25th Jan - Pushie tour Kal-Boulder

We had a day out on the pushies today.  Visiting this place is like stepping back in time.   Most of the original town buildings are still standing in Hannan Street in Kal and in Burt Street in Boulder, however some of them a little worse for wear especially in Burt Street due to an earth quake hit the area back in April, 2010.  A lot of scaffolding surrounding some of the buildings in Burt Street, but most are still open for business.  We are amazed at all the little miners cottages which are still lived in, some renovated, some not, but it looks like the majority of these original huts are still standing with their little back street lanes also still in tact.

On the borderline of Boulder and Super Pit

Court Hotel now offices

Miner Monument operating air leg drill

Typical miner's cottage

Back street alley

Way back when (1890’s) the find by Paddy Hannan and his two mates near Mount Charlton, sparked “Gold Fever”, by the early 1900’s the town was buzzing with 30,000 people, 93 hotels and 8 breweries.     A lot of the men bought their wives and familes, it was known as a “family town” but there were a lot of men also on their own, then came the “working gals”.    With police enforcement all the brothels eventually contained in infamous Hay Street, 13 at the height of the game, but more on that later.

The York Hotel, quite regal looking

Kal's oldest pub, built 1895 now the pub with no beer......

Wonder if they got these back home yet, 21st century loo

This old timer meets Darl's approval

Little Paddy Hannan himself......

Hay Street, nearly there.......

It is amazing that the “Super Pit” lies right beside the town.   It was WA businessman Alan Bond who had the foresight back in the 1980’s and bought up all the mining leases of the Golden Mile which was the start of the open cut Super Pit operations.   Bond's company was not able to finalise the deal and it was taken over by KCGM, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines and the Super Pit has been operating ever since, mining some 85 million tonnes of material annually to produce approx 800,000 ounces of gold.