Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie is a town that has never been healthier. In 1903 at the height of the gold rushes it was one of the country’s largest towns at 30000 people. Today it still has around 30000 people. The predicted end of life of the super pit around 2020 hangs a cloud, but the numerous mines around the area will no doubt maintain its importance as a regional centre, even if the noise of the mine moves away.

An early start, in spite of the pancakes and a sluggish pre-teen, had us in town before opening time, so it was off to the local water reservoir high on the only hill in town. This turned out to be a shrine of sorts for the water scheme that gave Kalgoorlie its lifeblood. Early on in the life of the diggings it was realised that gold fever would be replaced by typhoid fever unless reliable water could be supplied to the diggings. In an area where the evaporation was ten times the rainfall, this was always going to be a problem.

Working for the WA government at the time was an engineer called C.Y. O’Connor. Going on very little evidence in terms of rainfall, he determined the only feasible method was to pump water from the Perth Hills 600km east to Coolgardie, then to Kalgoorlie, and ultimately beyond. Dismissed in the popular press as a crackpot, in the circles that counted he showed that even though this project was bigger than any similar project in the world, by breaking it into stages it was feasible. Eight separate pumping stages then became more manageable.

The project was completed in 1903, but not before the engineer, facing impossible public opinion, suicided. He had however completed all of the planning and the construction was well underway. He was remembered by the premier at the inception, now Federal Minister Forrest. More than 100 years later, more than 70% of the original ironworks is still in the pipeline, although the pumping stations have been replaced, control has been upgraded, and the pipeline refurbished. It continues to be the lifeblood of the town.

From there it was off to the Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame. Our brochure said $2 a head. That was the price for locals. The $80 family price tag would have required more time than we could spend. We have, after all done mine tours and seen big trucks, so we moved on.

Back in town I dropped everyone off at the local WA Museum while I attended to domestics. Having taken some time in preparing  for our Nullarbor journey, I was rather unfairly accused of availing myself of a daytime tour of the local nightspots. Instead I had in fact been attempting to fit way too much food in the back of the car, while entertaining a local city aboriginal in town either for two weeks or two years depending on which story he was repeating me at the time.

A quick lunch, a sample of the local spearmint milk drink, then it was off to gaze over the side of the super pit, which is after all the biggest thing in town. We then went into Boulder, the merged twin city to Kalgoorlie and the home of the Super Pit shop. There my children managed to not only find out all about the operation of the mine, but the “educational” video also explained what a Kalgoorlie “Skimpy” is as well.

Then it was on the road. A quick stop at a lookout over the salt Lake LeFroy, some marital advice from the servo operator in Norseman and we were on our way east. A little later than we might have liked, we were still on the road at dusk. Mindful of all of the usual risks, we weren’t quite ready for the herd of camels which, quite understandably, figured they had right of way on the road. Tonight we are in a free camp at 10 mile rocks. My children descended on some unsuspecting German tourists whose only offence was to have a marshmallowable campfire. A comforting full moon lit up our journey and our campsite.