Kalgoorlie - Boulder, Western Australia, AustraliaOctober
It
starts in Mount Magnet.
560k
NE of Perth with a population of around 1,000.
Its
a historic centre for gold mining and pastoral leases.
Gold
found in 1854 and the first sheep farmers arrived in 1878.
Gold
started to be mined in 1891 and its still going making it the longest
continuous gold mining centre in West Australia.
Named
mount Magnet in 1886 because of the magnetic rocks found here.
In
1891 the gold mine was called Poverty Flats and back then 250 ounces
of gold was dug in just a few hours. The largest nugget found weighed
100,03 ounces.
The
photo of mine from Checker hill .
Unlike
some places the gold is processed here and only gold leaves here and
the treated ore is returned to land fill . This is Checker Hill
lookout made of gold removed ore and dirt , then regenerated to
return the way it was. Right yeh it is like nothing happened here ,
you make up your own mind.
We
visited all we could in the area including the old site of a
waterfall with lots of caves and caverns around.
Lennonville
Townsite that was another boom town for gold between 1894 to 1905
when gold ran out. At its peak it had population of 3,000 .
We
also drove and walked around what they call The Granites a 15 metre
escarpment weathered into different shapes . Used by the Aboriginal
people for over 20,000 years as a seasonal camping area when when the
rock holes [ gnamma] had water in them.
Time
to move on and we stopped the night at a road side stop before going
into Sandstone.
The
population here is now only around 45 with no children left in town.
Most of the people here work for the council . In its gold hey day it
had pop of 3,000 in 1920s.
It
still gets full each year as the part time gold prospectors come into
town between April 7 Oct. most have private mine leases or friends
with someone who has . The gold they fine is enough , I am told , to
keep them happy. As the gold detectors get better they get to find
deeper gold. There are a couple of mines in the area still working.
While
we were here we went out to the old brewery where the beer was kept
cold deep in a cave.
London
bridge a 350million year old rock formation that is slowly falling
apart. It had a track across at some stage but it is unsafe now.
We
went out to Lake Mason which is an old homestead that is part of WA
National parks now. You can camp here but some of the old buildings
are off limits because of asbestos in the walls.
Only
one caravan here and he is a prospector, the old wind mill is still
bring some water to the surface but there is no water in the lake. We
did find a old yellow spot monitor lizard who had a limp on one
front leg.
I,m
glad we are not staying here its too dry and very rundown.
Its
on to Leinster established in 1976 by BHP for its mine workers. It
was a closed town but now accepts visitors and has a small caravan
park, supermarket, school and everything to keep the mine workers
happy. Also along with the houses is lots of donger ,portable rooms ,
accommodation for the fly in fly out workers.
So
after a couple of days its on to Leonora .
Like
all these towns its wide enough to turn a camel team around. Gold
found 1896 leading to towns of Leonora, Gwalia and Malcolm. Gold and
Nickel mined in this area.
The
only town still with people is Leonora. And a couple still in Gwalia.
We
stayed in town for a couple of nights then moved to the Museum on the
hill over looking Gwalia and its still working open cut gold mine.
Which of course its fenced off.
This
is a heritage site and you can pull up and stay at the museum but
outside the gates. You can go into the museum during there opening
times. Inside you can also stay in the Mine managers house.
This
was built by Herbert Hoover mine manager in 1897. He became America's
31 st President .
Rooms
from $190 a night . It also has a small cafe so we had afternoon tea
there one day.
The
mine had lots of Italians , Former Yugoslavia workers living in
Gwalia in earth floor , corrugated iron buildings . Working in
underground tunnels until WW11. Then in 1963 mine closed
and
in in 1983 open pit mining started and after going into receivership
in 2005 the mine was sold and underground mining started again and
still runs today.
We
leave one ghost town and head to another Living Ghost town . This one
had 11 hotels in the boom days. What is it about these old mining
towns and hotels did everybody only have work and drinking , nothing
else in their lives.
It
did have all the usual shops as well as a soft drink manufacturer.
You can pull up for the night at the still running Grand Hotel ,
which the sign says is for sale .
We
did not stay as we could not find anybody but someone had just fed
the horse on the hotels front porch.
We
move on to Niagara Dam.
This
dam we had been told was worth staying a couple of days. It was built
in1897 to provide water to the railway that was extending north. You
can camp and swim, kayak, launch small boat etc.
Well
we picked the wrong time it was empty and workers came to fix some
leaks in the dam wall. Apparently a couple of years ago they tried to
do the work when the water level was very low, draining the rest ,
bringing in the machines , diggers etc and workers camp only to have
it rain that hard the river filled the dam. So the water level was
down again this year so the drained and all turned up while we were
there and were still working when we left after 2 days.
We
did get to walk around and across the dam wall. You do have to be
careful as it is an old gold mining area and there are shafts in the
bush.
Look
at the water puddle below the wall , do you see a map of Australia
like we did.
So
the next place before Kalgoorlie is Menzies. We stayed a couple of
days in the council run small caravan park , walked around town . It
has hotel with a small shop, council office and a few other small
businesses but the one selling fuel has just classed so people have
to go to Kalgoorlie or north to Leonora Good job we had been told
and put extra fuel in Leonora.
So
on our way to Kalgoorlie we called into Goongarie Homestead which is
another Pastoral lease that WA Parks has bought to keep as National
park or conservation land.
We
pulled up expecting Caretakers to be still there but they had already
left and no more come in until after summer. I'm glad we decided to
look after Gredo homestead and not here its so run down .
Caretakers
stay in the shearers quarters not the homestead. Visitors can stay in
the homestead or campground.
But
we did stay a couple of nights as we had booked into caravan park in
Kalgoorlie /boulder for a week and it did not start until 23
October. We were going into town to get some work done on the solar
setup , air-conditioner, car windscreen changed and car serviced.
So
on to Kalgoorlie and November in Credo Homestead.
2025-05-22