KALGOORLIE

2^nd March, 2012

We rolled into town early this morning after spending the night free camping at a picnic reserve on the outskirts.  It would have been a great spot except for the open cut mine just over the hill.  We couldn’t see the mine and couldn’t really hear it until ‘lights out’.  You know when those trucks back up they make that ‘beep beep beep’ sound.  Then it all goes quiet and then it starts up again.  Yep ….. you get the ‘beeping’ idea.  The first thing on our agenda was to stock up on groceries so a visit to the supermarket was in order.  On the way we stopped at the lookout to get a birds eye view of Kalgoorlie.

Kalgoorlie township

The pipe you see in the foreground brings water from Perth (600 kilometres away) to Kalgoorlie.  It was built in 1902 – a marvellous engineering feat.  The lookout is on top of the water tank that supplies the town with fresh water.

Wok playing in the water - straight from Perth

Kalgoorlie is on an ancient flood plain and fresh water is non-existent.  Until the pipeline was built, all drinking water had to be transported in as the only water to be had in the area was contaminated with salt.  When Paddy Hannan and his two mates stumbled across surface gold at Kalgoorlie in 1893, the gold rush began and although the gold is no longer on the surface and the town has had its ups and downs, Kalgoorlie today is the centre of mining in this part of the state.  It’s lunchtime so we decide to treat ourselves to a counter lunch.  The Exchange Hotel looks a likely spot and we step back in time as we enter the bar area. 

Exchange Hotel

Now bear in mind that even though Kalgoorlie is to all extents and purposes a modern town, it is still primarily a mining town and its hotels are full of overall wearing miners quenching their thirst and female bar staff clad in underwear and high heels known as ‘skimpies’.  The Exchange Hotel’s front bar doesn’t disappoint and Wok gets directions to the restaurant area from a scantily clad barmaid.  Fish and Chips is the ‘special’ on the blackboard menu so we order two and wonder if we will manage to get through the huge plate of food when it arrives. 

Wok is wondering whether he can do justice to his fish and chips

Guess those miners get awfully hungry as well as thirsty!  Wok managed to get all the way through his lunch and only needed to make four trips back to the bar to top up his beer.  Finally we made it to the supermarket and then checked in at a caravan park for a couple of nights.  The next morning we took a drive up to the Super Pit.  

The Super Pit

This jaw dropping open pit is humongous and at 3.8 klms long, 1.35 klms wide and 500 metres deep can be seen from space.  The Super Pit was once a collection of smaller underground mines now all joined together in one big open cut.  We watch fascinated as the massive tip trucks ply back and forth, zig-zagging their way up and down.  Large 4 Wheel Drive Utes look like toys beside these trucks

Little tonka toy trucks at the bottom of the pit

and Wok is fascinated by the size of the shovel from one of the cranes that loads the ore onto the trucks.

Wok is suitably impressed by the size of this shovel

We spend an inordinate amount of time at the Super Pit mesmerised by those tonka toy trucks and tonka toy cranes.  Simply captivating!

Our next stop was going to be the Mining Hall of Fame museum but much to our surprise this large complex was closed.  We made enquiries and found out that it had closed in December due to lack of funding.  You would think that with all the money being generated by the mines in the area some of these companies could spare some pocket money to keep this historical facility open.  So we opted for a walk up and down

Hannan Street

(the main drag) which has retained many of its gold rush era buildings.  After lunch we headed off for a tour of Questa Casa (This House).   It was pretty easy to spot with its many pink doors.

Wonder what's behind the pink door/doors?

Our instructions were to come to the main door and ring the bell.  After a few minutes a lady came and let us into the sitting room where we waited for the rest of the tour guests to arrive.  Pretty soon there were twenty of us scrunched up into the small parlour and our tour guide ‘Carmel’ introduced herself as the Madam of Questa Casa, the oldest (and still operational after 100 years) brothel in Kalgoorlie.  Carmel (a woman in her fifties) explained that she had never been a ‘working girl’ and in 1990 she and her mother had invested their money in buying and operating Questa Casa.  For the next hour and a half we learned a lot about the gold rush and Kalgoorlie albeit with a quirky slant and had lots of laughs.  Carmel made sure that we were on our way long before the ‘night shift’ arrived.

Our visit to Kalgoorlie was over.  It’s an interesting place with streets wide enough for a camel train to turn around – a necessity in goldfield towns.  And besides ‘crossing the Nullabor’ we can also cross ‘visit a brothel’ off our bucket list!