million-plus investment in the Beta Hunt gold mine at Kambalda, since it acquired the mine in its $2.2 billion merger with Canada’s Karora Resources in 2024. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Westgold managing director Wayne Bramwell said the 400-strong workforce for Beta Hunt was spread across three different accommodation facilities, which he described as “inefficient”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Having a single camp, which we can expand, is key to being able to leverage the capital we’ve already invested into Beta Hunt,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Shire of Coolgardie can see that we’re committing capital to this region, and making a $22 million commitment is a very visible way of showing that we’ve got bigger plans for Kambalda.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The camp acquisition comes just weeks after Westgold approved a $145 million expansion of its Higginsville processing plant, 80km south of Beta Hunt, from its existing capacity of 1.6 million tonnes a year to 2.6Mtpa. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A regional council in Western Australia’s Goldfields has agreed to sell a controversial mining camp for $22.05 million.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,277248,277247,99,20761,232110,277250,277251,7134,129202,277249],"class_list":["post-562534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beta-hunt","tag-bluebush-village","tag-business","tag-fifo","tag-kambalda","tag-mining-camp","tag-public-tender","tag-sale","tag-shire-of-coolgardie","tag-westgold-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}