Kalgoorlie
On this visit to Perth, we are heading 650 km into the outback to the mining town, Kalgoorlie. The town is so important to Australia’s economy that shortly after gold was discovered on 19 June 1893 by Patrick Hannan, a pipeline was built to carry water to the town. The pipe was constructed over the desert for the whole 650 km, it’s a long pipe!
One of the highlights offered at our Kalgoorlie hotel was a tour of the local bordellos, but we thought a visit to a local pub would be more refreshing.
The Western Bar even has two swing doors to swagger through.
The reason for the town’s existence is gold and so we chose to visit the big pit, a working open cast mine and also a disused deep shaft mine.
The original mine was started by Paddy Hannan, digging with hand tools until they found rock too hard to drill by hand. When expensive drilling equipment was needed a mining company took over the work. The site is littered with a curious range of mining, ore processing and the necessities of living. The site is well worth a visit to give a flavour of the life of a miner in the 1890s outback.
The equipment looks primitive, but the Living and working conditions of the miners were even worse.
We three intrepid miners ready for a long 45 min shift.
After our arduous shift down Paddy’s mine, we found an excellent restaurant, shared a couple bottles of wine and set out to explore Kalgoorlie at night in a definitely merry mood. The bordellos looked very boring in reality but Comet McNort was spectacular.
There are few shaft mines left working in Australia, most mines and now open cast operations digging for a wide range of precious metals. In Kalgoorie the Big Pit is probably the second biggest hole in the world, the largest is in Utah, outside Salt Lake City. As soon as we arrived at the pit, we asked to leave as they were about to blast the hole even deeper. When we returned, ten minutes later and had our first view of the hole, the immense size of the mine was staggering.
This is an area they are drilling, about a tenth of the prt we could see, the little black dots top left are $4,000,000 dumper trucks each carrying 225 tonnes of ore. You can see them more easily below.
The big diggers here are really big!
One of the highlights offered at our Kalgoorlie hotel was a tour of the local bordellos, but we thought a visit to a local pub would be more refreshing.
The Western Bar even has two swing doors to swagger through.The reason for the town’s existence is gold and so we chose to visit the big pit, a working open cast mine and also a disused deep shaft mine.
The original mine was started by Paddy Hannan, digging with hand tools until they found rock too hard to drill by hand. When expensive drilling equipment was needed a mining company took over the work. The site is littered with a curious range of mining, ore processing and the necessities of living. The site is well worth a visit to give a flavour of the life of a miner in the 1890s outback.
The equipment looks primitive, but the Living and working conditions of the miners were even worse.
We three intrepid miners ready for a long 45 min shift.
After our arduous shift down Paddy’s mine, we found an excellent restaurant, shared a couple bottles of wine and set out to explore Kalgoorlie at night in a definitely merry mood. The bordellos looked very boring in reality but Comet McNort was spectacular.
There are few shaft mines left working in Australia, most mines and now open cast operations digging for a wide range of precious metals. In Kalgoorie the Big Pit is probably the second biggest hole in the world, the largest is in Utah, outside Salt Lake City. As soon as we arrived at the pit, we asked to leave as they were about to blast the hole even deeper. When we returned, ten minutes later and had our first view of the hole, the immense size of the mine was staggering.
This is an area they are drilling, about a tenth of the prt we could see, the little black dots top left are $4,000,000 dumper trucks each carrying 225 tonnes of ore. You can see them more easily below.
The big diggers here are really big!posted by John and Marion at
8:35 am
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