Dirt, Dirt and more Dirt!

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After leaving Brad and Vicki's house we took a detour into Lake King to see the lake and the town. The town has approximately 50 people and consists of a general store, a chemicals shop, a tavern, netball/football fields and some public toilets so it is really really small. The lake is quite large but has very little water and looks like a lot of salt flats.
We then traveled north back towards Hyden/Wave Rock again. We took a road that was a shortcut to Coolgardie to save us going down through Esperance, which saved us about 300klms. The road was mostly dirt (about 140k of dirt), or I should say mud and very orange. Our car and van were covered!! We stayed the night in free camping spot along the highway 120k west of Coolgardie.
The next morning we had a really lazy morning not leaving till about 10am. We stopped in Coolgardie to look around. Coolgardie is Australia's largest ghost town, but in the late 1800's it was a hive of activity being the first town that gold was discovered in WA. It was later found that Kalgoorlie had much more gold so most people moved there leaving most of the old buildings of Coolgardie deserted. We went to the information centre only to find that it was closed that day for some reason. We looked at an old open pit mine then went on the 39klms to Kalgoorlie.
kalgoorlie is a mining town and has around 30,000 people living there. It is surrounded by mines, mostly gold but there is also nickel mines. The largest mine is called the Super Pit and is the largest open pit mine in Australia. It is currently 3.5 km long, 1.5 km wide and 360 m deep, and will eventually stretch 3.9 km long, 1.6 km wide and reach a depth exceeding 500 m. We were lucky enough to see a blasting from the lookout. We were unable to take a tour of the pit as rain keeps delaying the tours.
Today we went out to Kanowna an active gold mine and a ghost town. The mine is large (not as big as super pit) being as wide as the Sydney harbour bridge and as well as being open cut it also goes underground, it was about 800 metres deep. While standing at the lookout we nearly got blown away. It is sooo windy today, the wind hitting me was stinging my eyes and the skin on my face, it was also freezing. There is nothing left of the town except for piles of rubble where buildings once stood. The streets a all maped out (dirt) and they have put name boards in front of each pile of rubble to tell what once stood there. We looked around the old cemetary with all the graves being from the late 1800's when the town was a major gold mining town. Many of those dead were miners. All through out the town and the cemetary are mine shafts, so we needed to watch our step.
We then drove back into Kalgoorlie and went to the railway museum, which is the Boulder loop railway line. This line is not currently working as they are trying to raise the funds to fix the trains and the line. The loop had stops in alot of the suburbs of Kalgoorlie. We looked in some old trains, one being the old train that used to travel from Perth to Kalgoorlie. It will be a great tourist attraction once the line and trains are ready.
We then went to the Mining Hall of Fame. This had lots of information about todays mining as well as the mining of old. We went down into an old mine that is not used anymore. This mine is one of the original working mines. We went down in the cage with our hard hats on. Our tour guide was an ex miner, he retired a few years ago, and was a funny old character, always calling us females on the tour "Hey lady". We went down about 40 metres, but there was about 12 more levels below that, though some were flooded and unable to be entered. It was actually nice down there out of the cold wind. We then had just enough time to do a bit of shopping to prepare us for the trip back over the Nullarbor and to wash the car.
Tomorrow we will be heading south to Norseman and then start the long trek back to Ceduna, so could be a few days till we have internet or phone reception again. Till then...........

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Photos

Thick red mud
Yuck, it was everywhere!

More Mud
Even our bikes were covered!

Blasting in the Super pit
We could see the blast before we heard it, but boy was it loud.

The miners
Yup we even had to wear hard hats on our head.

Comments

[Lucy]

Hi
Just catching up again. Kids are all sitting around me saying "we should do that" and "why can't we do something like that". When I first saw the picture of the big wave I actually thought you were surfing and how clever you were, particularly Danni as I didn't think she surfed. LOL! Hope you've had a safe trip back over the nullaboor and we look forward to seeing you back in Bundy in a couple of weeks. If the weather stays the same as this week, you'll be coming back to glorious weather - the week before was a bit cold but this week has been really nice. Love to you both. Lucy PS. Do I know Brad and Vicki or are they related on Aunty Vicki's side of the family?

[DannigirlR]

Hiya :)
Lol yes you should all go traveling, it really is amazing how much you learn about different places. We'll be back at the end of August sometime, we are dropping in to see Neil and Lisa Hutchison in Mount Isa for a biit, and then maybe Merv and maree in Longreach and then Kresto in Emerald. Brad and Vicki are related on Nathan's mum's side, her real brothers son and daughter inlaw. Brad's dad was one of the brothers we organised for Vicki to go see in WA for her 60th. Take care and we will see you all in about a month.