FROM a boisterous mining settlement with 11 pubs to a ghost town with only six permanent residents, the West Coast town of Gormanston has seen boom and bust.

But two of the most recent arrivals in the town, high in the mountains behind Queenstown, say Gormanston can have a vibrant, if very different, future.

Gormanston’s last long-term resident, Bev Legge, left last month after more than 80 years in the town.

Pensioner Taz Huxley and his carer, Shane Viper, moved into “Gormy” in November and are experiencing their first winter in the house they are renovating.

They say Gormanston had the potential to become a community of artists.

It could also make much more of its ghost town status as a tourism drawcard or perhaps house a meditation retreat, they say. “In the early 1900s until the 1920s, this town was the centre of the West Coast,” Mr Huxley said.

“It could come alive again as an arts community, a place where photographers, painters, writers and musicians can find inspiration.

“The sound of silence here is something else.”

In its heyday the town, set up in the late 1800s to house workers from Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company’s Iron Blow operations, had more than 1000 residents.

There were 11 pubs in Gormanston and four in nearby Linda — which still boasts the burnt-out shell of the Hotel Royal and the award-winning Linda Cafe. Linda is also a ghost town with only three houses, a cemetery and the cafe.

The heritage-listed Royal Hotel needs major structural repairs and Mr Lane says all it needs is some steel and help from the State Government and West Coast Council.

“I would hate to watch it crumble to the ground,” he said.

The last vestige of Gormanston’s glory days left standing is the dilapidated remains of the Workman’s Club.

Most of the houses that once dotted Gormanston’s patchwork of suburban streets have gone.

When the 2006 census was taken, Gormanston had a population of 167. There were 10 permanent residents last year and now 40 per cent of them have gone.

However, the town comes to life in summer when anglers arrive en masse with their boats to fish on Lake Burbury.

Mr Huxley and Mr Viper picked up their house for $40,000 and you can buy a vacant block of land for less than $20,000.

helen.kempton@news.com.au