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| Our First Glimpse of the Kalgoorlie Boulder |
Well it didn't take us long to go down the wrong road looking for a campsite for the night. After travelling all day and arriving in the outskirts of Kalgoorlie we followed the map to this water campsite. First it was a horrid dirt road which we both bounced along for quite a while. Then we arrived at an area that is used for burn outs with burnt road as black from the tyres that had bee torn apart. We saw a couple of guys on trail bikes and asked them how much further we had to go and would it be any good for caravans. They gave the o.k. so we ventured a bit further until we saw the brown water hole and campers that we worked out are from the mines and a family of Aboriginals that were there as well. If you blow the photo up you will see a gorgeous little boy naked who is part of their family.
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| lost tours campsite. |
We decided very quickly that this is not where we should be and didn't feel safe at all. We did the big turn around and went bouncing back up the hill to the main road. When we opened the vans we were very lucky that he doors hadn't flung open as it was like driving over grated and dusty.
We then travelled onto Kalgoorlie and found refuge in the town park with green lawns and walkways. We set up camp and the only people that came near us that night were a car of family people who must be lost as well as they were looking for the van that had great hamburgers. Yum! at this stage and feeling tired we all wanted to follow them to look for the van, but we were connected to our van. Tough luck.
The night was peaceful which surprised us and we all had a good sleep. We went up town and had a look around and to get our bearings and stock up on essentials like milk etc.
The town was deserted and all the shops were closed even the aboriginals were nowhere to be found.
This gave us a good opportunity to wander around and go to the information centre to plan our stay. Well it is 11a.m. and we can now go to a park and book in and set up our vans for our stay which will be quite hectic as per normal.
Later in the afternoon we went up to the Kalgoorlie Boulder which is the mine site that they have been working on for many years. What a horrible site it was like looking at some alien area that was devastated by an atomic bomb. I will stock you all up with as many photo;s of this area as possible so that yo can get an idea of how big and desolated this pit is. Mind you we passed many mines on the way in here but they are not open for viewing to the public like this one. This is my opinion of the site only.
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| Looking into the PIT before sunset |
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| another side of the PIT |
THE GOLDEN MILE
The Golden Mile is the open pit as shown in these photo's. In 1980 Alen Bond bought up all the mining leases around the area to form open cut mine. The pit will end up 4km long and over 1 km wide and when it gets to 700 mt rs deep they will go back to mining underground. The lease is to 2021.
From the pit 80% is Orr and only 20% Gold. Only one in 10 trucks that come out have gold content in the load. There are 30 trucks running 24/7 and they each carry 225 tons, and they are worth 4 million each. The trucks use 200 liters of fuel to get from the bottom to the top. The trucks coast down the pit and don't use any petrol.
The trucks do 108 thousand trips in 110 thousand hours that is it's life time.which is 1.7million km
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| sunsets are spectacular |
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| PIT |
Mine blasting happens 2to 4 times a week and the Golden Mile comprises more than 3000 km of old underground workings.
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| PIT |
A View of the Main Street of Kalgoorlie
The township is quite small and tidy. The Pit is the main focus of the area. The Aboriginal people seem lost and didn't know what to do all day except drink and sit in the streets. It is sad to see and sad to see their children not at school.
Our day's and nights were seeing the sights. On the second day we went on a tour of the Pit and how it works. The workers don't see the Gold as it is all removed by crushing the stone and then immersed in the tank and the gold collects in a water bubble and floats to the surface where it is collected by a sucker machine. The gold then is melted and then sent off by rail of air .
The Orr is crushed and sent away by trucks and delivered by train or road to the port where the ships will be loaded.
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| main street |
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| old butcher shop |
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| Hotel |
The city came alive like any other on the Monday morning.
It is good that they don't open on Sundays.
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Town Hall     
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| This is one of the gold caring trucks |
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| these balls of rock are for crushing the rocks |
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| one of the trucks working its way back up the hill |
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| map of he gold and or site |
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| these house the crushed rock |
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| THESE CYLINDERS HOLD GOLD LIQUID |
Well another exciting time has been had and an exhausting one. We will leave here for Esperance in the morning. Our time in Kalgoorlie has been very educational and interesting and we are happy to share it with all of those who are interested.
Love to all our friends and family until tomorrow. Love john and Sandy
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