Eastern Goldfields
The Eastern Goldfields is a figurative area used in speech to describe a region of Western Australia.
Name
The name is derived in two parts from, Eastern in relation to its location from Perth and Goldfields as the name suggests comes from the mining of Gold in the region. The region encompasses the towns of Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Coolgardie, Kambalda, Southern Cross and other smaller settlements within this area.
Water
It is an area that constitutes a part of the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia and is the destination of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme.
Transport
It was the destination of the long running The Westland WAGR overnight railway sleeper train, which for decades was the main means of travelling to the 'Coast' or metropolitan Perth. The Transwa Prospector is now the main railway service in this area.
Political culture
- See also Secessionism in Western Australia
It was the region of inspiration for a group of writers - Gavin Casey, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Henrietta Drake Brockman and others. It has been an important cultural region as far as labour history and Australian political history, with a rich worker and trade union history.
Ghost Town legacy
See also
Notes
References
- Casey, Gavin and Mayman, Ted.(1964) The Mile that Midas Touched Rigby, Adelaide..
Further reading
- 100th anniversary of rail link (History of the Eastern Goldfields railway, officially completed on 1 January 1897, to the present, including introduction of the Prospector train on 29 November 1971) Kalgoorlie Miner 1 Jan. 1997, p. 2