Kalgoorlie

It was a relief to pack up and leave Esperance without being held up by a flat tyre! The new tyre rim looks very flash and is doing its job nicely.

Corrugated camels at Norseman

We drove through the wierdly named towns of Grass Patch and Salmon Gums (where the service station attendant told us it was 40 degrees the day before), then on to Norseman for our first break. We found that the town is named after a horse, who kicked up a nugget of gold while tied up overnight in the area. Jackson and Lachie had a great chat to the fellow in the information building and learnt about Nullarbor Links, the longest golf course in the world. It is an 18-hole par 72 golf course which spans 1365km along the Eyre Highway from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Ceduna in South Australia.  We won't have time to complete the whole course, but the kids' eyes  were gleaming at the very thought. Of course, we have a slight problem - about the only thing we don't have with us are golf clubs. We'll work that one out when we need to!

One of the lovely buildings in Coolgardie

The drive to Coolgardie featured salt pans and empty salt lakes. In years past, the local kids were prevented from attending school during winter when the salt lakes filled with water. Summer was harvest time so many could not attend then either! The sky became overcast and threatening as we had our lunch with the ever-present swarms of flies. We had a quick look at the historical buildings before making the final dash to Kalgoorlie. We set up and enjoyed a swim to cool off, although it was no-where near as hot as we had expected.

The evening's entertainment included a fabulous lightshow - a huge thunderstorm with lots of lightning, wind and thunder, but very little rain. It continued well into the night, disturbing Lachie in the Blunderbuss. We reassured him that he was safe as houses in the van and he toddled back sleepily.

Sunday morning dawned clear and surprisingly cool. Our tour of Boulder-Kalgoorlie started at the Boulder Sweet Shop, conveniently located on the way to the Superpit lookout. Dave thoroughly enjoyed the NZ sweet section and had difficulty choosing from his childhood favourites. We found out later that New Zealanders make up 7% of Kalgoorlie's population, which explained the comprehensive NZ sweet selection. The Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine (KCGM) Superpit is a HUGE opencut gold mine. Alan Bond started buying up small underground mines in the 80's and although he bailed out in financial difficulties, the Superpit open-cut mine was eventually created in 1989. The Superpit is approximately 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and 360 metres deep - so big that it can be seen from space. It certainly impressed us - the scale of the operation is unbelievable.

A ute following one of the huge 793C Mining Trucks

We watched the huge machinery for ages. The kids were enthralled by the activity and the mind-boggling facts and figures on the interpretive boards.  For example:

PC8000 Face Shovel (for loading trucks)
Price: $10 million
Engine: 3714 hp (2 engines)
Fuel tank: 11 000 litres
Weight: 685 tonnes
1 bucket load: 60 tonnes
Maximum speed: 2.1 km/h

Drilling for the charges to be laid for the next blast

and the rather impressive tonka trucks:

793C Mining Truck
Price: $4.5 million
Engine: 2300 hp
Weight: 166 tonnes
Fuel tank: 3790 litres
Payload: 225 tonnes
Maximum speed: 55km/h

'Twas Mulga Bill from Eaglehawk,
 that caught the cycling craze ...

On the way home we stopped at the museum where we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the mining exhibits and enjoying the 360 degree view of Kalgoorlie from the mining Headframe there. A handmade bicycle ridden by "Mulga Bill" interested us all. We're still not sure if he was nicknamed after Banjo Paterson's poem or if it was the other way around!

Monday morning saw us waiting outside the tour office in Kalgoorlie, ready to board the bus to tour the superpit. We spent the next 2 and a half hours being amazed at the size of the machines and the scale of the whole operation whilst struggling to understand our driver's Scottish accent.

Sporting a mo' for Movember

Incredibly, each huge dump truck carrying 200 plus tonnes of rock would average a piece of gold the size of a golf ball. To each load of gold-bearing rock, there are 6 trucks full of waste rock which gets dumped into the ever-increasing waste piles. As the tour ended the news came through that a blast was about to be detonated in the pit, so we drove back to see it. We had to wait for an hour, but it was worth it!

One of Marcus's 35 photos of the blast!

The kids enjoyed another swim in the pool in the afternoon although it wasn't exactly hot. We had expected temperatures in the mid 30s but our Kalgoorlie experience was a very pleasant 24!

Across the Nullarbor next. I suspect it will be a l..o..n..g drive, probably our longest stretch so far.

Stay tuned ...