14th July: Awoke to a fairly bleak cold day in Coolgardie! The town appeared almost deserted with many closed businesses-one pub and one coffee shop. We walked to the Coolgardie museum in the old courthouse-an eclectic collection of bric-a-brac ranging from old pharmacy/ apothecary bottles and containers to old tools and mining equipment, and household  things used at the time the mines were in their heyday, plus of course the Coolgardie safe, to a huge collection of bottles of every shape and size collected by a very industrious couple, the Waghorns, who spent their lives collecting antique bottles.

We had a coffee at the one coffee shop and proceeded to Kalgoorlie- a much bigger town, but not exactly buzzing with life! We checked into the caravan park then the visitors centre and then the Super pit- the amalgamation of the many small mining holdings into one super pit, started by Alan Bond and completed by Newmont mines.

Pasta with cheese sauce salmon onion corn and peas for dinner.

48 hour free RV camp Coolgardie
Apothecary stuff

Coolgardie safe
Waghorn perfume bottles
Coolgardie Courthouse
The super pit, Kalgoorlie



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 June 2nd: We investigated the 2 waterholes/walks available to us here at Mt Hart. Firstly we went to Matthew Gorge where there were a group of Outback spirit clients who had been flown in from Broome because of the road closures. Matthew Gorge was surrounded by many squarecut black rocks on all sides. We caught up with Kurt who was now one of their tour guides. We had a swim in the Gorge then Nic and I followed the gorge upstream doing a lot of rock hopping. We went a fair way up but not to the very end.  We then visited Barker Pool where we were the only ones there- saw the usual collection of birds - lots of Willy Wagtails , peaceful doves, tiny pale yellow honeyeaters and blackfaces cuckoo shrikes not to mention ravens and magpie larks. We returned to camp and had a walk along the banks of the Barker River bleeding the camp site. We had dinner at the restaurant- rack of lamb for Nic and Shark Bay Snapper for me! We visited Kurt who is sleeping in his car in the camp ground...
Read more
 April 13th: Left Renmark a little before 20am heading for Port Augusta. We didn’t stop except to change drivers and feasted on nuts and water along the way. We left behind citrus trees and crossed the Goyder line so no more wheat! Outside of Port Augusta there were an incredible number of wind turbines. We took a drive through powered site where we stayed previously at the Discovery Caravan Park. A trip to Woolworths bought Portabello mushroom steaks, which I cooked with onions and tomatoes and chilli jam from cafe Niagara with salad. This was preceded with a gin and tonic and lime with cheese and biscuits. Nic managed to get Starlink working and we watched Death in Paradise! I still can’t manage to insert any photos into this blog!   
Read more
Image
 Friends have advised starting a blog for our big trip so here goes! April 10th 2025: Farewelled by our wonderful neighbours we were finally away by 10am, after a 5.30am start to the day to enable Suzanne to do a house clean! Lunch at Niagara Cafe in Gundagai was a delightful find! We arrived in Narrandera well before dark for our stay at the Narrandera Caravan Park , with fish and chips at the Charles Sturt Hotel for dinner, followed by a good night’s sleep in our van April 11th 2025: After a leisurely start we set off for Balranald via Hay Plain with a stop at Shear Outback for lunch in Hay. We saw 2 emus cross the road in front of us otherwise it was an uneventful trip as we were passed by road trains, but there really wasn’t too much traffic. We stayed at Balranald Caravan Park on the Murrumbidgee, with large levy banks built to protect from flood damage since our last visit. We dined at the Shamrock hotel The farewell and getaway! Balranald caravan Park on the Murrumbidgee...
Read more