Road trip to Kalgoorlie

 It was a trip that i thought i would not have done. A long way to Kalgoorlie 598 km from Perth and I am thankful to Gobie and Usha for inviting me to join their family in this road trip. Usha will be moving to Shepperton in January thus the expedited visits to Western Australia attractions before she and her family goes East. It was my first road trip in Oz land and it brought me a certain dimension towards travelling by road.Yup.. i wanna do this again!
It is of interesting history that Kalgoorlie was where it all began for WA. The gold rush they had became the catalyst towards mining and the main source of development of cities in Western Australia. Otherwise, it would have been the typical malay saying .. purely PADANG JARAK PADANG TEKUKUR. The great outback of nothingness!

 We slept one night in Westonia the halfway between Perth and Kalgoorie.Amazingly, the towns that we passed through really looked like the ones on TV where they pass about Nuclear testing site towns! Yup..nobody can be seen around! emptiness! and It was an interesting fact that Westonia had only a population of 73.And the day we were there, we increased the population by 8%!

 The drive to Kalgoorlie reminded me of the drive we had during our US trip. A long stretch of road with nothing in between! Arriving in Kalgoorlie was another thing. It is a classic mining town where the facilities were adequeate but not a busy metropolitan businees town.Everyone was laid back and seemed relaxed.
We went to the Mining Hall of fame and sadly it was one of the last days of their existence.Apparently they were closing because of financial woes in maintaining the place. Sayang, as it would have been educational and interesting to know how mining works and a visit to an underground mine was certainly the highlight! Seeing with your eyes how they mould gold was also something I was fascinated with.

 The Super Pit was the main attraction here and I was amazed by the size of the open mine. Papa said that Sungai Besi and Sungai Lembing was similar to this but Development has changed the landscape. I never knew that and I suppose Malaysia should have documented it well and present it to the school kids about how it was.It is interesting especially having to see the majestic trucks and magnitude of mining that they do. Gile besar!!

 

It was an enjoyable trip discovering the Pipeline trail as well as the Mining History of Australia. I certainly came back as a more learned person:)