Rebecca Jansen | July 9

Kalgoorlie

📍 Location: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
📅 Date Visited: March 2018
⏱️ Time Spent: Three days round trip Perth to Kalgoorlie and back

The vast open landscapes of the Goldfields

🚗 Getting There: The Journey from Perth

The drive from Maylands (Perth) to Kalgoorlie covers approximately 600 kilometers and takes about 6.5 to 7 hours via the Great Eastern Highway. The journey takes you through the wheat belt towns of Merredin and Southern Cross before reaching the red dirt of the Goldfields. Alternatively, Transwa operates Prospector train services from Perth to Kalgoorlie daily, taking around 7 hours.

🚙 Our Trip: First Impressions

[Magda’s first impressions of Kalgoorlie will go here… The red dirt? The mining trucks? The historic buildings?]

⛏️ A Brief History of Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie was founded in 1893 during the Western Australian gold rushes when prospectors Paddy Hannan, Tom Flanagan, and Dan Shea discovered gold at Mount Charlotte. The town grew rapidly as thousands of prospectors flocked to the region, and by 1903 Kalgoorlie and the neighboring town of Boulder (3 km away) had a combined population of around 30,000.

The Super Pit, officially known as the Fimiston Open Pit, was created in 1989 when several smaller mines were combined. It has since become one of the largest open-cut gold mines in Australia, producing around 700,000 ounces of gold annually. The pit is approximately 3.5 kilometers long, 1.5 kilometers wide, and over 600 meters deep.

🕳️ The Super Pit – Australia’s Largest Open-Cut Gold Mine

The Super Pit is the heart of Kalgoorlie’s identity. Viewable from the public lookout on the Boulder side, the pit offers a stark reminder of the scale of modern mining. At approximately 3.5 kilometers long, 1.5 kilometers wide, and over 600 meters deep, it is one of the largest open-cut gold mines in Australia.