Gold Fever?

25th June - We went on a 1/2 day tour of Kalgoorlie today - it is a big city. Many new areas have been populated due to the mining boom so it spreads far and wide. The tour guide was an enthusiastic local who took us all over the city and gave us some insight and lots of information about Kalgoorlie and surrounds. 

Firstly we went through the RFDS centre and got to look over one of the very valuable planes of this wonderful service. Hopefully we are never in need of it’s services.

Now this is what I'd call cramped
working conditions - taken from
the tiny cockpit

After touring all the sights, historical buildings and areas of interest (not necessarily to us) we went up to the lookout over the superpit which is 3ks long x 2ks wide and 500m deep and getting bigger. We’ve seen lots of BIG things above ground to this point on our trip and this is an, equally as impressive, big hole in the ground and of course all the equipment that goes with it. 

Hard to believe anything like gold or nickel
could come out of here. We still haven't seen any gold!!

Unfortunately we couldn’t wait around for the blast, which was on a 1 hour notice, it would be something else, I’m sure.  A lot of the shops, pubs etc. are original or refurbished to ‘original’ condition, especially in Kalgoorlie itself, so it’s like driving through the 1800’s at times.  Boulder, which is an extension of Kalgoorlie to make it a city, doesn’t get the funds that Kalgoorlie does, so has a lot of run down buildings and damaged ones from an earthquake 2 years ago. It doesn’t make sense if they are combined to make Boulder Kalgoorlie City!

Tomorrow we set off for the Nullabor or, as someone said it should be called, The Nullaboring. I'll let you know. Again Ray has a sniff of the east coast and has to pick up a new SUP board in Sydney so is keen to get that and spend some time on the coast but I'm hoping we can take a bit of time and enjoy some places of interest along the way.