Gold was discovered at Kalgoorlie in 1893. Local folklore tells that three men travelling through the area stopped to replace a shoe lost from their horse and found 100 ounces of alluvial nuggets. I’m not sure how true this really is, but it made a good story and another gold rush was off and running.
The discovery became known as the Golden Mile and it is still one of the richest gold deposits in the world. In the 1980’s, many individual mines were bought up and amalgamated into a single, seriously big hole in the ground. This is known as the “Super-Pit” and it is well named.
It is hard to describe this thing, as it is utterly gobsmacking in size! It is so big, it actually defies description. Photos cannot adequately capture the sheer immensity of it. Apparently it is so big it actually affects the rotation of the earth.
For those interested, some numbers may help illuminate here. Every year, over 85 million tonnes of dirt and rock are excavated from this hole! For every 1 million tonnes extracted, they get around 250-300 kilograms of gold.
This equates to around 20,000 kilograms of gold dug up every year!!!
I tried to work out what that was actually worth in dollars but the calculator exploded… We are talking a seriously amazing amount of money!
So, I staggered away from the Super Pit in absolute awe.
In its heyday, Kalgoorlie had 93 hotels to cater for the thirst of its miners and there are still a lot of pubs around town. Most of its original main street is extant, so if you can ignore the intrusion of modern cars, you can easily imagine being here in the 1890’s.
Big Ruins
There was much gold discovered here over the years. Populations exploded overnight when prospectors arrived by the thousands to stake a claim, hoping to make their fortunes. Many failed but others did find gold and there are tales of giant nuggets just lying around just waiting to be picked up.
Towns rapidly sprang up. Many towns still have the original buildings that still proudly proclaimed that vast fortunes were made.
But it was not to last. Sadly, the gold ran out and many towns declined quickly as the prospectors moved away to try their luck somewhere else.
Some towns, such as Cue and Yalgoo, are still living towns and exhibit a faded splendour today, offering a glimpse into their glorious past. But others have disappeared completely, leaving little record of their existence.
Big Bell
The town known as Big Bell only lasted for twenty short years. The mine opened in 1934 and the town was laid out in a well-ordered grid pattern. At its peak in 1954, there was a population of around 850 people. Then in 1955 the mine closed and the town began to die.
There was only one hotel, which was a beautiful art-deco design and boasted the longest wooden bar in Australia. Unfortunately today, the hotel remains are derelict with only the crumbling outer walls giving any indication of its former magnificence.
There was a dance hall, a music hall and outdoor picture theatre, now completely gone. The walls of a church still stand, as does the water tank that once supplied the entire town. There is not much else left to see, apart from piles of shattered bricks and rusted tin cans littering the sites of once proud homes.
Big Rock
Walga Rock is a large exposed granite monolith, second in size only to Uluru. Aboriginal people lived here and left a magnificent record of their lives on the smooth rock surfaces.
Many of the paintings are done in red ochre and are very faded; it is likely these are very old. There are beautiful patterns, hand outlines and concentric circles.
There are glorious ancestor beings along with emu tracks and wonderful snake figures.
Most amazing is the painting of a sailing ship, complete with sails, rigging and portholes. It is stunning to see this incredible image, especially as this place is 325km from the coast!
Sadly it is now unknown how this painting originated.
There are various theories of course. One is that the painting was done by a shipwrecked Dutch sailor in the 17th century. Another is it was done by an Afghan cameleer and there appears to be writing directly under the painting which looks to me like it could support this theory.
