Kalgoorlie WA – Oz Half Lap 2018

About Kalgoorlie

There is nowhere else in Australia quite like Kalgoorlie. Unlike most gold-mining towns, which last for as little as a couple of years, it sits on the edge of the famous Golden Mile and has an economy which has been driven by gold since 1893. The main street, Hannan Street, is awash with glorious buildings all bearing testament to the wealth that has been generated. It is a city to be savoured.

A unique expression of the potency of gold fever and the wealth that can be generated by this hugely valuable metal. Modern Kalgoorlie is far removed from the town as described around the end of the 19th century: “When my party stepped from the train at Kalgoorlie, we saw before us a scattered array of wooden and galvanised iron houses … In the near distance we could see the towering poppet heads of the widely known Great Boulder mine, and the din created by the revolving hammers of the ever active stamping machinery assailed our ears as an indescribable uproar. But beyond the dust and smoke of these nature-combating engines of civilisation, the open desert, dotted with its stunted mulga and mallee growths, shimmered back into the horizon” (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Kalgoorlie Caravan Park

There are several caravan parks to choose from in the region. We settled on Kalgoorlie Goldfields Discovery Park in the suburb of Boulder (maplink) as it had a good write-up and was central to town.

Kalgoorlie Town Tour

We booked into the Gold Town Discovery Tour, which provided a great insight of Kalgoorlie’s history. We visited…

Historic Hannan & Burt Street – a drive down the main street, where a pub was built with bricks from the local church in the 18800’s
The old Bush Two Up Ring – where Merrisa got to do the toss
Mt Charlotte Lookout of the water supply pipe (from Perth)
A view of the famous “Super Pit” open cut mine
An “Chunky Timbers Studio” where the guy makes fantastic objects out of scrap timber
RFDS Visitor Centre at the airport

We booked into the Gold Town Discovery Tour, which provided a great insight of Kalgoorlie’s history. We visited…

Historic Hannan & Burt Street – a drive down the main street, where a pub was built with bricks from the local church in the 18800’s
The old Bush Two Up Ring – where Merrisa got to do the toss
Mt Charlotte Lookout of the water supply pipe (from Perth)
A view of the famous “Super Pit” open cut mine
An “Chunky Timbers Studio” where the guy makes fantastic objects out of scrap timber
RFDS Visitor Centre at the airport

Two Up school
Two Up school
Merrisa has a go at Two Up
Merrisa has a go at Two Up
Two Up school
Mt Charlotte Lookout
Kalgoorlie Town Hall
Super Pit views
Super Pit views
Super Pit views
Super Pit views
Super Pit views
A BIG bucket!
Chunky Timbers Studio
Chunky Timbers Studio
Chunky Timbers Studio
Chunky Timbers Studio
Chunky Timbers Studio
Chunky Timbers Studio
Kalgoorlie RFDS tour
Kalgoorlie RFDS tour
Kalgoorlie RFDS tour
Kalgoorlie Caravan Park - dinner time
Kalgoorlie Caravan Park - dinner time

Museum of the Goldfields

The Kalgoorlie Museum of the Goldfields was quite interesting place to visit. We learnt a lot about the goldfields and history of gold exploration in the area.

The basement vault contains replicas of historic gold nugget finds and explains the costly process of extracting the precious metal, for example…

The gold produced for a single gold wedding ring may require the removal of over 20 tonnes of rock!
Gold mining produces more waste rock per gram of metal than any other metal
The production process is known to release toxic metals into the environment and uses large amounts of energy

Museum of the Goldfields
Miner's bike
Miner's bike
View of Kalgoorlie
View of Kalgoorlie

Ancient Rome display at Museum of the Goldfields

While visiting the Kalgoorlie Museum of the Goldfields we found a special exhibit about ancient Rome with working example of some of the inventions they created including…

The first land odometer
The first naval odometer
How they built their roads
The Groma – used by surveyors to lay out land boundaries
The abacus
Meridian Sundial
Water Wheel

Questa Casa Brothel Tour

Whilst in Kalgoorlie we took a tour of the famous Hay Street Brothel called Questa Casa which is reputed to be Australia’s oldest brothel run by an 80 year old madam by the name of Carmal.

The tour group sat around in a circle whilst Carmal’s daughter told us the history of prostitution in Kalgoorlie from the earliest days to the present. It was a fascinating tale to be told. If you are ever in Kalgoorlie this is actually a really good tour to do.

We then had a guided tour through the brothel seeing the working girls rooms and the “dominatrix” room with all it’s whips are very scary looking sex toys.

Kalgoorlie Brothel Tour
Kalgoorlie Brothel Tour
Kalgoorlie Brothel Tour

Some links…

What’s Up Downunder (YouTube) with Frankie J Holden

Kalgoorlie Super Pit

The Kalgoorlie Super Pit, run by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd (KCGM), is the largest open-cut gold mine & 3rd largest open-cut mine in the world. KCGM was created by Alan Bond in the 1989 when he consolidated a heap of mining leases to allow the open cut to begin.

We took the 2.5 hour Super Pit tour with Kalgoorlie Tours & Charters which was pretty good. We learnt a lot about the super pit and the massive scope of operations required to extract and process gold from the mine. The Super Pit…

is 3.9 km long and 1.6 km at its widest point
covers 35,000 hectares and is approx 600 metres deep
produces around 700,000 ounces of gold per year from around 15 million tonnes of extracted rock
the big dredges and trucks last about 7 years and are then replaced
they use 5 to 6 million litres of diesel fuel per month and store 700,000 litres onsite
KCGM expected gold processing to finish at the mine in 2021, however it now plans to extend ore processing until 2029