As we still had some time to fill in before meeting up with our travel buddies, Julie and Brian, we decided to head north and investigate Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields. 

Our first stop after leaving beautiful Esperance and the beautiful cool aqua coastline was to a bush camp at Bromus Dam.

From there we headed to an old outback town called Coolgardie.  On the way we stopped at Salmon Gums where they were having a community market, including a ‘boot throwing’ competition.  After buying a couple of doughnuts from the community women’s auxiliary we headed onto Coolgardie.   In the height of the goldrush in 1897 Coolgardie was was WA’s third largest town. These days it has a population of around 800 people who are spread far and wide across the district.  We had a drink at the local pub and caught up with other nomads, who always have a tale to tell.  We have met some very interesting people on this trip and its always memorable to have a yarn over a beer in an outback pub.

We called into Kalgoorlie, checked out the SuperPit which was huge!

We stocked up on supplies and moved onto another outback pub called the ‘Broad Arrow’.  This was the quintessential Aussie outback pub. It was built in 1896 and still offers a cold beer as it did back in the day.  It was established to cater for the influx of gold hunters and today is a regular stop by current miners and road train drivers as a reprieve from the outback dust and heat.

It provided us with a free camp at the back of the pub, some light entertainment by way of some country music and some cold beers.

Next day we headed further north into the goldfields and made out way to the tiny town of Menzies and out to Lake Ballard to camp for the night. Lake Ballard was beautiful. It was a salt lake – not a drop of water, although as you looked out over the lake the mirage made it seem there was water on the horizon.  It is also the home to Anthony Gormley’s outdoor art installation called Inside Australia featuring 51 steel sculptures spread across 10 square kilometres (shows you how big the salt lake is)  forming the world’s largest outdoor art gallery. 

We ventured out in the late afternoon to visit a few of the sculptures. It was extremely ‘other worldly’. We lit a campfire in the evening and watched the sun set over the lake and welcomed a sparkly night sky.

From Lake Ballard we headed to Kookynie which is a living ghost town. In 1907 it had a population of 3,500, but today only 20 people live here. We got talking to the publican who was a beautiful lady in her late 80’s. She still opens the pub between 12:00 and 2:00 each day but only when she is feeling well. 

We were full of admiration for this beautiful woman, she has owned the pub for 35 years, unfortunately it is up for sale now as she needs to spend more time caring for her husband who recently had a stroke.

This is one of the things we love about travelling, particularly in the outback, you meet all sorts of wonderful genuine people. 

We headed to Niagara Dam where we set up camp. It was really peaceful here, (except for the odd cow that Rod had a conversation with ) It was a great campsite.

Next we headed to Gwalia which is a historic gold mining town which is now a living museum and a ghost town.

The mine here closed in 1963 which led to a mass exodus. The cottages and buildings around the town have been preserved and gives a really good insight into how hard life would be have been here. Historic Hoover House, a grand home, is also here, which was once occupied by Herbert Hoover, the mine’s first manager who later became the 31st president of the US. 

The weather is dry, hot and windy as we make our way back to camp at Niagara Dam. Its been a really interesting few days exploring the goldfields.  Next we are back to Kalgoorlie to finally meet up with our travel buddies