Mozzies Around Australia: Day 7 Norseman to Kalgoorlie -Boulder

Early morning start after a showery night for a short drive to Kalgoorlie for Easter. The showers are persistent and the road works along that strip made it pretty slow going. Lots of mines through the area so lots of trucks to deal with.

Got to Kalgoorlie round 9.30 so had time to go look for some fuses as we have been having a little trouble with the battery system but Russ has worked out what has been going on so hopefully this will sort it .

Stayed at Kalgoorlie Goldfields park nice site but had a bit of "fun" getting into site due to some trees . Lots of tooing and froing with plenty of polite discussion. Lots of the mine workers stay here as well .

Tasks for this afternoon included Russ getting his Miners Right License and a few groceries at Woolies with the entire population as the supermarket was shut for one day so you have to buy a years worth of food to tied you over apparently. Once we escaped did our first bit of sightseeing with a visit to Mt Charlotte Reservoir which is Kalgoorlie's water storage facility - why the big deal? Water was a major problem in the early days of the area and many miners died of thirst prior to the pipeline coming from Manduring. Its also a nice view back to the town.

Remember that saying seven degrees of separation- Russ was chatting to our back neighbours the next morning as they were packing up . Where are you from ? Toowoomba Turns out Helen taught with my sister for years and Trev my brother in law helped Mark build his house and then they worked together for some years . Amazing .

Good Friday in Kalgoorlie there is nothing open so it was a good time to play catch up - you know washing, cleaning etc. That took up most of the morning including a trip. to the car wash ( Ouch - water must have gold flecks in it) Not much to do today but we did head off to look at the Super Pit . It has a look out which is open 24/7 . We did try to get in to do a tour but unfortunately it was all booked out well in advance. Until the early 1980's it was all small underground mining leases but Alan Bond changed all that. He began to buy up all of the leases to form one large company and turn it into an open cut operation.

He didn't manage to finish the job but he did leave behind the legacy which became the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Mining Group and the famous Super Pit that is known world wide and which continues to produce gold. There is local discussion about what that hole should become once they finish. One suggestion is that they turn it into a casino ! The other mineral that they are now after is lithium so many of the newer mines are being developed for that purpose.

Oh and by the way Robbo we looked and looked for your restaurant but couldn't find it . The closet we came was a kebab shop.

Saturday we started with the must do's of Kalgoorlie - Super Cheap and Bunnings . Russ had already been to Auto Pro on Thursday afternoon. It was 20% off so you have to go.

Now to the Goldfields Museum - lots of history about both the indigenous and white people of the area and the highlights and hardships for both cultures .Paddy Hannan was the first to discover gold here so the main street is named after him. This is an historic complex that sits under a very large poppet head with a number of historical buildings around for you to walk through. You can take the lift to the top of the poppet head for a good view of town. There is also a whole building devoted to a man called Claude De Bernales who was a mover and shaker for the area in the 1800's. His office and board room have been moved up from Perth as part of the display.

Of course the Easter Egg hunt was on while we were there so kids everywhere. Apparently we were too old to qualify for the stamp on our hand and a bag of eggs.

Kalgoorlie reminds me a lot of of Bendigo with all the historical buildings lining the main street . Took a few photos so see what you think. That night we headed back to the Super Pit for some night photos . Like all mines , it runs 24/7 so nothing ever stops. Great to check it out with the full moon in the sky.

Sunday was really about getting ready to move on - top up the washing, bit of cooking etc as we plan to be off grid for the next 3 days as we head north to the desert and try our hand at some gold detecting