Our destination today was Kalgoorlie and so we were aiming to leave at 0800 so we could stop along the way at the historic ghost town of Gwalia and then Menzies. Dave and Rose were on a timeframe as they were booked in at 3PM in Kalgoorlie to get their tyres replaced….

We left Leinster on time and drive the 1.5hrs to Gwalia uneventfully…. passing active mine sites on the way….

And the by now familiar wide loads…..

Until we noticed that one of our skylights on the caravan was vertical!! A Branch moment indeed!!! It must have not been completely latched and when going over a bump somewhere along the road had suddenly flung open – a quick pull over and it was easily rectified with no damage….

The town of Leonora was just before Gwalia – being mindful of time we just drove on taking a couple of quick pics…

Turning off the highway to the Gwalia Historic Precinct…

we drove up to the museum and Hoover House past the empty miners shacks and shopfronts that were once part of the bustling town of Gwalia…

The museum was very interesting with exhibits inside and around the grounds…

including the old hearse….

The tram that used to run between Gwalia and Leonora…

The local mail truck…

Outside there was the old headframe and winder from the original Sons of Gwalia mine….

The locomotive that was used in the area to service the rail network…

On the top of the hill stood Hoover House – and exceptionally well built home designed and lived in by the American geologist and later president of the United States, Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover was the first mine manager at Gwalia.

The home continued to be the mine manager’s house for many years and is now a B&B and café… we enjoyed a coffee and scones/ cakes inside the café – a welcome break from the icy wind outside!!

Inside the house was a treasure trove of antiques and the rooms had been lovingly restored…

The house was right next to the mine pit…. The lawn stretching like a green carpet almost to the edge of the pit…. A very infrequent sight such a green and manicured lawn in this environment!!!

The view from the lookout into the mine pit itself was mind boggling – the mine was active with haul trucks maneuvering slowly up and down the steep roads bringing up the ore…. Gwalia Gold Mine is currently the deepest gold mine in Australia having just reached 2 kilometres deep below the surface…and is predicted to reach 2.5km by 2031. New ventilation has been installed to send chilled air from the surface to the miners working below…

The old Assay House designed and built in 1898 by Herbert Hoover was also in the grounds of the museum – the ore was analysed in these rooms to see if it was worth processing. Hundreds of samples were tested each week in the office and results were published to inform shareholders of the progress of the mine.

Rose and Dave left for Kalgoorlie, and we all followed shortly after …. However, Branch was on the loose…. As we drove out of Gwalia, Klaus noticed that Gordie again had no lights on the Lotus… so we all pulled over to check it out…. Still some issues happening with the Titan that could not be resolved at the side of the road, so we continued on to Kalgoorlie with Gordie driving in between ourselves and Klaus due to his lack of indicators and brake lights… another issue to sort in Kalgoorlie!!

Our next (brief) stop was the town of Menzies where Kerry’s grandmother’s family had owned and run a boarding house for people including European immigrants that had come to work in the surrounding mines…

Getting closer to Kalgoorlie we continued to see mullock heaps, abandoned and also active mines…

The Paddington Gold Mine was hard at work as we passed it…

We arrived in Kalgoorlie….

and got in to the caravan park… Trev and Gordie checked out about their booked car services tomorrow… Trev’s booking was OK but Gordie’s booking had not been confirmed… but they kindly said they would squeeze him in tomorrow as well… also tomorrow Gordie will sort out an auto electrician to look at the electrics which have been an issue….