| Kalgoorlie-Boulder Western Australia |
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Kalgoorlie Post Office, Hannan Street |
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Kalgoorlie-Boulder
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| Population: | 32,390(2010)[1] (42nd) | ||||||
| • Density: | 273.9/km² (709.4/sq mi) | ||||||
| Established: | 1893 | ||||||
| Elevation: | 468 m (1,535 ft) | ||||||
| Area: | 103.1 km² (39.8 sq mi) | ||||||
| Time zone: | AWST (UTC+8) | ||||||
| Location: | 595 km (370 mi) E of Perth | ||||||
| LGA: | City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder | ||||||
| State District: | Kalgoorlie, Eyre | ||||||
| Federal Division: | O'Connor | ||||||
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Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located 595 kilometres (370 mi) east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. The town was founded in 1893 during the Yilgarn-Goldfields gold rush, and is located close to the so-called "Golden Mile".
As at the 2006 census, it had a population of 28,250,[2] making it the largest urban centre in the Goldfields-Esperance region and the fifth-largest in Western Australia.
The name Kalgoorlie is derived from the Wangai word Karlkurla, meaning "place of the silky pears".
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In January 1893, prospectors Patrick (Paddy) Hannan, Tom Flanagan, and Dan O'Shea were travelling to Mount Youle when one of their horses cast a shoe. During the halt in their journey, the men noticed signs of gold in the area, and decided to stay put. On 17 June 1893, Hannan filed a Reward Claim, leading to hundreds of men swarming to the area in search of gold and Kalgoorlie, originally called Hannan's, was born.[3]
The mining of gold, along with other metals such as nickel, has been a major industry in Kalgoorlie ever since, and today employs about one-quarter of Kalgoorlie's workforce and generates a significant proportion of its income. The concentrated area of large gold mines surrounding the original Hannan find is often referred to as the Golden Mile, and is considered by some to be the richest square mile of earth on the planet. The town's population was about 30,000 people in 1903 and began to grow into nearby Boulder.
The narrow gauge Government railway line reached Kalgoorlie in 1896, and the main named railway service from Perth was the overnight sleeper train The Westland which ran until the 1970s. In 1917, a standard gauge railway line was completed, connecting Kalgoorlie to the city of Port Augusta, South Australia across 2,000 kilometres (1,243 mi) of desert, and consequently the rest of the eastern states. The standardisation of the railway connecting Perth (which changed route from the narrow gauge route) in 1968 completed the Sydney-Perth railway, making it possible for rail travel from Perth to Sydney—and the Indian Pacific rail service commenced soon after. During the 1890s, the Goldfields area boomed as a whole, with an area population exceeding 200,000, mainly prospectors. The area gained a notorious reputation for being a wild west with bandits and prostitutes. This rapid increase in population and claims of neglect by the state government in Perth led to the proposition of the new state of Auralia but with the sudden diaspora after the Gold Rush these plans fell through.
Places, famous or infamous, that Kalgoorlie is noted for include its water pipeline, designed by C. Y. O'Connor and bringing in fresh water from Mundaring Weir near Perth, its Hay Street brothels , its two-up school, the goldfields railway loopline, the Kalgoorlie Town Hall, the Paddy Hannan statue/drinking fountain, the Super Pit and Mount Charlotte lookout. Its main street is Hannan Street, named after the town's founder. One of the infamous brothels also serves as a museum and is a major national attraction.
Kalgoorlie and the surrounding district was serviced by an extensive collection of suburban railways and tramways, providing for both passenger and freight traffic.[4]
Since 1992, Kalgoorlie is home to the Diggers & Dealers conference, held annually in August. It is Australia's premier international mining conference.[5]
The Super Pit is an open-cut gold mine approximately 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long, 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mi) wide and 512 metres (1,680 ft) deep.[6] It was created by Alan Bond, who bought up a number of old mine leases in order to get the land area needed for the Super Pit. Every now and again the digging reveals an old shaft containing abandoned equipment and vehicles from the earlier mines.
The mine operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and a visitor centre overlooks it. The mine blasts at 1:00 pm every day, unless winds would carry dust over the town. Each of the massive trucks carries 225 tonnes of rock and the round trip takes about 35 minutes, most of that time being the slow uphill haul. Employees must live in Kalgoorlie; it is not a fly-in fly-out operation. The mine is expected to be productive until about 2017. At that point, it is planned to abandon it and allow the groundwater to seep in and fill it. It is estimated it will take about 50 years to fill completely.
There are 25 historical hotels and pubs in Kalgoorlie which are still operating today;
There are also some hotels that no longer exist in the city;
In addition, Kalgoorlie has modern accommodation facilities, including;
And Previously
The Kalgoorlie-Boulder metropolitan area consists of a number of suburbs
Known as the home of the Super Pit, it is one of Kalgoorlie-Boulder's historical suburbs featuring many buildings and landmarks dating as far back as 1882. It was once the central business district for the Town of Boulder, but since amalgamation with Kalgoorlie, it is now more of a historical local centre. Boulder has its own post office, town hall and many hotels along its main thoroughfare, Burt Street. A significant refurbishment has been commenced as part of the 'Royalties for Regions' initiative.
A new housing suburb located next to the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport which was recently expanded and is enjoying healthy growth in property values.
This area derives its name from the golf course that once occupied the area. It was released to provide affordable property to a growing population in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Fairways features a private primary school, church, caravan park and small business.
Adeline was originally constructed around 1970 by the State Housing Commission. The suburb was built on the "Radburn" concept, with houses facing away from the street and common pathways linking homes. The area has been plagued by antisocial problems. In 2003, a significant urban renewal project, including the renaming of the suburb to Golden Grove and re-aligning of homes was commenced. The project has seen some success but has yet to fully eliminate antisocial problems within the area.[10]
See Broadwood.
Located in Kalgoorlie's far north. Hannans was the first suburb to have its own independent shopping centre ("Hannans Boulevard") which includes a Coles Supermarket. The area also has a primary school and an 18 hole golf course. The original course was not formally grassed but was recently refurbished. Several surrounding golf clubs joined together to form one club known as 'The Goldfields Golf Club'. A dam has been constructed to service what is now a luxury grass golf course and club. Alongside the golf course project has been the development and release of Greenview estate. It lies on the western border of Hannans. This ongoing project has been designed as an environmentally friendly estate, and will eventually consist of over 2000 homes, apartments and facilities such as parks and schools. As one of Kalgoorlie's highest growth areas there has been a proposal for a new alternative route, out of the suburb onto the Kalgoorlie Bypass, to avoid traffic problems on the already heavily used Graeme Street which is a direct route to the city centre. Other developments include 'Karkurla Rise' and 'Karkurla View' which have added an additional 400 homes to the area.
The central business district. Hannan Street, named after Paddy Hannan, is the Kalgoorlie's main street and stretches The length of the suburb. The western side of the suburb consists of housing and some light industry. The eastern side containss retail chains, banks, the police station, court house, restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, schools, university and TAFE.
One of Kalgoorlie's oldest suburbs. Much like other older suburbs, almost every street is parallel with Hannan Street in Central Kalgoorlie and are noticeably wide. It houses North Kalgoorlie Primary School, small businesses, a medical practices, a hotel, tavern and a non-maintained 18 hole golf course.
Much smaller today than it originally was before the Super Pit expansion. It's located at the far east end of Lamington between the northern Goldfields railway and Goldfields Highway.
Officially O'Connor is the south-east section of the suburb of Somerville. Much of the area is increasingly now known as O'Connor. It is home to a primary school, private high school Goldfields Baptist College and shopping facilities. It also houses the city's only recreation centre.
A narrow suburb following Piccadilly street between Central Kalgoorlie and Lamington. It features the city's regional hospital, small businesses, a hotel, sporting arena and two grassed ovals.
Somerville marks the end of Great Eastern Highway that stretches between Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Perth. Much of the area is now referred to locally as O'Connor. Somerville contains residential area, schools, retail shops, light industry and some horse stables. In the past it also contained market gardens.
Stretching from Boundary Street, Kalgoorlie to Holmes Street, Golden Grove and bordering with Central Kalgoorlie, O'Connor and Golden Grove. South Kalgoorlie is mostly residential but also contains the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Racecourse, schools, some light industrial and small businesses. The suburb was expanded in the mid-1990s to include a sub-division named 'Sport of Kings' on Maxwell Street, using a surplus of land from the racecourse.
A residential only subdivision within Fairways estate along Burt Street.
Kalgoorlie's main industrial area. It is the first suburb as you approach Kalgoorlie on the Great Eastern Highway. It features the city's airport and small, medium and heavy industrial. Currently under expansion further west (ANZAC Drive Industrial Estate.)
The western tip of Lamington was built in the 1980s. It includes one shop, sporting facilities and an arboretum nature reserve.
The small remains of East Kalgoorlie which now consists mostly of 'The Super Pit' open cut mine. The small existing area features mostly housing with one small primary school. It is also home to the Mount Charlotte mine shaft and Nanny Goat Hill. Owners of 'The Super Pit' have purchased many of the houses in the Williamstown area leaving many houses empty and some demolished leaving empty lots. There have been revegetation research projects commenced in the area.
The town is located on the main East-West rail corridor across Australia, and was once a break-of-gauge between the Western Australian Government Railways's narrow gauge Eastern Goldfields Railway and the Trans-Australian Railway towards the Eastern states of Australia. For eastward train travellers, on the transcontinental "Indian Pacific" service, Kalgoorlie is the last town encountered for hundreds of kilometres before entering the vast expanse of the Nullarbor Plain. The "Prospector" train run by Transwa also provides daily services to Perth.
Town bus services are provided by TransGoldfields, there are three town routes as well as school services.
Daily commercial air services connect Kalgoorlie-Boulder with Perth, operating out of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport. Airlines that provide regular flights include Qantas, QantasLink and Skywest.
Kalgoorlie is linked to Perth by the Great Eastern Highway, and is also on the Goldfields Highway.
Radio
Radio Services available in Kalgoorlie:
Television
Television services available include
The programming schedule is mainly the same as the Seven, Nine and Ten stations in Perth with variations for News bulletins, sport telecasts such as the Australian Football League and National Rugby League, children's and lifestyle programs and infomercials or paid programming.
Both WIN and GWN7 provide local news services that screen Monday to Friday. WIN News screens at 5.30 pm before Nine News Perth. GWN7 News screens at 5.30 pm before Seven News Perth.
New Digital television services from GWN7 and WIN are expected to launch by the end of 2010. A new digital-only channel branded Ten West commenced transmission on Thursday 10 June 2010, it is a sole Network Ten affiliated channel.
Subscrition Television Service Foxtel is available via Satellite.
Newspapers
The local newspaper for the Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Goldfields region is The Kalgoorlie Miner.
Newspapers from Perth including The West Australian and The Sunday Times are also available, as well as National Newspapers such as The Australian and The Australian Financial Review.
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Kalgoorlie has a arid climate with hot summers and winters. The average annual rainfall is 260mm on an average of 65 days and, while the average rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, there is considerable variation from year to year.
January is the hottest month with an average maximum temperature of 33.6 °C, but temperatures above 40.0 °C occur nearly once a week when hot, dry, north to northeasterly winds arrive. Such high temperatures are usually followed by a cool change from the south and occasionally with a thunderstorm.
By contrast winters are cool with July average maximum and minimum temperatures being 16.5 °C and 4.8 °C respectively. Cold wet days with a maximum below 12.0 °C occur about once every winter. The lowest maximum temperature recorded is 7.2 °C on 19 July 1961. Overnight temperatures fall below freezing about 4 times in a typical winter. Such events occur on clear nights following a day of cold southerly winds.
| Climate data for Kalgoorlie | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 46.5 (115.7) |
44.9 (112.8) |
44.5 (112.1) |
38.9 (102.0) |
33.4 (92.1) |
27.6 (81.7) |
28.7 (83.7) |
32.0 (89.6) |
36.8 (98.2) |
40.9 (105.6) |
42.9 (109.2) |
45.0 (113.0) |
46.5 (115.7) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 33.6 (92.5) |
32.1 (89.8) |
29.5 (85.1) |
25.2 (77.4) |
20.6 (69.1) |
17.5 (63.5) |
16.7 (62.1) |
18.6 (65.5) |
22.3 (72.1) |
25.8 (78.4) |
28.9 (84.0) |
31.9 (89.4) |
25.2 (77.4) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 18.2 (64.8) |
17.8 (64.0) |
16.0 (60.8) |
12.6 (54.7) |
8.7 (47.7) |
6.2 (43.2) |
5.0 (41.0) |
5.5 (41.9) |
8.0 (46.4) |
11.0 (51.8) |
14.0 (57.2) |
16.5 (61.7) |
11.6 (52.9) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 8.8 (47.8) |
8.5 (47.3) |
5.7 (42.3) |
1.7 (35.1) |
−1.8 (28.8) |
−3 (26.6) |
−3.4 (25.9) |
−2.4 (27.7) |
−0.6 (30.9) |
−1 (30.2) |
3.1 (37.6) |
5.5 (41.9) |
−3.4 (25.9) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 23.6 (0.929) |
31.2 (1.228) |
24.0 (0.945) |
21.3 (0.839) |
26.5 (1.043) |
28.9 (1.138) |
24.9 (0.98) |
21.4 (0.843) |
14.0 (0.551) |
14.8 (0.583) |
17.8 (0.701) |
16.4 (0.646) |
264.8 (10.425) |
| Source: [19] | |||||||||||||
On 20 April 2010, Kalgoorlie was rocked by a richter magnitude 5.0 earthquake whose epicentre was 30 km north east of the town.[20] The quake caused damage to a number of hotels commercial premises along Burt street in Boulder and it was reported that the underpass also on Burt street collapsed, although this was later found to be false. The entire Burt St. precinct was evacuated until 23 April. Work in the Superpit and many other mines around Kalgoorlie was stopped.[21]
There are currently 10 primary schools, 4 high schools and 1 university in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder area.
Kalgoorlie-Boulder's location, being approximately 600 km from Perth, contributes to high levels of participation in Australian rules football, netball, basketball, rugby league, soccer, hockey and cricket. Other popular sports in Kalgoorlie include tennis, lawn bowls, rugby union and swimming.
Kalgoorlie also has a international squash tournament held every year at the YMCA.
In a statewide sense, the semi-professional Goldfields Giants basketball team competes in the State Basketball League (SBL), and were SBL Champions in 2007 and 2008.
The Goldfields Titans play in the Western Australia Rugby League Harvey Norman Premiership state rugby league competition. Home games at the Oasis playing fields on Saturday afternoons.
Horse racing is also very popular in the city, and Kalgoorlie-Boulder is home to the internationally recognised annual 'Race Round'.
Kalgoorlie-Boulder travel guide from Wikitravel
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| Preceding station | Transwa Trains network | Following station | ||
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towards East Perth
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Prospector | Terminus | ||
| Great Southern Railway | ||||
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towards East Perth
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Indian Pacific |
towards Sydney
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