29/5/18 The tour

 We booked the tour through the Superpit , and away we went . It was a cool morning with a cool wind blowing . After assembling at the tour office in Hannan St , we all clambered into the office to get some heat , glasses & high vis vests dished out to everyone , we then bundled ourselves into the bus . Passing the clock tower , we were told about the gift from KCGM to the town - they gold plated the roof over the clock !!
 Entering the mine site through the security gates , we missed out on the random drug tests for anyone entering the site , how unfortunate hahaha . Touring around the workshop area and the spare parts section was interesting . There were several old tray from the tippers - they have 5 ribs that support the tray , you can see the arrow , it indicates where the steel has snapped after repeated stretching from all the loads of ore - once it has snapped due to metal fatigue , it is replaced and the old tray recycled .

 There are rows of new tyres for the tippers - $40,000 each !!! and you complain about the price of your car tyres !!

 And while we're on tyres , this is the tyre change bay , when the rims are installed in the tyres , each wheel then weighs 5 tonne , it's a 2 man job to change them and takes an hour to inflate them to 100 psi !!

The tippers cost $4.4 million each !!!
 This one is a Letourneau and is worth $8 million !!!

  From here we go around toward the pit , there are several flat areas around , one is used for removing steel , timber & plastic - anything that isn't rock basically - the crushers don't function well with it in amongst the rock - this is done by hand !! Here's a pile of it .

 All of this material comes from the old mine shafts that the superpit has consumed - there are timber pit props , steel pipes & rail tracks and cables .
  The pit wasn't working a lot this morning , with safety talks & checks being done , so the tippers were lined up ready to go . There's only 40 of them here !!

 Heading off to our first lookout was different , like driving down a 4 lane hwy made of dirt . There were some tippers working in an area they are getting ready for expansion of the pit . The vehicle on the right is a support truck - delivering diesel or other fluids and or mechanical assistance .

 We arrived at our first stop , right on the side of the pit , here's what it looks like .

 Each step in the side of the pit is 32 metres in height . In the next photo you can see a dark section that goes from right to left and downwards - that is lava from a lava flow - this was once a volcano , and that explains why there is gold here apparently !!

 Down at the bottom of the pit are 3 drilling rigs , they've been drilling holes for explosives to blow up the next section of the pit .

 The recent rains have washed down some of the dust in the pit and made for an amazing display of colour when we got into the right position to see it .

 From here we headed to the high grade ore pile ready for the crusher - just looks like a pile of rock , but it's high grade and the most productive ore .

 On the far side of the mechanics & storage area is the mid range ore that has been stockpiled - apparently there is 13 years worth of processing this pile alone when the mine closes the pit down !!!!
 From the crusher we go down into the processing plant and see how they reduce the rock several times , eventually to a slurry , then dried out and piled up on the other side of the plant . It's the final step before attaching it to steel wool and then melting it and pouring it into ingots , here's the powder pile . The pile actually glitters in the sun - photos don't do it justice .

 And that's as much as we could see , it was a great tour though , thoroughly enjoyable .
Cheers

28/5/18 All about gold

  A visit to The Museum of the Goldfields was in order today , the entry to it was below this head frame , which is also used as a lookout .

  After checking out where to go and what there is to see , we headed up in the lift to the viewing platform . Views over Kalgoorlie CBD and Mt Charlotte mine were there for all to see .

  Back down the lift to the basement where the gold display is - $4,000,000 worth of it . Exhibits ranged from nuggets , to alluvial gold and gold bars of differing sizes .

 An interesting side story to this,  is the roads and cart tracks around Kalgoorlie Boulder were laid with material which was later identified as having gold tellurides in it - people thought that it was fools gold . Another story is the catholic church and one hotel were made from bricks made at a nearby town , and they used gold carrying material to make the bricks with - before they knew about it - so there is still an expensive church in town built from expensive bricks , apparently the hotel has been demolished .
 Another story is the mine replaced the main streets in Kalgoorlie as they used similar materials to form the roads foundations .

 There was also some gold jewellery on display .
  On display was also a skull of a marsupial lion - the head of which would have been the size of a basketball with some very large teeth .

    There are some outside buildings - an old bank building , a miners cottage , a timber companies office , a mobile police station , The British Arms Hotel - built between some miners cottages - a very narrow hotel .

 The clock on the hotel has it's workings inside the room beside the clock , these are the working parts.

  Inside another room was a dentist's room , I'm glad I wasn't about when they were using this stuff .

 This is the miners cottage .

  In another shed were 2 rooms from one of the minefields early entrepreneurs , a gentleman that organised machinery for mining and leased it out , very successfully as well ! One room is the Boardroom and the other his office , both built with solid jarrah walls & ceilings .

 The clock on the mantlepiece is still ticking away .

 Here's an old typewriter from the timber office - it would have been a busy office , as they used a lot of timber for mine props etc etc .

 Mulga Bill's bike is also on display , minus the drive belt/chain and pedals , but still is impressive .

  Some of the old photos left an impression on us - they were a tough breed back then - here's some of the miners - no smiles anywhere .

 Then there's this guy pushing his barrow with all his worldly belongings in it , to try to make his fortune in gold .

  Outside was an interesting exhibit -

 These are 3 different samples of pipes used for the Golden Pipeline from Perth to Kalgoorlie . The furthest is a section of pipeline , all steel that was formed and held together by a "H" piece that was crimped down to hold the pipe together . Then there's the timber section in the middle that was assembled and wrapped in wire to hold it together - there were 67 klms of this timber pipe used in the pipeline !! Then the closest section is cement lined steel pipe .
   The Golden Pipeline was an engineering masterpiece of the day , to be able to transfer water that far , through various pumping stations and elevation changes is quite amazing . The engineer in charge was C Y O'Connor . He was under immense pressure to get this job done and eventually it got to great for him - he rode his horse into the surf near Fremantle and shot himself .
 And on that somber note , that's your lot . Cheers

26/5/18 Boulders , Pits & Greens

 Today we'll start with Burt St Boulder and some of the buildings . Kalgoorlie Boulder council certainly has pride in their town and look after all the old buildings . The streetscape is in , an , as was condition - they have retained all the old names on the buildings and appearances . Check these out .

   One of the reasons we came to Kalgoorlie was to look at the Superpit , unfortunately for us , it was closed due to a rockslide caused by an earth tremor , and until safe to continue work it was closed . Well today it reopened , so we headed up to the lookout . The carpark is huge , with enough area for over 100 vehicles , then there's the 100m walk to the viewing platform , whilst also checking out the old machinery used in the pit that's in another fenced off section further away again . Maybe they are trying to get you used to the scale of what you are about to see . This pit is 600m deep and 3.5klms    long and 1.5klms wide - that's a bloody big hole in the ground !!!

 The landslide that shut the mine down is visible , large chunks of rock 3 times the size of one of the tip trucks that carts the ore up & down the roads , are still perched on the side of the pit .

 Fortunately the rock fall happened when all the workers were on a break . Tippers run up & down the access roads continuously , going downhill much faster than when they are coming back up .

The next 2 photos give some scale to the operation - down near the bottom of the pit is the access road , I have zoomed in to show a 4wd and a truck on the road . In the 2nd photo I have zoomed back out - it will be hard to see , but if you can zoom in on your computer / tablet etc , you will find the truck as a speck , below centre of the photo .

 Here's a size comparison for the tippers .

  A big excavator was working at the top of the pit , filling the tipper in just 5 scoops !!

 This is one of the old buckets .

  Yes that's me , yes that's shoes & socks and a jumper - there's a reason we like to be northward at this time of year hahaha !! One more shot of the superpit .

   About 25klms northeast of Kalgoorlie is the ghost town of Kanowna , so we headed out there . After about 20 klms of nearly straight road we arrived at Kanowna Belle Gold Mine so we drove into the mine . There is a viewing area on the side of the gold processing plant for the general public to have a look . Here it is .

 An elaborate processing plant to extract the gold from the rock that is holding it , and there are several of these plants in & around the Goldfields Region .
 We set off to find the ghost town , driving past a couple of houses set back from the road . W turned around about 3klms down the road and found the town - what was left of it anyway - a sign for the courthouse and a pile of rocks . Then we found another track with some other signs and smaller piles of rock - unfortunately the signs have succumbed to the climate out here and those that hadn't rotted away had fallen off or had been taken - and that was the ghost town , not what we had pictured before leaving town to come out here . You could think we were a little bit less than impressed , you'd be right .

 A cold front and some rain have slowed us down a bit , but I did manage to have a game of golf at Kalgoorlie Golf Club - rated No 17 in the top 100 public access golf courses in Australia !! Imagine if you will , green grass fairways & greens , surrounded by red soil & orange sand in the plentiful bunkers .

  It was a great experience , let's say the golf course was the winner , better days ahead hehehe !


 Here's a better shot of the Questa Casa Brothel where we did the tour the other day .

 Hannan St is the main street of Kalgoorlie with many remarkable old buildings , most of which are in great condition , some however are showing their age , here's a selection .
 This is the clock tower above the old Post & Telegraph Building , now being used as the Courthouse.

 One of the many hotels in town .

And another .

And another .

 And another .

 Now some of the other buildings .

  Heading out of town for another little drive , we went north to Broad Arrow . Broad Arrow consists of an hotel and 2 houses , but it's other neighbours were large and private - more gold mines - we passed at least 3 on the drive out - about 30klms .
 On the way back into town we stopped at the Two Up Shed , where they play two up on Sundays . A very elaborate structure , we drove up to and around it and had a look inside .

 Salmon Gums are prevalent here as well , here's just one .

 That's it , you're all caught up , so here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pzgjbMabFxkp2uIGjzVFIjXLU15c-qbj&usp=sharing
 If you view the map link in satellite mode you can see a lot of the other mines in and around Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields area .
Cheers