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Published: November 28th 2011
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Coolgardie
Police Station, Court House, Jail. Leaving K.B. (Kalgoorlie-Boulder)we headed west to Coolgardie. As you will (may!) recall from the previous blog alluvial gold was found here in 1892. Coolgardie grew quickly in the next 10 years to be a town of 15,000 people, 23 hotels, 6 banks and 2 stock exchanges ! The main street was made wide enough for camel trains to turn around in & was lined with some magnificent buildings & although few remain today, of the ones that have survived, 23 have been listed on the National State Register. Walking the main street looking at these buildings we noticed many 'markers' positioned at historic sites utilising stories & photographs to recapture the gold rush days.
As many of you 'older' (with respect !) Aussies will know, Coolgardie is also famous for something other than gold. As in many outback towns, the heat and isolation led to innovation, in this case that of the "Collgardie safe". The first Coolgaardie safe was a box like structure covered in heavy hessian which was kept damp with water. This was placed in a breezeway to keep food and other items cool inside before the days of electricity. This technology is still used today
Coolgardie
Stock Exchange,Council Offices in the form of canvass water bags that are mounted to the front of vehicles. Coolgardie cemetary gives you an idea of the harshness of the early gold rush years, as well as being the resting place of Ernest Giles , whose name is associated with the exploration of inland Australia. As there was no coffee shop available for Trish we headed on south towards Esperance.
Our next stop was back in Norseman to collect a few supplies before heading on. We had our own coffee break just outside Norseman , where Trish made great expresso coffees in her Cafetiere !
The first 'town' (point on te road) of note was Salmon Gums, not quite as pretty as it's namesake, it consists of a pub, a school, & a few houses. More noticeable though was the fact that we had now entered the eastern edge of the West Aust Wheat Belt, which we followed all the way to Esperance. Next town, with another picturesque name, was Grass Patch, an old grain receiving deport for the rail line that ran down to the port of Esperance. First impression was that this was a clean and
tidy little town with a great looking pub. On driving around the couple of streets that made up the town, we found the Grass Patch Stay & Park ! A fantastic overnight camping ground with toilets & showers all beautifully clean & tidy. For a small fee (payable at the pub) you can camp there overnight. Great spot to stop if you needed one at the end of the day, we did not stay as it was only lunch time & we had only a few hours left to drive onto Esperance.
The local Aboriginal ppeople, the Noongar Nation, called Esperance 'Kepa Kurl', the place where waters lay down like a boomerang. During a gale in 1792, two french frigates on a mapping voyage of the Australia coast, took shelter off Observatory Point. The first ship was L'Esperance (meaning Hope), the second ship was named L'Recherche (meaning Research)These two ships are what Esperance (the town) and the Recherche Archipelago which comprises 110 islands and 1500 islets are named after.
Australia's only known pirate "Black Jack Anderson" roamed around these islands of the Archipelago in the 1830's, appparently you can still see the remains of
Coolgardie
...Big wide street ! his huts on Middle Island. 1863 saw tthe arrival of the first settlers who walked overland with their families and over 3000 head of livestock from Northam. Many other settlers followed as large tracts of land were taken up. With the discovery of gold in Coolgardie, Esperance became a hub of activity as miners arrived from far and wide by boat at the port. Esperance then became the principal port for the Northern Goldfields. Withe the success of newer farming methods in the 1950's which enabled agricultural pursuits to flourish, Esperance is now a major grain port, as you will see from the photographs. Last year the port handled over 10.5 million tonnes of product involving 230 ships.
But Esperance is also famous for it's white sandy beaches & has the honour of having 'the best beaches in Australia' & that is why we came here (to see if we agree!). It is romantically dubbed 'the Bay of Isles' & you will see why in the photographs. We will check out a few of these beaches over the next few days & if we like them we may come back later in Feb'12 to while away some
time whilst waiting for the wet season to finish up North, why not !
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