28 The Golden Mile - Ka;goorlie 28 March 2012

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April 5th 2012

Published: April 5th 2012

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DonPattie

Big Bucket !

Lynne & Chris - Recognise this?

1. Money. We went on a great tour of the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine. This is the huge pit that has been dug and is currently extracting 22 tonnes of gold a year. The hole is 3½ kilometers long, 1½ kilometers wide and 500m deep. They expect to go down a further 300m and progress further along towards town. The cut may cease in 5 to 10 years because they (a) run into town and (b) the ore body goes too far underground. They are already doing some underground mining to the north of the Superpit. There is not a lot of machinery, but what there is is huge. The trucks carry 200 tonnes of ore a trip and the loaders can fill them with four scoops. It is truly impressive and was started by Alan Bond in the 1980’s. Until then all the mining was held in lots of small leases and it was done by tunneling. He tried to get them all together and nearly succeeded but 1987 came along. The consolidation did come together soon after and in the early 1990’s the open cast digging commenced. The stockpile of gold bearing ore waiting to be processed is worth

Superpit

They started digging in about 1990, and will finish in 5 to 10 years.

about $67 million!

2. People. We met a couple of kiwis working here. The first was in the tour office (see above). She loved the climate, and the bad bits were controlled by air conditioning, and she was earning a third more than in NZ.

The second we could tell was a NZer, so we chatted to him. He was working as a bouncer at a skimpy pub and earned $55 per hour, $60 on Fridays and Saturdays. What’s a skimpy pub? It’s where the female bar staff are scantily clad. One hour: tops on, one hour: tops off. We could tell he didn’t want us (old folk) to go in!!

3. Golf. We played the new Kalgoorlie Golf Course. Its only 2 years old, designed by Graham Marsh and is very good. Long - 6,433m off the club tees, with kikuyu fairways, so not much run. Ladies 5404m. Desert off the fairways, but play the lie. 6 par fours over 350m, with the longest 429m! Pattie won, and is now 2 down.

The first two holes are also the first holes of the Nullabor Golf Course – the last two are at Ceduna in South

Machiney

Loading a 300 tonne truck (full zoom on camera)

Australia – 1300km away. On your journey, you pull off at a roadhouse or gas station and play one hole, get the card stamped and on you go. We’ve played 5 so far, and the conditions are horrendous, and we’ve been told they get worse.

4. Old buildings, etc. Gold was discovered at the end of the 19^th century and the buildings they put up are magnificent. Gold was discovered at Coolgardie first in 1892 and the prospectors just picked it up off the ground. Coolgardie is now almost a ghost town. The next year the same deal at Kalgoorlie 39km to the east. As there’s very little good timber around, lots of the buildings were built of brick and stone and are quite striking.

There’s very little water, 200 to 300mm of rain a year, so to sustain the miners, etc, from 1898 to 1903 the Government built a pipeline from Perth 556km away and pump water along it and up 400meters. It’s still working today, and in addition, provides water to several of the towns in the wheatbelt along the way.

Written at Fraser Range Station Camping Ground, published as soon as internet connection achieved.