Another sunny day in Kalgoorlie…

The caravan park awoke to an unusual sight – a large body of water that had run though the park and out the main gates….. particularly unusual since there had been no rain…. The river was traceable back to the Hunter Lotus – very unusual as large amounts of water usually run out of certain other vans but not the Hunters…..

Apparently earlier that morning Gordie had got out of bed to use the toilet… and it did not flush… no water!!Going outside to check, he soon realised that water was gushing out of the hose connection to the filter – it had disconnected and had been running full bore for several hours (time unknown) – resulting in Lake Gordon being created in the caravan park. The evidence of the flood was still visible that morning as we walked up….

Fortunately, no one was camping in tents nearby or they would have been inundated…. Branch inspected the culprit filter… all was back working OK….

Trev and Gordie dropped their cars in for servicing at the local Ford/ Nissan dealers as pre-arranged… then we all went out to explore Kalgoorlie…

Kerry’s Dad had grown up in Kalgoorlie and had been a successful jockey here as a young man, so she was keen to look at the Racing Museum – we all went for a look – there was a plethora of memorabilia dating back to the early 1900s….

After the museum we drove into the main street, Hannan Street, named after Paddy Hannan, the gold prospector who found gold in the area in 1893 sparking the major gold rush and resulted in the township of Kalgoorlie/ Boulder…. His statue was outside the visitor centre…

The visitor centre was quite small so we only stayed momentarily… there were a couple of unusual characters there so we moved on to walk up Hannan Street.

There were quite a few grand old buildings lining the main street many over 100 years old….

After a walk along the street and a quick bite to eat, we went into the Museum of the Goldfields which was a great place to visit to get the history of the area and a real insight into life back then during the gold rush….

The Vault had an extensive display of real gold samples… Klaus was salivating 😊…. There was lots of information about the different forms gold can take – leaf, nuggets, alluvial, veins in quartz etc… great to give you an idea what to look for when prospecting….

Original Kalgoorlie gold jewellery was also on display.

Upstairs were many exhibits of machinery, instruments and general artifacts from life back in the late 1800s/ early 1900s….

A “man trap” used to catch those who may trespass on other’s claim sites (watch out Klaus!!)…

The nurse’s kit was very interesting….

Gordie was fascinated by the hand made bike that a local character used to ride around the mine fields on….

Various mining implements were also on show….

Replica rooms such as a sitting room in a wealthy persons home….

And a dentists surgery…. Brought back memories for Dave of his dad’s surgery!!

An old pub was still located on the corner – no longer functioning as a pub but housing some of the museum’s displays…

Outside there was a miners hut fully set up – very similar to the miners huts we see in Helensburgh!!! It’s hard to imagine how they lived in such tiny homes in the extreme climate that is the mid-WA goldfield area!

Klaus took a look at the portable police station…

Trev checked out the office building that reminded him of some of the old firestations back home…

There was also the old bank building…

All in all the museum was a fascinating place, and the staff were very friendly and informative….

Our next destination was the Superpit Lookout….

The Superpit is the huge gold mine in Kalgoorlie that was created as a result of the amalgamation of many small mines in the area – the first person to propose this was Alan Bond, whose company failed to complete this in the early 1980s but by 1989 it was completed by a company that was then formed – Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines and the Superpit was born… on Monday we are booked to do the tour of the Superpit so more info on that then….

Looking into the Superpit the scale of the operation was unbelievable – so wide, deep and so many haul trucks going back and forth…..

A photo op at the lookout provided some amusement…..

The size of the digger buckets was incredible….

We had been hearing so many stories from locals about people stumbling across nuggets on bush tracks and in car parks (even at the Superpit Lookout!) so Klaus was rearing to go with his metal detector….

As we crossed the carpark, I noticed something sparkle in the sun… and picked up a rock containing what looks like specs of gold…. Klaus will check it with his metal detector later so it will be interesting to see if it is gold… it looks very much like one of the samples in the Vault in the museum… so watch this space 😊

Trev’s car was ready, so we went and picked it up…. Gordie’s also was ready about the same time… however when he picked his up and drove to Coles where Kerry was shopping disaster struck…. The Titan was sucking air into the fuel system…. Seems there was an issue with filter changes and the mechanics at the dealership who did the work…. Too much detail to go into – suffice to say it was 530pm on a Friday in Kalgoorlie – not a time to be able to sort it out…. but it has caused a serious issue with the Titan….. we approached the caravan park to see if we could all stay an extra night on Monday and leave Tuesday which hopefully will allow us time to get the Titan sorted…. Tomorrow Trev and Gordie plan to remove the culprit fuel filter and see what can be done…. The people at Discovery Parks Kalgoorlie Goldfields were amazing and worked it out so we could all stay another night on the same sites without having to move vans around!!

As our next destination was a couple of nights free camping the change is not an issue….