KALGOORLIE WA

 With Coolgardie done it was a quick 35 km trip to arguably one of the most famous or indeed infamous towns of WA if not Australia, Kalgoorlie or more correctly Kalgoorlie - Boulder.
 Kalgoorlie, takes its name from the a Wangai word, Karlkurla, meaning "place of the silky pears". Marsdenia australis, commonly known as the bush banana, silky pear or green vine is an Australian native plant and a bush tucker food used by Indigenous Australians.

The following description adequately sums up how Kalgoorlie came to be:
"In January 1893, prospectors Patrick (Paddy) Hannan, Tom Flanagan, and Dan O'Shea were travelling to Mount Youle when one of their horses cast a shoe. During the halt in their journey, the men noticed signs of gold in the area, and decided to stay and investigate. On 17 June 1893, Hannan filed a Reward Claim, leading to hundreds of men swarming to the area in search of gold and Kalgoorlie, originally called Hannan's, was born."
  The metropolis that is Kalgoorlie, with its 30,000 residents, reminds me very much of another iconic Australian mining town, Broken Hill. Both being of a contemporary vintage with comparable architecture that was the norm for the period have a remarkably similar look and feel.
  Probably the most amazing aspect of Kalgoorlie is the "Super Pit" a hugely impressive open-cut gold mine situated just outside the town precinct. To come to this place without a visit to view the pit and be amazed at the sheer size of the operation would be unthinkable in my opinion. The massive hole is approximately 3.6 kilometres long, 1.6 kilometres wide and 512 metres deep. It was created by Alan Bond, who bought up a number of old mine leases so as to procure the land area needed for the Super Pit. Occasionally the excavation has revealed an old shaft containing abandoned equipment and vehicles from the earlier mines. The mine operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and blasts at 1:00 pm every day, unless winds would carry dust over the town. Each of the massive trucks carries 225 tonnes of rock and the round trip takes about 35 minutes, most of that time being the slow uphill haul. When you look at the pictures keep in mind how big these vehicles really are and you are sure to realise the extent of the vast excavation. Interestingly, unlike many other mines in WA, all employees live in Kalgoorlie so are not fly-in fly-out. The operation that is expected to be productive until about 2029 produces up to 850,000 ounces of gold each year.
(Click on a photo to enlarge)

The Super Pit