"Kalgoorlie-Boulder: Dreaming of the Big... " a Kalgoorlie Travel Page by Kathrin_E

When Paddy Hannan and his mates pitched their tent underneath a gum tree on June 15, 1893, they discovered one of the richest gold ressources ever fond: the Golden Mile. Within a few weeks the area buzzed with swarms of gold seekers.
The town of Kalgoorlie-Boulder was born out of nothing. The buildings in Hannan Street and Burt Street, the main streets of the two towns, still tell of Gold rush times a hundred years ago. The architecture is a mix of Wild West and Victorian historism.

"The best things in life are dirty,
and nothing in life
is better to hold
than dirty gold..."

These lines from a song in an old Western movie sounded in my ears while I was there. Gold prospecting and gold mining is, and has always been, a dirty, sweaty and dangerous job. Many dreamed of the big find, a few succeeded, many failed. All for a bit of yellow metal...

Gold mining continues. The Golden Mile is now exploited thoroughly, not a single piece of rock remains unturned.

The Superpit, the largest man-made hole on Earth, is a place of superlatives. This is a tyre I'm sitting on that once belonged to a monster mining truck.