Mozzies Around Australia: Day 11 Kalgoorlie to Gwalia

After a bit of time out we are hitting the road again and heading north towards Menzies and Leonora to check out the "Golden Quest Discovery Trail" before we turn west towards the coast. Leaving town , you head out through the Great Western Woodlands which is the largest intact Mediterranean climate woodland on Earth and is a refuge for many of the threatened wildlife species. All up it covers about 16 million hectares.

As you head towards Menzies, it is just a continuous stretch of mines for all sorts of different minerals but gold is still trop of the list. Once we got to Menzies , you turn off for Lake Ballard to look at "Inside Australia" exhibition (mostly sealed with just a bit of gravel) Its a salt lake about 50 km where there are 51 metal sculptures spread out across the lake. They say that it takes about 2 hours to check them all out - we opted for a 30min walk around to a selected few. It was getting warm and the flies were getting friendly

Retraced our steps to Menzies then tuned off before Leonora to visit Kookynie which is a one of the "living ghost towns" of the era. This and Gwalia have been kept as examples of the mining pioneers . Kookynie has a population of around 3500 in 1907 , now there about 20 but plenty of pesky tourists keep turning up. Close by is Niagara "dam" - not much water at the moment but a pretty good free camp.

Headed back to Leonora and just outside of town is Gwalia where we stopped for the night . The town has been deserted since the early 1960's but they have moved and restored a number of dwellings that you can walk through. We stayed right next door to the museum which include some original buildings . The mine mangers house has been made into a BNB called Hoover House. It was named after the early mine manger Herbert Hoover - yes became the president of the USA - not very well liked it seemed.

Right next door to the campsite is the Sons of Gwalia gold mine - big hole but also goes 2.4 km underground.

Took a walk around town and then settled in for the night .