The day started with an early morning walk around Kalgoorlie, seeing the old buildings that sprang up with the gold rush.
Up the hill just outside town is the Superpit, Australia’s largest open cut mine. It’s hard to describe the scale of this huge hole in the ground, and the pictures don’t do it justice. It’s more than half a kilometer deep!
Heading north along the Goldfields Highway, the countryside was reminiscient of the Nullarbor.
There were lots of other mining operations in the area.
The roadhouse at Menzies was an interesting sight.
Then I headed for Lake Ballard, a large salt lake that has an interesting art installation scattered across it.
Leaving footprints in the soft, salt-encrusted mud.
It was bloody hot out there!
On the road back, I was surprised at the amount of greenery in the countryside – there has been recent rain in the area, and it seems the plants are taking full advantage.
Next stop on the Goldfields trail was Kookynie, an almost-ghost town (still has around a dozen people living there). The town pub is also still operating, catering for tourists.
Apart from a few occupied houses, the rest of the town is in ruins.
Leaving the ghost town, the road was wide and well-graded, running through wide open scrubland.
There was still a lot of water around after the rains.
In lots of places, there were the remnants of old mining activities just off the road.
Rolling into Leonora to refuel late in the afternoon, I was originally hoping to get to Laverton and the start of the Great Central Road before stopping for the night – but a large nail on the road put paid to that. Fortunately the town’s information bay was just ahead, so I had shade while changing the tube.
