Kalgoorlie

7th November, 2010

We followed the Golden Pipeline through fields of wildflowers to Kalgoorlie. We spent the morning at pretty Hammond Park, where the kids played on the equipment and amongst the free roaming peacocks and avairies.

Next stop was the Superpit, a massivegold and nickel mine. Its 1.5km wide, over 3km long and currently 300m deep. the plan is to cut it further down to 500m over the years. The kids loved watching the oversized Tonka trucks load up 200 tonne of rock, drive up the windy hill to the dumping spot where the rocks are then dumped and sorted. At the moment, the value of gold they get out of each truckload is between $23,000 and $25,000. With 31 trucks working 24 hrs a day, the dollars quickly add up.

We headed into nearby Boulder to see the damage that the earthquake earlier in the year produced. Alot of heritage buildings were scaffolded up and alot of restoration work was going on.

The afternoon was spent at the National Trust Museum, where we stepped back in time to a very well maintained miner's cottage and got a taste of what life was like in the early 1900's. It looked a bit more comfortable than some of the situations we've been in this year! We visited the vault where we learnt alot about gold and headed up a mine shaft for a view over Kalgoorlie and Boulder.

We camped the night out at Lake Douglas and woke constantly to the sounds of a nearby mine operating 24hr hours. Gotta love the sounds of heavy machinery!

An old laundry set-up, where's the machine!

Peacock at Hammond Park

Worlds Tallest Bin at Kalgoorlie


The Golden Eagle, the biggest nugget ever found in WA.

The Superpit

The miniature castle at Hammond Park