The WEST...where everything is big...............

Just got into Western Australia and MOVE over we are into  the BIG state.

A regular occurance is having to move over or right off the road, some trucks display wide loads others have escort vehicles like this one.  Sometimes there are half accomodation dongas or housesand machinery being carted to mine sites.

Saturday and Norseman in a very fine mist, we never got really wet just light mist, except Friday night at Belladonia which was quite a wet night so the luxury of a powered site at the service station come everything including a very good interperative centre. Informative history there about the Afghans and the camelieers and their role in the developement of the outback.

Norseman at the WA end of the Eyre Hwy, (apols for poor quality text)..One crisp winter night in 1894 prospector Laurie Sinclair tethered his horse Norseman for the night and in the  morning it was lame, a sizeable piece of gold bearing quartz was the cause, and so the rush started. A claim was registered and thus the town was born, named after the horse.

Our first vision of a huge 'slag' heap at Norseman, a gold mining town, very small and in decline. The only 2 shops open was the well stocked IGA General Store and a very cute Op Shop. All other stores were closed down and boarded up. Bargain time for me 2 new bras $4 and a new pr of nice black Homey Ped shoes, the elderly lady was telling us that most people by online and when they get their goods and are wrong size etc it is too expensive to send back so she gets lots of new stuff...nice! The other major problem in town she told us is our first australians come there and move into empty houses, drink too  much and trash the town breaking windows, and so on the stories go.

Just anothrer campfire setting and a meal, this one north of Norseman and Kalgoorlie on the Coolgardie-Esperance Hwy. We camped by a railway line, a mine railway, during our stay there 2 trains north and 2 south, 2 engines in the front and 2 more in the middle and hauling 162 side dumpers of ore.  We got 'honked' a few times.

 

KALGOORLIE-BOULDER...pop 31,000 joint town, rich town, poor town.

 

It was WA day long weekend and the Caravan Parks were maybe full...one not so

friendly said NO TOURIST SITES! prices are expensive and reviews were not so good so onto

Wikicamps and out the road to Lake Duglas, 11 km out of town, free camp, but safe and suited us well. We unhitched here and travelled in and out to town. Wikicamps is interactive so comments and photos can be posted and this is very helpful..I have become a 'poster' .

 

  The vibrant colours of the outback. Lake Duglas. Pit toilets and tables and seats and fire places, the locals come out here to trail bike ride which was good to watch. There is a very shallow red mud lake.

 

KCGM, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine, from the lookout/viewing area at the 'super pit' you can view the workings of an open pit gold mine. It is on the edge of town it is HUGE. The dump trucks take 7 minutes to haul up the incline after loading..the mining info was mind bogling and lots of info to take in , I took many pics too many to post here!

At the KCGM  Superpit Shop/Museum...BIGGER

 

 The wheel barrows the pioneer miners bought their personal goods out to the goldfields. Replica housing and tents.

6 huge dump trucks of ore to produce gold the size of a golf ball.

 

We had 4 full days of touristing in Kal Boulder, being a long weekend it was easier for us to find our way around, We went to the highest point first Beacon Hill, ie was where the water pipe from Perth to Kal is sited and amazing engineering feat of its time, the same engineer CY O'Connor designed Fremantle Harbour and also Niagra Dam where we later camped, all early 1900's The Mining museum took up 2 hours of our time and the Loop Railway Museum, there was an 11 mile railway loop around the two towns carrying passengers to and from work and shopping. It was an extremely wealthy town in the gold rush days, even back then cooks, house keepers and laundry sewing ladies a made excellent wages.

The infamous Hay St  'stalls' 20 men to 1 woman..therefore business must have been brisk!

In Oct 1999, we passed thru Kal and it was the last weekend of these 'stalls' were in business and a new 'shop' was opening up, but back then the girls were sitting outside each door awaiting a customer!

Exciting shopping in Boulder ..looking for a saucepan for the camp fire!

Just near here was the Metropolis Pub, we were able to look down a minshaft in the bar which was covered with a thick glass floor.

There were new house and old houses, lots of males and females in orange or yellow and navy work gear, dusty and greasy, as were their vehicles, utes and 4WD's.

 A very busy and fun town to visit with all the shops and services of any major city.

Tuesday we did a Boulder Town Hall tour, because of  the beautifully painted 'trick of the eye' Phillip Goatcher Curtain, an exquisite hand painted drop curtain and believed to be one of the last surviving examples of Goatcher work. Painted in around 1910, flat surface and pulls up with out folding or rolling into a calico 'bag' .AWESOME.

The calico bag the curtain is pulled up into and when necessary it is cleaned with bread! dampened white bread!

 The Boulder Town Hall built in 7 months in 1908 opened just before the Kalgoorlie Hall, both were competing to have their own town halls, Boulder had wooden seats and no different charge to sit in the 'dress circle' ..the Kalgoorlie Town hall has the cast/velvet seats still and it was dearer to sit in the dress circle there.

The Green Room of the Boulder Hall backstage, this is where the artists prepared. In April 2010 there was an earthquake which rocked Boulder and not Kal and caused huge damage, all the mainstreet was scaffolded and restored..can only imagine the expense,but do not remember the earthquake..which happened in our own country!

 

Anyway because of he earth quake and restoration work the paint was peeled back in the green room and revealed the signatures of all the artists who had performed there dating back to 1910. The pic above here...it's late!

 

Wednesday, Kalgoorlie Town Hall tour, as Doug Hawkes' great uncle was a mayor for many years and the historian had info about him. He was a well respected Mayor for around 18 years: For the Hawke family google him up, very interesting life and the Sports facilities of today are named after him.

 

Wednesday..Kal Town Hall..plush.. Paddy Hannan, who first found gold in Kal, the original copper

 statue of him.

The rotunda in Hammond Park near the Arbetoreum, where Mick and I had lunch as Mick did a puncture repair after I found a nail in the tyre...handy man with the 'dog dick'!!!(that is what the repair thing is called I am told!!) Beaurepairs could not do that and guarantee it would work so wanted to sell us a new tyre..we have repaired tyres this way before without further problem..so fingers crossed.

 

 

 

7 km north of Kalgoorlie is the 'Two up' shed as it was in 1999 when we went there with $5 in our pockets to watch 'very well groomed and begolded' ladies with their men friends throwing $50 and $100 notes in the ring..way out of our league!

 

and so that is just alitte bit about Kalgoorlie-Boulder a nice town with a fascinating history,

well worth a visit ...

next off to the Northern Goldfields....and that is stunning country!