Tuesday 14 October 2014

Australia 2014 - (15) Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie is home to the Super Pit, a massive gold mine on the edge of the town. I had hoped to take a tour around it on Monday, but the first available tour is Wednesday leaving me three days in which to amuse myself.

After a day of domestic chores and shopping, I explored the town including the Western Australian Museum which gave a history of mining in the area and had a large “headframe” which you could go up and view the town from.

Next, I took a tour of a brothel. Yes, that’s right, a brothel – you can actually have a tour of the oldest one in town (there are two now but there used to be 18 in its heyday). It was quite interesting from a historical perspective but left me feeling somewhat unsettled.

Today I took a ride up to the Super Pit Lookout and got my first view into the mine. My goodness, it is absolutely massive. I can’t wait for the tour tomorrow to see it all up close and see how the gold is extracted.

Finally, I went on to the Mount Charlotte Reservoir and Lookout. Kalgoorlie has very little water of its own therefore it is all pumped in through a pipeline from Perth, a journey of about 560 km. It is deposited into the reservoir and several other storage tanks from where it is distributed to both the mine and the people of the town.