Kalgoorlie-Boulder:

We were now leaving the coast and heading north to Kalgoorlie. We stayed at Norseman which is a gold mining town. The gold was discovered when the prospector’s horse started pawing at the ground and it unearthed a gold nugget. The horse's name was Norseman. After this discovery the town was started. Water was always a problem in these area and the camels were instrumental in delivering water and goods to the town. In the centre are some camels fashioned out of corrugated iron in recognition of their contribution . It is a lovely country town with wide streets and a friendly atmosphere. A large area of “tailings” (left over rock after all the minerals have been extracted) is at the end of the town. You can go up on the hill and get a bird’s eye view of the surrounding area. There are quite a few salt lakes and harsh countryside.

Kalgoorlie is a fascinating town with so much history and beautiful old buildings. Our caravan park was in Boulder and really the two towns are joined. Unfortunately there was an earthquake in the town in April this year and Boulder suffered the worst damage. A lot of the heritage buildings were cracked so scaffolding has been erected and it seems unlikely that they will be repaired.

After we settled in we went to the info centre and found out there was heaps of things to see here and so much history. You can hire an audio headset which will take you for a walking tour of the main street (Hannan St) which I did. Heritage buildings including many beautiful old hotels some of which had great big staircases, made you think you had stepped back in time. There were 27 pubs in the town most of which are still there. This was such an interesting tour as you were given such an insight to the life in those days.

Gold was discovered in Kalgoorlie by Paddy Hannan in 1893 and a massive gold rush started. Adventurers from all over the world came to try their luck. Imagine the hardship – just getting there was incredibly difficult as it was a long way and a lot of men walked or pushed a wheelbarrow with all their belongings. The work was hard, lonely and very hot but the rewards were great if you were lucky. The town grew very quickly because of the wealth that was achieved. Kalgoorlie turned out to be the richest goldmine in the whole world and over 100 years later it is still producing much gold.

The biggest problem was water in this hot dry climate and it became as valuable as gold. Through a marvellous feat of engineering and vision by CY O’Conner in 1903 a pipeline was built to bring water from Perth. The pipeline is still used today but the steel has been replace by concrete and it now runs on top of the ground rather than buried on the ground which encouraged rusting. There is a lot of surface salt in these areas.

Once water was secure the town swelled and more men with "gold fever" came by the thousands to make their fortune. With the influx of so many single men, a lucrative brothel service was provided and at one stage there were 25 brothels in Hay St. There are just three remaining and the girls can be seen sitting in the “stalls” in the evening.

Most of the richest mines were close together in an area called the Golden Mine. This has now become the Super Pit when all the individual mines were bought and it is now a massive open cut mine which makes it possible to operate a gigantic and ever-descending super pit, in which massive equipment can tear out the old underground workings and the unmined gold in between. It is so huge you can hardly believe it - 3.8 klms long and 1.5 klms wide. It is the richest gold mine in the world and produces 850,000 ounces of gold each year.
There is a viewing point where you can watch with fascination as the huge trucks cart large loads of ore up the windy roads of the pit. They look so tiny but are really huge.
The trucks are a CAT793c. Each Cat carries 220 tonnes of rock but only 1 out of 6 carries ore. The average grade is 450 to 500 gms per truck load of ore ie one golf ball. It takes about 45 minutes to fetch and carry a load and reaches a top speed of 12 klms per hour. The truck burn 185 litres of fuel per hour and fills up twice a day. It costs $6000 to fill.

The next day we visited the museum where we saw a replica of the largest nugget ever found. I wish it was real. There were some replicas of a miner's hut and also a miners tent. There was a poppet head which you could go to the viewing platform for a marvellous view of Hannan Street.

After that I went to the Miners Hall of Fame which was the most comprehensive and amazing display of the history of mining. Included was an underground mine tour, viewing of a gold pour and a try at gold panning. As well as this was masses of old gold mining machinery, examples of old miners huts (very basic), an old CAT truck which you could climb up into(You can hardly see my head) plus a huge one, a beautiful Chinese memorial and an amazing discovery and interactive centre plus videos running throughout the day - there was just so much to see. This was the site of one of the original mines.

The gold pour was very interesting. They heat the gold to extremely high heat. The pourer donned an very heavy heatproof suit then took a great big clamp to lift the red hot pot out of the furnace and pour it into the mould for the gold bar. This is then put into a cooler. When it was cooled they passed it around for us to feel. My dream has always been to have a gold bar under my bed but I couldn’t keep this one!!!

Then off to the mine tour. I was a bit nervous about going underground. The lift was only small and descended very slowly until you were down in the mine. Our guide was an old miner full of jokes but
he also explained what they used to get up to. In the mine we were shown how they mined in the earlier days which is greatly different to the operations now. The walls were propped up with wooden poles which stopped the wall falling on you.This was one of the original mines.

I tried my hand a gold panning but my interest didn't last very long although the fellow having a go had been quite successful.

I would thoroughly recommend a visit here but make sure you have plenty of time.




I have a new job!! ( if you can see me)