Kalgoorlie and the Great Eastern Highway

After another night in the bush, woken intermittently by freight trains, we set off for Kalgoorlie. The number and size of heavy vehicles passing us was staggering, and the loads they were carrying even more so. Sometimes we had to move right off the road to let them pass: one even had a police escort on top of the usual pilot vehicle. There's plenty of mine equipment being transported around and there are plenty of mine sites. We lost count of the number on the 187km drive from Norsemen to Kalgoorlie.

Once we saw the size of The Super Pit it all came into perspective. This pit is the biggest open pit gold mine in the country, producing 850 000 ounces of gold every year: no other mining centre in Australia matches it. Wow, is all I can say. I was mesmerised by the activity going on in there: it was hard to take it all in.

 Kalgoorlie is home to some beautiful historic buildings and some different shopping hours. We ended up having a quick birthday lunch yesterday (Saturday), as we needed to get to the shops as they don't open on Sundays. Yes, even Woolworths etc do not open, and seeing as we have been starved of fresh fruit and vegetable since crossing the border a few days ago, we needed to stock up. So, jobs needed doing before heading to our campsite for the night. A lot of WA towns are becoming RV friendly now and offering free overnight camping to self contained vehicles within the town, and Kalgoorlie is one of them. After the State's militant attitude to the RV crowd and forcing people to go to caravan parks when they have no requirement for them, it's good to see they have finally understood that the town still benefits financially from the travellers.

A stunning sunrise got me out of bed early, and as we had a big driving day ahead of us anyway it was time to get moving. The Great Eastern Highway took us through more gold and iron ore mining towns such as Coolgardie and Southern Cross, through to the start of the wheat belt at Merredin. We weren't alone as the Goldfields Pipeline kept us company all the way. This pipeline carries water for 530kms from Perth to Kalgoorlie, and was the brain child of C.Y.O'Connor who sadly ended his life before he saw his dream realised.

Apart from the pipeline, we saw a couple of emus on this long driving stretch, and where the rabbit fence used to be (to keep the beasties away from the farmer's fields), and a beautiful array of eucalypts. The trunk colours varied from a shiny salmon colour, to dusty pink, a white-washed white, spotted and speckled. Very pretty.

A lunch stop at Merredin also took us for a walk around the town admiring the buildings. The Cummins Theatre, which had been built in Coolgardie in 1897, was dismantled and sent in pieces to Merredin by train by James Cummins, who was the Mayor of Kalgoorlie and owner of both the Merredin and Kalgoorlie breweries. Why he didn't just build his own theatre I don't know. Anyway, it was the first in the State to be equipped for sound production so therefore had some star acts perform: AC/DC, Slim Dusty, Johnny O’Keefe and David Helfgott to name a few. 

We are now in another little town for the night, Cunderdin, which has a spectacular pump house. We will view it tomorrow before we head to New Norcia.