Super interesting post. There are so many rural Australian towns like this, though this is in worse shape than others I have seen.
Its funny that given the mine re-openned in 2015 the town hasn't come back to life.
I bought very cheap property in the remote NSW town of Collarenebri which has around 650 people about 15 years ago. It had some abandoned properties but still had shops, a school and a hospital and the Barwon river. It wasn't a mining town but was an agricultural hub that had lost its status to larger towns like Moree 150km away.
While I bought them to put solar panels on to get a feed in tariff, one property had a house (amoungst other buildings), which I spent about $30k doing up and now rents for $250 a week, much more than I expected.
It turns out that Federal government rent subsidy pays half the rent at that price so it pushed rents up.
The entire town was for sale actually, the mining company bought it. Houses were $35,000 and land $15,000. Very cheap. Most of the houses are not in livable condition really, but a few opportunists went there and snapped up a house and now live very cheaply, if very basically.
Actually those prices are a bit high for a town with no shops or facilities and only 100 people.
I paid $35,000 for a large main street plot with a house and a 360 sqm former supermarket and a 60sqm shop and two big sheds.
I paid around $15,000 for 1000 sqm land on a quiet street of Collarenbri, which has much more facilities (incl a public olympic swimming pool and a school which the Feds spent $5M renovating.