So much has happened since my last Kalgoorlie update, the biggest being WE ARE STILL HERE {and will be till mid April}.
We've had Birthday's, Easter, catch-ups with family, catch-ups with friends, meet new people and more exploring around Kalgoorlie & surrounds.
Finally much to the excitement of the two men in the family there was a
blast scheduled at the Super Pit that they could watch {it was around
5pm from memory} and whilst it was right down the bottom of the pit,
which is over 500mtrs deep it was enough to see some action & hear
it.
Sunset coming home looked lovely up the main street of Boulder.
Given J has been working we have only had Sunday's for our exploring
or for things to do but it has worked well. The Easter long weekend
was really just another weekend for us, with the exception that there
was people everywhere in the caravan park. Was great for the smalls
they had some kids to play with and even good for us as we meet a lovely
family traveling in, you guessed it a Complete Campsite camper who have
actually left their home state of NSW. We shared experiences,
favourite locations so far & some pictures. Hopefully given the
amount of time they are spending in our wonderful state we might run
into them again up north.
It was like looking in a mirror
{well except that theirs was much MUCH cleaner than ours}
We spent Easter Sunday doing a little more of the discovery trail. It
really is still quiet mind blowing everything that has changed in the
last century in this area. Place discovered that are now lost, mines dug
and now abandoned, mine shafts once used and now just left everywhere
you turn. We headed out past the old townsite of Kanowna which is simply
now a mine. Drove through some stations {not sure which are actually
still used for running stock}Gindalbie, Menangina and Yerilla.
Next we stopped and had a look around Kookynie which is really all but a ghost town. They still have a pub and a few occupied houses and signs everywhere showing what was where & when. The hotel was built around 1900 and is still standing, although I am fairly confident that it is nowhere near as well used as it was back then! There was even a train line built from Menzies out to the town in 1901. From what we read/saw by 1933 the town had 2,320 people living it it {the sign even showed a breakdown of men, women & children}
From Kookynie we headed to Niagara Dam, which is a great rock network
that has had a dam wall installed into it. It was started in the 1890's and ended up being a pointless project as they couldn't get the dammed water from here to the town site. That said it is amazing it actually
was still holding water & a fair amount at that. We had a walk
around the dam, taking in all of the informational signs that where
placed around it and then found a lovely rock to site for a bite of
lunch.
Finally on the way home we decided to take a better look around Menzies,
and I am glad that we did. Did you know that even though the town hall
was built in1898s they never installed a clock into it until the
1990's? Well neither did we till we stopped at the town hall, it did
give us all a little bit of a laugh that they went to that much of an
effort and then simply never had a clock installed, although one was
ordered and was lost in a ship that sank near Fremantle, after that they
just never organised another one! The town apart from being part of the rain network also had an estimated 10,000 people in 1905 with 13 hotels and 3 breweries. Now it doesn't even have a corner store or a fuel station with people. Hard to believe my Mum & her family lived here for a time.
It was a lovely way to spend then day.
J decided to take on two of the units that needed renovating here and is actually motoring along with
them. They look totally different to when we arrived {must tell him to get some pictures of the next one before he starts pulling it apart}, amazing what even a coat of white paint to a ceiling can do! One more to go and then to workout where to next......
