Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie is a famous mining town about 500km north-east of Perth. It's known for its Super Pit mine that gapes right on the edges of town. It got its name from the word karlpurla, which means place of the silky pears, plants native to Australia.

I fly there often because it's on the way to the areas that my company covers. It's not a regular mining town, because it's grown so much and thus turned into a proper town. Nevertheless, it's not a place I'd want to hang around for long. Too busy for a town, too expensive for a non-metropolitan area and in general a place you get to or leave from.

Since I seem to have landed/taken off at night, I haven't actually seen the mine from above before until yesterday. That's why I decided to write something about the place.

Being that it's located in the desert, the rainfall is minimal. It was therefore important to get water to the ever-more-rapidly spreading town. It was founded during the gold rush at the end of the 19th century and a very expensive project for that time was proposed - a pipeline which would connect Kal to Perth.

I heard a story about the pipeline being finished and a big inauguration being held in Kal. All the public and the newspapers and the locals were there when they opened the pipeline, but no water came out. Charles Yelverton O'Connor was the one to make John Forrest's project reality. I was told he committed suicide when he realized the project was a failure.

The history writes a different story. Under the constant pressure and criticism, O'Connor committed suicide by shooting himself while riding his horse into the sea in Fremantle, where he constructed the famous harbour.

The pipeline project supposedly took place about a year after he committed suicide and it still enables the 25,000 people to lead their lives up in Kal.

Kalgoorlie's Super Pit
(Photo taken from the Internet)