Goldfields

The vast open spaces of the Goldfields make it one of the country’s most interesting regions. Kalgoorlie-Boulder is 600 kilometres east of Perth, and while the drive may deliver a lot of red earth and blue sky, it gives an insight to how vast Australia is. And unless things have changed since my last visit, the empty VB tinnies in the gullies at the side of the road give an insight into how thoughtless some Australians are. My ‘tidy’ fetish for not littering, however, is balanced by the fact that the inside of my car usually looks like a tip.

Kalgoorlie was (and is) a mining town, although it doesn’t produce as much now as it did in the boom of the 1890s. It has since grown into the regional city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Apart from the history, for those who want to experience nature as painted with a broad brush, there are dramatic landscapes, a feeling of isolation by day and an amazing canopy of stars by night.

The Museum of the Goldfields tells the story of the pioneering past, as does the nearby historic gold town of Coolgardie where you can try your hand at prospecting.

Explore Kalgoorlie’s Hannan’s North Tourist Mine and its 100 years of mining history, take a tour of ghost towns that thrived during the WA gold rush and play Two Up a few kilometres out of town – the only place in Australia where the gambling game of Two Up is permitted (outside casinos and on Anzac Day when a blind eye is turned to pubs throwing on a game in the back bar).

Undoubtedly you will bump into colourful ‘locals’ who will also remain part of your own pioneering experience of discovery. The tin-shed ‘red-light’ district is also worth visiting – for an outside look, not an interactive hands-on tour, unless the urge takes you. (Remember, it is a mining town and men could be there for months without female company!).

Naturally, getting water to region so remote was a problem and an engineer named O’Connor was enlisted to come up with the solution of piping drinking water across the country to the goldfields from Perth. At the gala opening of the pipeline, the tap was turned and … nothing happened. That night, O’Connor took his own life, depressed and humiliated. The next day, the water arrived. It took that long to travel the distance.

Note: The above story was related verbally, so it’s either fact, embellished or someone was having a lend of me. That can happen in outback pubs. And outback pubs should be part of a traveller’s agenda even if they are teetotallers. A cold lemon squash over the bar with the heat outside beats a can of fizz from a shop any day.

I recall having a beer with a bloke in a Northam pub, who told me that he was eight years old when he saw his first rainstorm. He was inside and, hearing loud drops hitting the corrugated iron roof, he raced outside to investigate. There, he saw rain pitting the dust and felt the water hit his face. He was so shocked, he fainted, and his mother had to bring him round by throwing a bucket of sand on him – as I said, people as dry as the landscape.

More Information

For more information about Western Australia:

• Events And Festivals
• Accommodation
• To See And Do
• Perth
• South West
• Southern Region
• Outback Coast
• The Pilbara and Kimberley

Western Australia Tours With Tours To Go