Day 333 – 333 7/4 – 9/4 Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie has some interesting architecture. Most of it dates to late 1800’s/early 1900’s.

There was once 102 pubs in Kalgoorlie. Some of them are still there & most of them look good (& the beer is good as well).

Another town another brewery.

The first gold was discovered at Kalgoorlie in 1893. Since then there has been 60 million ounces of gold extracted. This is where it first started, this is the tree Hannan, Shea & Flanagan slept under on the first night. The next day they picked up 100 ounces of gold off the ground.

A couple of interesting bits of info:-

• there is no river or creek near Kalgoorlie but they do have a BCF store
• all of Kalgoorlie’s water comes from Perth via a pipeline
• the bore water is 12 times saltier than the sea
• all of the electricity comes from Perth, there is no local power generation
• there is no underground storm water. If it rains the water just runs to the lowest point

Where else would you get a tour of a brothel as a tourist attraction. Sorry no photos. 🙁

Mining Museum at Hannan’s North showed how it was done in the old days. Once upon a time all mining was underground. Now there is only one underground mine.

I even found some gold.

Super Pit tour was enlightening. Up until 1989 it was made up of 260 individual mining leases. Alan Bond was instrumental in forming a single large-scale cost-effective operation. Today it is managed by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines on behalf of Newmont Mining & Barrick Australia. It produces ~22,000 kilograms per year from ~150,000 tonnes of ore per day.

Did I mention its big.

This shows how big the machines are. The 793 Haul Truck weighs 166 tonne & carries 225 tonnes of ore. It has a 3790 litre fuel tank.

We even got to see a blast.

We are heading east across the Nullabor over the next few days.

Quote of the Day

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

J. R. R. Tolkien