In 1893 the discovery of gold, by Paddy Hannan, near Kalgoorlie triggered a boom and the influx of men eager to make their fortune. The old world charm of the many late 1800 and early 1900 buildings in Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie's main street, is a sign of the wealth at this time. I loved the architecture from the gold rush era with many of the original buildings still standing and totally functional after more than 100 years.
A must, was a visit to the Kalgoorlie Town Hall with its impressive Edwardian-styled building. This building was completed in 1908 and has intricate stamped metal ceilings, chandeliers, a sweeping staircase, majestic theatre and an extensive collection of art and memorabilia upstairs and in the council chambers. Today the town hall is home to the Kalgoorlie Visitor Centre, Sporting Hall of Fame and Claude Hotchin Art Bequest.
Kalgoorlie's twin town Boulder also had impressive architectural buildings in Burt Street, its main street, most notably the BoulderTown Hall, which was completed in 1908. This houses the amazing craftsmanship by Phillip Goatcher...........The Goatcher Curtain............an exquisite hand painted drop curtain which is believed to be one of the last surviving examples of Goatcher's work. We were fortunate to be able to tour the Boulder Town Hall on its first tour in 2 years and 3 months due to the damage experienced when an earthquake of 5.0 magnitudes rocked the Kalgoorlie Boulder towns at 8.17am on Tuesday 20th April 2010. The earthquake occurred in the centre of Boulder.
We enjoyed golf at the relatively new completed Kalgoorlie Golf Course designed by Graham Marsh. This 18 hole championship grass golf course is anticipated to be one of the top ten desert golf courses in the world. Of course we played another two of the Nullarbor Links course...........the world's longest golf course!
A visit to the 'Super Pit'............Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine (KCGM) was another experience. You looked down into one of today's biggest working open cast mines in the southern hemisphere. As I said before everything in WA is BIG!
After two days travelling further south, this morning (28th July 2012) we arrived back in Norseman.........we arrived in Norseman on 11th April 2012 after crossing the Nullarbor from east to west and now we are on our way back across the Nullarbor travelling west to east...........I will restart the blog once I get into new territory (past Port Augustus) which won't be for another couple of weeks.............until then!!!!!
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