019 - Kalgoorlie

Oh yeah… Superpit Saturday!!

The other thing I’d earmarked on this trip for us to check out was the Superpit in Kalgoorlie. Essentially it’s a hole in the ground, just a really, REALLY big hole. I recall the evening in the Marsh when I floated with B doing the 400km-odd detour up to Kalgoorlie to see the mine.

“What’s the Superpit”

“Hang on, I’ll get a pic on Google”

“Woah… that’s cool. OK we’ll go.”

So that was the genesis of our trip inland. And in a way, it’s worked out well as it’s allowed us to remain away from Esperance and the key coastal destinations whilst the WA school holidays are on. Now it’ll only be the hordes of Grey Nomads when we head down that way.

We had originally booked in for Easter Monday for the tour, but the tour go bumped and we were rescheduled to today. No real issue on our behalf and allows us to explore the town at our leisure after tour rather than hang around for it.

Prior to the tour, we continued our considerable washing escapades before heading off into town to pick up some well needed supplies and stocks. A few news pairs of shoes, thongs and other bits and bobs filled up the morning successfully.

As Evie calls them, this pub has an "upstairs out". And a very impressive one at that.

The famous Exchange Hotel. No visit to go see the "Skimpies" this time around.

We then took the kids off to the recommended Hammond Park. If in Kalgoorlie with kids (and even without) I’d highly recommend going there. A beautiful green oasis in the red dusty Kalgoorlie landscape is presented with immaculate gardening and modern, clean and safe playgrounds, picnic facilities and amenities. An absolute ripper spot and the local government and supporting businesses should be very proud of it. Given the amount of patronage it had, a highly successful venture.

A great park, nice and secure and safe. Incredibly well maintained and serviced.

The park also has huge range of native birdlife, some in aviaries, some free roaming like the resident emus. Here we see Evie and a local having a bit of a stand off.

But hey… forget your stinkin’ parks, gardens, shopping and all that other hee-nee-shee-nee…

We’ve got to get to the Superpit!!

I was easily the most excited, and was practically dragging the kids and B there with enthusiasm.

The tour consisted of sitting in a coach and driving around the mine and supporting infrastructure and at key spots, getting out for some pics and kodak moments.

I won’t go into the tour too much, as I’ll let the pics tell the story. Quite simply the Superpit is more than super. I think a rename to “Epic-pit” or “Freakin’-amazing-pit” should be in order. The facts and figures regarding the pit and the machinery is are mind boggling. I can only imagine if you time-travelled some prospectors from yesteryear and showed how we now get gold out of the ground, they’d be even more stunned than we were.

But really, let’s look at the pics…

James was incredibly interested in the various polished up stones and gemstones in the tour shop. Not sure if he reminds you of anyone Poss and Pop?

OK, so Evie was pretty excited too. Rocking the High Vis and glasses like a PPE model.

Some new shoes, ready for the Tonka Trucks. At a lazy $40,000 a shoe, it's not your standard Bob Jane order.

I'm trying to work out just how big (and sharp) the rock was that peirced this tyre and essentially detroyed it in one go... Given the drivers can't see the first 50m in front of the truck, perhaps it's not surprising they missed it.

And at $40k a tyre, just how much money are we looking at here?

The "boneyard" where all decommissioned machinery goes to be recycled or used as spare parts.

All trucks are washed prior to servicing to ensure crew aren't hit with falling lumps of dirt. The water used is groundwater from the area and is 'hyper-saline' in that it is 7 times saltier than sea water. Which explains why you should NEVER buy an ex-mine vehicle. I did query the guide as to why the water wasn't treated prior to use. "Dollars mate". Of course... I should have known.

Our first siting of a big truck in action as he thundered past us. Amazing and just as big as you think they might be. To give you an idea, the tyres are about as tall as the coach we were sitting in.

The incredible Kalgoorlie Superpit. Quite simply the most impressive hole in the ground I've ever seen in my life.

I love this shot. The trucks crawling (at around 10kph) up and out of the mine. Just remember how big they are and it puts into perspective the size of the mine itself.

This landslide was on the far side of the mine from us and quite the interesting tale. The mine had known of the instability on that wall for around 5yrs or so and had shut the roads on that side of the mine down. Through millimetre accurate radar monitoring the watched the wall with interest and then two weeks ago, due to heavy rain, they predicted the wall collapse to within 3 hours. Mine was evacuated and not a soul in danger. Tours were stopped for 10 days so we were lucky to get our spot. That's some impressive predictive tools.

Not many things cuter than kids in oversize PPE.

This, um... Landcruiser I think... is located right at the front of the mine entrance where every person entering the mine every day is reminded about the risks. This car was run over by a Tonka under controlled circumstances to highlight just how big and dangerous the equipment is. On the mine, there are very rarely second chances. YouTube footage can be found here:

Squashed Ute

The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and had an answer for pretty much every question the group threw at him. Worth every cent in my opinion.

After the tour, we returned back to the park, with even more interest in Kalgoorlie and have decided to remain here as planned until Easter Monday. We feel this town just has so much to offer. An incredibly interesting town and worth the effort to get here.

The evening had us treated to karaoke and Easter Raffle/Party happenings in the park social area.

Me after being told my request for "Get in the Ring" by Guns N Roses was 'inappropriate'.

This entertainment, whilst very well intended and entertaining for the kids or nomads, wasn't holding my attention. I think I was still dreaming of horsepower and mine blasting.

Ahh… superpit afterglow….