Statue of gold miner Paddy Hannan

York Hotel, Kalgoorlie

The Super Pit

Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie

A frontier mining town that has refused to lay down and die, Kalgoorlie and its sister city, Boulder, remains one of the most prosperous rural mining cities in Australia. Located about 600 km east of Perth, it is the centre for the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. Its current approximate population is 30,000. With the nearby locality of Boulder and surrounding suburbs it forms one local government area, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Kalgoorlie is the largest urban centre in the Goldfields-Esperance region.

Where is it?: Western Australia: Goldfields. 597 km east of Perth via Great Eastern Highway.

Things to see and do:

Places, famous or infamous, that Kalgoorlie is noted for include its water pipeline, designed by C. Y. O'Connor, which brings in fresh water from Mundaring Weir near Perth; its Hay Street brothels (the street itself was apparently named after Hay Street, Perth); its two-up school; the goldfields railway loopline; the Kalgoorlie Town Hall; the Paddy Hannan statue/drinking fountain; the Super Pit; and Mt. Charlotte lookout. Its main street is Hannan Street, named after the town's founder. One of the infamous brothels has since been turned into a museum and is a major national attraction.

Lookouts: Super Pit Lookout

Events:

• April: Heart of Gold Festival
• May: Multicultural Festival

Surrounding area:

The nickel mining town of Kambalda (56 km south east)

Famous goldmining ghost town of Coolgardie, 39 km south west

The Goldfields Discovery Trail self-drive adventure for those ready to experience the Outback and one of the world's most famous gold-producing regions. Running from Coolgardie to Laverton, the trail winds through 25 interpretive sites recording the lively and fascinating history, flora and fauna of the landscape. The trail passes through a number of key contemporary and historical mining towns, the fascinating Gwalia ghost town and visit Lake Ballard with its extraordinary sculptures that rise from the remote salt lake.

About Kalgoorlie

A major source of income for the town, as well as a source of fascination for visitors, is the Super Pit, a giant open cut gold mine approximately 3.5km long, 1.5km wide and 360 metres deep. It was created by entrepreneur Alan Bond who bought up a number of old mine leases in order to get the land area needed for the Super Pit. Every now and again the digging reveals an old shaft containing abandoned equipment and vehicles from the earlier mines.
The mine operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The mine blasts at 1pm every day, unless the prevailing winds would carry the 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.
Many women are employed in the mine as drivers of trucks and operators of equipment. Women are believed to be more gentle in handling the equipment and less inclined to recklessness. Employees must live in Kalgoorlie; it is not a fly-in fly-out operation. The mine is expected to be productive until about 2017. At that point, it is planned to abandon it and allow the groundwater to seep in and fill it. It is estimated it will take about 50 years to fill completely. There is a visitor centre overlooking the Super Pit.
For eastward train travellers, on the trans-continental Indian Pacific service, Kalgoorlie is the last town encountered for hundreds of kilometres before entering the vast expanse of the Nullarbor Plain. The Prospector train, run by Transwa, provides daily services to Perth.

Climate: Kalgoorlie has a dry climate with hot summers and cool winters. The average annual rainfall is 260mm on an average of 65 days and, while the average rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, there is considerable variation from year to year.

History: Kalgoorlie's story began in June 1893 when prospectors Patrick (Paddy) Hannan, Tom Flanagan, and Dan O'Shea were travelling to Mt. Youle when one of their horses cast a shoe. During the resultant halt in their journey, the men noticed signs of gold in the area, and decided to stay put. On 17th June 1893, Hannan filed a Reward Claim, leading to hundreds of men swarming to the area in search of gold and Kalgoorlie was born. The mining of gold, along with other metals such as nickel, has been a major industry in Kalgoorlie ever since. The concentrated area of large gold mines surrounding the original Hannan find is often referred to as the Golden Mile, and is considered by some to be the richest square mile of earth on the planet. The town's population was about 30,000 people in 1903 and began to grow into nearby Boulder.
The Goldfields area boomed as a whole, with an area population exceeding 200,000, mainly prospectors. It gained a notorious reputation for being a wild west with bandits and prostitutes. This rapid increase in population led to a proposed new state of Auralia but with the sudden diaspora after the Gold Rush led to plans falling through.
The narrow gauge Government railway line reached Kalgoorlie in the 1896; the railway service from Perth was the overnight sleeper train, The Westland, which ran until the 1970s. In 1917, a standard gauge railway line was completed, connecting Kalgoorlie to the city of Port Augusta, South Australia, and consequently the rest of the eastern states across 2000 km of desert. The standardisation of the railway connecting Perth (which changed route from the narrow gauge route) in 1968 made it possible for rail travel from Perth to Sydney - and the Indian Pacific rail service commenced soon after.
The town of Kalgoorlie and the shire of Boulder amalgamated on 1st February 1989 to become the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Kalgoorlie remains a separate entity but is part of the federal division. The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder is today made up of 20 sparse suburbs, each of which are maintained by the Kalgoorlie-Boulder council, although many residents of the suburbs in the same postcode as the two CBD's state their address simply as 'Kalgoorlie', 'South Kalgoorlie' or 'Boulder' rather than as a particular suburb).

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