Thu 25th September – Day 138: Kalgoorlie

Up and going so we can be on the door of Finders Keepers tours to see if we can fit on their Super Pit tour today. No such luck, however they have decided to run it again tomorrow and we are locked in.
Instead we head to the outskirts of town along the ‘Golden Mile’ to see The Mining Hall of Fame. As we enter the grounds the kids are drawn straight to the Gold Panning area where we try our your luck, finding lots of small gold flecks spurring us to try harder. Before we can find our fortune we join the Underground Mine Tour that was originally pegged in 1893, the same year that Paddy Hannan discovered gold on the Golden Mile. Here we go 36m underground with a retired miner, to experience what it was like for the original miners, who worked with a pick, shovel wheelbarrow and winch.
We emerged back into the sunlight, glad to be out of the confines of the small gloomy passages that made up the mine and headed towards the original 1920s Paringa Mine Gold Room where we watched a gold pour demonstration.
Another try at gold panning and we headed off to the Superpit to watch the 1pm blast, however it was delayed till 5 and we found a local park to eat lunch where the kids ran around on all the equipment.
After lunch we returned to the Mining Hall of Fame, watched a short video called ‘The Prospectors’ full of old footage of the gold fields mayhem then continuing our exploration through the various galleries and mining exhibits.
We finished up gold panning again and although we may not have struck it rich, we certainly have the bug - gold fever and have booked with a local bloke to go prospecting on Saturday.
The blast at 5pm from the lookout was somewhat of a disappointment for several reasons: 1. It was early, and I was reading the information boards when it happened and didn’t see a thing; 2. Chloe saw and photographed it and unfortunately it was straight in front of the lookout so very little was seen, just a small puff of smoke. The only worthwhile thing was the actual feel of the blast that reverberated up through the ground and could be felt all through town.
Later we had a BBQ Dinner outside with our neighbours, sharing a few tales once again while the kids listened and danced to Mamma Mia, again!
Kalgoorlie Accommodation Village (Powered $30.60)