Kalgoorlie-Boulder

Gold was found here in 1893, and unlike most rush towns Kalgoorlie never stopped: the Golden Mile beside it is still being mined, now as one enormous open cut. That gives the place a doubled character. Hannan Street is wide enough to turn a camel team in, lined with two-storey hotels in painted brick with deep verandahs, most of them put up between the 1890s and the 1920s. A short distance away the pit swallows several kilometres of ground and haul trucks the size of houses crawl along its benches. The water that made all of it possible arrives through a pipeline completed in 1903, running more than five hundred kilometres from the hills behind Perth.

History

The city lies on the lands of the Kapurn people, and in the winter of 1893 the prospectors Paddy Hannan, Tom Flanagan and Dan Shea, halted when a horse cast a shoe on the way to Mount Youle, noticed gold at the foot of what is now the Mount Charlotte mine; Hannan's claim of 17 June 1893 brought hundreds of men, and Hannan's Find became Kalgoorlie. Calaverite found in the rush was taken for fool's gold and used in buildings and paving, until in 1896 it was found to be a gold telluride and nearly everything built in the previous three years was pulled apart for the gold; by 1898 the town had 2,018 people, and it soon replaced Coolgardie as the largest settlement of the Eastern Goldfields (Wikipedia, Kalgoorlie).

What's there

• Hannan Street - a very wide main street lined with verandahed hotels and civic buildings.
• The open cut lookout - a viewpoint over the working pit and its haul trucks.
• Boulder's town centre - the second townsite with its own town hall and commercial rows.
• The water pipeline - the 1903 scheme that still supplies the goldfields from near Perth.

When to go

April to October is the sensible window; summer temperatures here sit in the high thirties and forties with no relief after dark. The pit lookout has closed at times for mine operations and blasting, so check on the day rather than assuming. Underground and surface mine tours book ahead. Mornings suit photographing the street facades, before the light flattens everything.

What to expect

This is an industrial city first and a heritage town second, with mine traffic, dust and red grit over everything. Some historic hotels are rough inside, and parts of Hannan Street are visibly struggling. The drive from Perth is long and monotonous. Summer heat makes street walking unpleasant. The pit is impressive, but you view it from a fenced platform at a distance.

Nearby

Coolgardie, with its outsized abandoned civic buildings, lies 40 kilometres west.

Key facts