"Keeweechic's Kalgoorlie" a Kalgoorlie Travel Page by keeweechic

Gold Gold Gold.. that has been Kalgoorlies history. A history which has been full of gold rushes, mining and all the hardships that have gone with these in Australia’s early days.

Kalgoorlie is around 600kms east of Perth and around 360 metres above sea level. Prior to a settlement being established, the Mudawangka people (local aborginals) were the landowners. They were the ones that named the area Kalgoorlie, meaning “Silky Pear Bush” in aborigine. Europeans didn’t set up home here until 1893 when gold was first discovered. The first person to discover gold was Patrick (Paddy) Hannan, along with his pals Dan Shea and Tom Flanagan who happened in the town when their horse lost a shoe. This started the gold rush and by 1903, there were around 30,000 people living/working in the area. From this influx came the building of the town with some 93 hotels and 8 breweries being built. The early years were long and hard for the many gold diggers that came in the hope of staking their claim but many were richly rewarded.

Much of the architecture reflects the buoyant times of Kalgoorlie during the 19th and early 20th century. Kalgoorlie is also part of the history of a phenomenal pipeline developed by C Y O’Conner which ran 564km from Perth to Kalgoorlie to pipe water to this very dry area.

Kalgoorlie is the largest inland city in Australia. There is a lot to see in this area of what is termed the ‘Golden Mile”, an area which includes Kalgoorlie’s sister city Boulder. The city was responsible for producing one tenth of the world’s gold. The neighbouring area which now includes closeby ghost towns, was called the ‘richest square mile on earth’.