In 1999, Lisa Govan went on a night out with colleagues. She hasn't been seen since.

The following is an extract from Vanished: The true stories from families of Australian missing people, by Nicole Morris, available via Big Sky Publishing.

Lisa Govan and her boyfriend moved from their home in Perth to the mining town of Kalgoorlie. They set up house and Lisa worked at a couple of jobs, in a gift shop and also at night at the mine as a spotter, guiding the enormous trucks.

Her sister Ginette thinks Lisa liked living in Kalgoorlie, but it was hard at times. It couldn’t have been more different to her life in Lancashire, UK, and it was also difficult living so far from her family and friends in Perth. It was the first time she’d been away from them, and she was now almost 600 kilometres away. Lisa called her parents every week, and when Ginette got her first mobile phone she and Lisa would text each other all the time. Pat remembers with a laugh ringing Lisa and saying, “What time is it in Kalgoorlie?” It felt like 10,000 miles from suburban Perth.

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On Thursday October 7, 1999, Lisa went out with some work friends. Boyfriend Tim was at work at the mine, doing a 12-hour shift. Lisa had dropped him there in the ute, as it was pouring rain at the time he started work. She started her night out at the Exchange Hotel, where she met a work colleague. Lisa moved on to the Safari Nightclub in Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie. CCTV shows her mingling with other patrons inside and outside the club. Lisa left the Safari with that work colleague, known as ‘the bald man’, at 4.45am. They caught a taxi, which took them a short distance, but Lisa asked the taxi driver to take her back to the Safari, as she wanted to see her female friend, who had been out the front of the club. That man told police he was expecting Lisa to meet him at his home that morning, after she left the Safari, and when she did not turn up he rang her repeatedly. This information was not known by Lisa’s family at all until very recently. Police have interviewed this man extensively and have stated he is not a suspect.

The next sighting of Lisa was at around 7.30am, on Friday October 8, 1999, outside Bunnings, then across the road at the Foundry Hotel bottle shop, on Boulder Road. The hotel is next to the clubhouse for the Club Deroes bikie gang. Witnesses have told police Lisa was then seen inside the clubhouse at 7.45am, playing pool.

Police believe Lisa’s last known location was at the Club Deroes clubhouse. There is no evidence that anything happened to Lisa at the clubhouse or hotel, but she was never seen again after going inside.

To Ginette, it’s a mystery how she came to be last seen at a bikie clubhouse. ‘Her boyfriend had a bike, but he wasn’t a bikie.

Image: Supplied.

'Lisa never talked to me about anything to do with bikies, so I don’t know how she came to end up there.’ 

Sharon, however, was aware that Lisa regularly went to the bikie clubhouse. Her initial reaction was one of horror. ‘I was like, “Oh, my God, what is she doing?”’ 

When Sharon confronted Lisa about what she saw as her sister’s risky behaviour, Lisa couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. To her, these people were just her friends. To be granted access to the clubhouse, visitors had to be associated with the club members and be invited in, so it seems clear Lisa knew some of the bikies.

‘I told her to be careful,’ says Sharon. Lisa shrugged it off.

Pat thinks it’s less unusual than people may think that her daughter went to the clubhouse. ‘A lot of the young people in Kalgoorlie went there. When the pubs and nightclubs closed, they all used to go to the bikie club. We were even speaking to one of the reporters about Lisa and she was a lovely girl, expecting her second baby and she told us that she often went there.’ It wasn’t regarded as a dangerous place, and in a town where the main source of employment – the mine – operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the clubhouse was just another venue for shiftworkers to go to when they finished work, when the usual pubs were closed, if they knew someone to invite them.’

I asked Pat if she thought Lisa was being rebellious when she decided to ignore Tim’s pleas for her to head home, and deliberately stayed out longer, and Pat said she thought she probably was. ‘I’ve been stubborn like that, in my day, too. If someone says don’t do it, I’ll do it.’ Lisa lived about 10 minutes’ walk from the Foundry Hotel. Pat isn’t sure if Lisa would have chosen to walk home or hailed another taxi. That decision may have been fateful.

When Tim finished work, he came home to find no sign of Lisa. He was immediately worried and tried to report Lisa as missing to Kalgoorlie Police. He called police on the Friday morning but police told him they were unable to do anything about a missing person for two days. Tim rode around Kalgoorlie on his motorcycle, looking for Lisa. He was panicking, and while he was out searching, he fell from his bike, injuring himself, and went to Kalgoorlie hospital.

Image: Supplied.

Ginette remembers driving home from work at about 5pm when her mobile rang. It was Tim. He asked if Ginette had heard from Lisa. The fact that Tim was calling her at all rang alarm bells for Ginette, as she didn’t speak to Tim very often. Ginette told him she hadn’t heard from Lisa at all and suggested he call her mother. A short time later Tim phoned Pat to say he could not find Lisa. Pat recalls Tim sounded ‘absolutely petrified’. She, too, was concerned that Tim had phoned, as it was quite rare for her to speak with him on the phone; it was usually Lisa she spoke to when she called them. ‘My stomach turned over and I thought, “Crikey, what’s wrong?”’ says Pat. Lisa had arranged to phone her mother to discuss a recipe that day, so Pat waited for that call to come. It never did.

The bikie clubhouse attached to the Foundry Hotel, being the last place Lisa was seen, was thoroughly searched by police, but nothing was found.

About a fortnight after Lisa disappeared, Pat broke down. ‘I lost the plot completely,’ she says. Her voice falters as she tells me that this is when she realised the worst had happened.

'I just kept living in hope, but I’ve got used to the fact now.

'The hope is gone. I still dream about her, and I still have nightmares about her. It gets easier to cope with, but it never leaves you.'

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Pat and Ian have since been to Kalgoorlie with metal detectors, scouring the red dirt in the hope of locating Lisa’s remains. If her clothes had something metal attached, like a zipper, belt buckle, buttons, bra wire, jewellery, then the metal detector just might pick that up. Ian would locate something of interest with the detector then Pat would get down on her hands and knees and dig at the dirt, searching for her buried child. It’s an image that moves me to tears.

To further put pressure on those who police suspect are involved, properties owned by the Club Deroes were raided in Kalgoorlie and Perth. The Cold Case Homicide Squad went back to Kalgoorlie and re-interviewed their persons of interest. They say they have received ‘very credible information’ in relation to Lisa’s suspected murder.

Detective Sergeant Shane Russell was asked by Ben Harvey if he believes he will find Lisa’s body.

‘Yes, I do,’ he firmly replied.

As I concluded Lisa’s story in 2021, the Western Australian government announced the reward for information about Lisa’s disappearance and presumed murder has been increased to $1 million.

If you can assist police, please contact 1800 333 000.

You can remain anonymous if you wish, and you can even claim the reward money anonymously.

The following is an extract from Vanished: The true stories from families of Australian missing people, by Nicole Morris, available via Big Sky Publishing.