Kalgoorlie 25/3 to 28/3

We arrived in Kalgoorlie–Boulder as its is known, on Friday afternoon and our caravan park is located in Boulder. Upon our arrival, the first thing we noticed was that Boulder is dwarfed by the enormous ‘Super Pit – Gold Mine’ and most of the two story buildings in Boulder are propped up by large sections of scaffolding. 

Scaffolding in Boulder

 We have since learnt that Boulder experienced an earthquake last year and most of these two story dwellings suffered considerable damage.  However because these buildings have been heritage listed, we don’t think they will ever be renovated, due to the enormous costs involved.

Kalgoorlie Hotel

Kalgoorlie Hotel

Only a few kilometres away is the township of Kalgoorlie.  Kalgoorlie is dotted with very decorative buildings and displays a character of past grandeur.  In its heyday it would have been the place to be in the west and there wasn’t just a hotel on every corner; but all the way down the main street. 

Kalgoorlie Hotel

Butcher's Facade

 As you can see even the butcher shop had an elaborate facade.  Today Kalgoorlie’s population is very young, the average age is under 30 as they are here to earn good money from working in the mines.  The pubs therefore cater for the younger generation, most have karaoke, live music, and they actively market the existence of scantily clad young ladies known as “Skimpies” who are there to entice  the clientele.  Mark enjoyed a drink in the York Hotel.  It was full of interesting sporting memorabilia.  There was one of the Don’s signed bats, Mohamid Ali’s boxing glove, signed golf balls by Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods & Jack Nicklaus....I could go on forever.  If you’re in Kalgoorlie call into the York to have a look around.

Mark & I also did the ‘Hay St’ (House o ill repute) tour.  The Madame was an extremely well spoken lady of at least 70+, who was originally from Brisbane.  It was interesting to see the ‘starting stalls’ where any keen man had to wait before being allowed to enter into the house.  They did look like horse stalls.  We could not recommend Kalgoorlie as a family friendly town, as we noted a lot of drunk people in the streets, even during daylight hours.  The worst we saw was a pretty blonde young girl of about 17 who was unable to walk a straight line at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Superpit View - The trucks look so tiny down there!

Kalgoorlie’s skyline is dominated by the ‘Superpit’.  Alan Bond was the entrepreneur who first tried to buy up all the separate gold leases on this ‘golden mile’.  This was completed by the company KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mining), who now employ thousands of people and have invested millions into infrastructure for this extensive mining operation.

  Before the superpit, the miners followed the seams of gold down as far as 1.2km underground.  Then it was realised that gold could be extracted from the ore that had been discarded.  They even pulled up the pavers in the city as they contained gold. Now a huge hole has been dug in the ground, with blasting occurring every day and hundreds of trucks removing ore.  According to the marketing blurb, the superpit is expected to last until 2021   At that time they will have to decide what to do with it, as the mine will most likely not be viable.

Up close the trucks are huge....

Once the mining is discontinued then the KCGM group will depart and a large hole will remain in the ground.  Once this happens the hole will fill with salt water and it will eventually fill the huge hole in the ground leaving a lake that will be toxic due to the leaching of arsenic etc.  The Superpit tour we did today was extremely interesting.  For example did you know that each of these trucks can hold 220 tonnes of ore (that’s 220,000kg). An average of 1 in 6 trucks carries ore that will contain gold bearing ore.  This ore will usually yield 2g of gold per tonne of ore.  However KCGM extracts about 200 000 ounces of gold each year making this ground still the richest mile of earth in the world.  Pretty amazing!

After searching through the Kalgoorlie cemetery for the great, grandparents grave (Yes Kelly, we found it) it was lovely to visit Hannan Park (named after Paddy Hannan who was the first to lodge a mining claim in Kalgoorlie) an oasis of green in the red dirt township of Kalgoorlie.  Not sure why it has a miniature Bavarian Castle, but at least there would have been enough stone in the local area for the project.

Michael & Ryan you might be interested in the bicycle we saw in the mining museum.  Don't know how it would go on your wind trainer.

From here we are planning to travel south to Esperance and we’ll be looking for a freestay in Cape Le Grand National Park or nearby Duke of Orleans Bay, however after wonderful weather across the Nullarbor and in Kalgoorlie we’ve just heard that rain and a cold front is forecast.