WA: Into the outback to Kalgoorlie - ADD PHOTOS3 Feb 2006
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We're out of supplies so we need to head back into Esperance to stock up and check out the surf. It's time to see the "biggest outback city" - Kalgoorlie. As you head from the coast, the dirt gets redder and the bush more sparse - this looks like proper tough country.
We hit "Kal" on dusk and it looks how I imagined, a big country town smack down in the middle of red dirt. Find the pub where we've booked in to stay (it's either that or ominous sounding "tourist parks"). The room is a bizarre kind of cupboard space with no windows but a skylight about two storeys above the bed. Showers and loos down the hall, it's all very basic. The pub itself is an historic piece in itself.
Kalgoorlie is in the grips of the resource boom and everyone is happy. On the Exchange Hotel in the centre of town there's a ticker board showing the AUD exchange rate and the price of gold on endless loop. It's a town famous for a couple of things - primarily gold and skimpies. Skimpies are aptly named barmaids who wear pretty much bugger all while they pull beers for thirsty miners - so this is the real Australia.
Saturday night goes off in Kalgoorlie but after a couple of quiet ones checking out the drunk miners checking out the skimpies, we call it quits and head back to the closet for some kip.
Next morning we're up to see the sights. Kalgoorlie has that sleepy Saturday morning feel to it. The shops are open, but there's not many folks around. There's a proliferation of clothes shops selling surf gear, which is on the back of anyone you see from kids to adults. Looks like the surf culture has infiltrated even when the nearest surf break is several hundred kms away. Make mental note to buy Quiksilver shares.
No visit to Kalgoorlie is complete without checking out the Super Pit. This was Bondy's brainchild - as gold got harder to find he reckoned that by buying up all the individual leases and combining them into one huge pit, you could maximize the amount of gold you could pull from the earth. Looks like he was right, because it's still extracting enough gold today, but nothing compared to gold rush days. It's an impressive sight seeing all that industry in progress - the trucks that haul the mined material cost $4 million alone. It's a huge operation.
Saturday arvo is pretty quiet in Kal, so after checking out the museum we head out to the Two Up School about 10km out of town. There's not much here, just a circular tin shed with a two up court in the middle, but the place has such atmosphere. If only the walls could talk. Apparently this place was the host of some seriously huge two-up games.
Have decided to take in some local culture that night and spend the evening at the speedway. Expected it to be a bit of a piss take, but it was excellent fun. You park your car by the speedway track and settle in to watch cars fang it round, crashing into each other or the walls, while red bullets of dirt spray over you from the wheels. Doesn't sound glamorous but it's a lot of fun - we plan to stay for an hour or two and end up staying till stumps. Some of the drivers are absolute lunatics, and you can pick which ones have personal vendettas and are out for blood. No mercy at the speedway.
