McCulloch Family Giant Leap: Kalgoorlie Is A Welcome Surprise.

With only 75km left of the Nullarbor it was very easy to get going and knock those last few kilometres over. It felt so cool pulling into the service station at the end and thinking of everything that we had accomplished over the last few days. As we were on a roll we fuelled up and bought our certificate to say we crossed the Nullarbor then jumped back in the car. We had decided to head north and get Kalgoorlie over and done with as apparently there is a lot to do there, yet we weren’t sure if we were going to enjoy it. The drive was a still another 189km on but we pulled up half way at a little service station for some morning tea.

It is actually run by a young couple and she is originally from Queensland so we chatted to her for a while and got an insight into life in Western Australia. There were also heaps of maps around and we realised just how big this state is and that the car will have a lot more km on the clock by the time we leave it. That is a very long way off though and for now we just want to get to Kalgoorlie and set up. We had picked out a caravan park with a pool. Believe it or not but in such a hot town not all had pools and this to us was very important as it is a nice way to cool down in hot weather.

When we arrived I was meant to book in for three nights with the possibility to stay four but in the end booked us in for five as there was a cheap deal going and they overlooked the fact we had kids as it is low season. So winning all round. We had no real aspirations to do much this first day after the two big drives we had just had. Instead we opted to hang out in the air con for a bit before making our way to the Information Centre and then do the food shopping finally finishing off with filling up the empty gas bottle. Then we rewarded ourselves with a swim in the pool and happy hour to celebrate Valentine’s day. Life is feeling great and as if it is back to normal. Guess it just shows us we can’t live in a cold place and where the sun doesn’t set until after 9pm.

Well our first full day in Kalgoorlie, what should we do – book a tour of the oldest working brothel of course! Well actually I had to book two tours as naturally we didn’t think it was the best place to take the kids so would do it on separate days so the other could take the kids somewhere else. We then decided to head out and check out the Super Pit, but as we were driving past the Boulder main street area we noticed there were markets on so thought we might as well stop and check them out. This led us down the main street and into the park across the road which was set up with jumping pillows, pony rides and more market stalls. The kids were in heaven and we decided to let them have a go on whatever they wanted and were really in no rush at all. I mean the poor things had been couped up in the car for three days so it was nice to see them getting out and running around.

Kayla wasn't too sure but was happy to stay on.

Hamish was all for it.

As Jason watched them on the jumping pillows I ducked up to what I thought was the train station, thinking it might have been where the Indian Pacific comes in. Well it was an old train station but it is no longer in action and it has a cool little museum that I checked out. I didn’t know but this place has been rocked by a few earthquakes (they even had a small one on Valentine’s Day – not that we felt anything!). We were also in luck as that day they were running a restored tram that use to take the miners to work. So I bought our tickets (a gold coin donation per person) and rushed back to grab the family. Hamish thought it was lots of fun getting to sit in it and have a ride around the streets, especially going up the main street as they have lovingly restored the facades of the shops so it has that classic old school look.

Lining up to hop on.

Enjoying the ride.

The beautiful restored old tram.

I think that is what is surprising us the most about Kalgoorlie – how much it is a family town. We were expecting a typical blokes mining town and for it to be a bit rough. It certainly isn’t. It is so much larger, has everything and has some wonderful parks and family activities. Eventually we dragged ourselves away from pony rides and jumping pillows and made our way up to the Super Pit. That place was mind blowing. Honestly I could have stood there all day just watching the massive big trucks (that look so small down the bottom) go up and down all day. It was just a hive of activity with so much going on. We will definitely be back to see it at night.

Just a little bucket.

It went down a long way - took trucks 45 minutes to get to the bottom.

Lining up to be loaded.

The size difference of a ute and a big truck.

We then just returned to the van for a lunch and chill out before I went on my tour of the brothel. Jason and the kids dropped me off out the front and Hamish kept asking where I was going and why he couldn’t come. I just told him I was going on a tour of an old building and that it wouldn’t interest him. Can you imagine the questions he would ask if he came in, let alone the things he would touch, I would be constantly dis-infecting his hands. As it so happened, as I was getting out of the car, there was also the couple who we had met at the first free camp we had stayed at on the Nullarbor. They seemed surprised that Jason wasn’t coming with me but when I explained that we didn’t think it was appropriate for the kids and they understood why we were doing it separately.

A different tourist attraction.

I was grateful to know that others were there to be honest. Even though there was a lot of us on the tour, it was kind of an awkward feeling all sitting around waiting for it to start. Still it was certainly interesting and you got an insight into what old “blokey” Kalgoorlie was like and how they had turned it around into a more family oriented town and the changes to the sex industry that went with it. Mind you, being a Madam would have certainly made this lady rich as she would take a 40% cut of all takings. Yet the town respected the Madams and the working girls. Back in the day they were not allowed out on their own (i.e. had to be accompanied to town with the Madam), had to be back at the brothel from dusk to dawn and they could not be locals. They came in, made their money and left.

Poor Bundy bear.

I found the teddies on the bed a little disturbing.

That is all I will tell you of the tour as I don’t want to give it all away, but it is certainly a unique experience and I would recommend that you do it whilst visiting in town. Now a days there are only two brothels left in town and of which neither had working girls there at the moment. They only come into town every now and then. Maybe I need to go and find a few episodes of Kalgoorlie Cops to see if it paints a different picture of the place. At the end of the tour I rang Jason who had taken the kids to the park and he was coming back to pick me up. The couple I knew said they would wait with me but I didn’t think it was necessary, but they pointed out that they would hate for someone to think I was a working girl. I mean a single girl standing out the front of a brothel! I really hadn’t thought that one through. I just told them I would set an extremely high price and that would be the end of them. All the same they did kindly stay with me until Jason got there and I am very grateful for that.

The kids enjoying the park.

Monday saw the start of the school week again, and now that we are in Western Australia and the time zones have changed, it means that Hamish’s on air lessons are at 7:30am now. I am loving this as now we are back when the sun rises at a decent time. It means we are up and ready to start the day before then. So we can knock over a school session and then do the on air lesson whilst Hamish is still bright and into it. Then we do another session and head out for the day knowing you have a good chunk of it done already. Especially if you are smart and do the ones that require more concentration first and the fun games ones for late in the afternoon.

Whilst Jason and Hamish did the lessons, Kayla and I went to search for some cardboard boxes which we needed for one of Hamish’s sessions and then since we got them very easily from Woolworths, we treated ourselves to some coffee and cake. When we returned to the van, the boys had finished and after a quick break we headed out to find the largest bin which apparently stands 8m tall. Now this bin was hard to find. We had the street name and we drove all the way down it and then back up it to find out it was right where we started. Lets’ just say it was a thin, useless bin and we were very disappointed with it. From here we proceeded back to the park area where Jason had taken the kids the day before. It is so beautiful and green and there are all sorts of wildlife on display.

Yep, not what I expected.

The kids had a play on the playground before I tried to do another session involving investigation with Hamish. Well that was like pulling teeth as he wasn’t interested and I lost my cool with it all, so we left the park without the promised ice-cream. I think it was one of those days, the awning flapped a lot for most of the night and eventually we packed it up at 1am in the morning. We are not going to make that mistake again; instead we are packing it up before we go to bed tonight. The wind just seems to pick up during the night for some reason. It is very unusual.

Anyway we all tried to have an afternoon nap, but I think Kayla was the only one who actually got a decent one. So instead I made our third coffee for the day, hoping that would get us through the rest of the day. Then it was Jason’s turn to do the Brothel tour so I dropped him off and headed back to the main street of Kalgoorlie. The kids and I walked up and down the main street, checking out all the beautiful old buildings. A local had recommended we eat at the Palace, so we popped in there. It looks stunning but I don’t know if it is a bit too refined for us (i.e. two young kids) and also the Yorke. I was tempted to stop for the malteser cake that was the special for afternoon tea, but I really didn’t think I needed a fourth coffee for the day. We might have to come back tomorrow.

So much character.

This was a really nice street - hope more shops open up back there.

Hmm I think this pub is a little confused on its location.

Eventually Jason joined us once his tour was finished and we headed home, finished the fun game’s school session, had dinner and showers and then headed out to the Super Pit to check it out at night. It is cool seeing it, but it is definitely more impressive during the day when you can really see everything a lot better. I also found out that there was a blast at 5:30pm this afternoon. I was quite annoyed about that as all day I had been ringing the hotline phone number every half an hour (as they apparently give you an hours warning) and not once had it mentioned a time. Surely there has to be an easier way to find out when there is a blast so we can take the kids up and show them. I might look on their website tonight.

Never ending amount of work to be done.

Heading back up the hill.

After a better night’s sleep we were ready to face another day of school while also trying to get out and explore some more of this town. Today I had booked a Super Pit tour for the boys to go on. Unfortunately kids four and under can’t go on the tour so someone had to stay back and look after Kayla so I decided to sit this one out. So we dropped the boys off and went and did a bit of shopping before trying to decide on which cool little pub/coffee shop to enjoy morning tea at. Before we knew it, we were off to pick up the boys and return home for some lunch. Jason had mentioned that the tour was really great and that it even drove you past the maintenance area for the big trucks. The statistics with this mine in mind blowing, for example:

- They pull out $30 million worth of gold a day

- Each truck tyre weighs 5 tonne and costs $40,000 each (and I thought our tyres cost a bit!)

- The mine has a massive pile of lower grade gold contained within rock which they will extract once the mine is no longer operating. Apparently this would take many more years to complete.

- There are no fly in fly out workers at this mine (given Kalgoorlie is a family friendly town), which means that none of it is automated (i.e. trucks that drive themselves)

- It takes a truck 45 minutes to drive from the top of the super pit to the bottom.

Nothing like a bit of a safety message. They ran over a ute with one of the big trucks.

Behind the scenes.

Must maintain these big beasts.

Jason has also read that there is a recall on certain models/years of the Pajero and it looks like ours is in that category. Something about the timing chain – let’s be honest I am not a mechanic and don’t understand that sort of talk so I leave it in Jason’s hands. He called the local Mitsubishi service centre here in Kalgoorlie and asked them about it and the guy seemed to have no idea and that it could take up to a week for them to get in the part. I thought that was very odd that Mitsubishi would order a recall and not have their service centres prepared for the workload. Anyway, the guy said he needed to check if our car was affected and would call back. Needless to say he never did so instead we called the Esperance service centre that were fully on top of it and had the parts and will do it for us Friday. Way better service.

Hamish all dressed up in safety gear.

Keeping the dust to a minimum.

I was really keen to see a blast in the super pit and Jason had found out on the tour that they are mainly conducted at 1pm and 5:30pm as this is lunch time and then a change of shifts. Brilliant I thought, so I packed Kayla in the car and urged Jason and Hamish to hurry up as I didn’t want to miss this. Of all the luck, of course it blasted whilst we were walking to the lookout from the carpark, so we missed it by 30 seconds! I wasn’t overly impressed but we thought we would try again later in the day. Mind you that didn’t happen as by the time it got closer to 5:30 I wasn’t really keen to take Kayla out in the car in case she fell asleep and then would be up all night. Instead we opted for a swim in the pool and then an early night in bed for the kids.

All we saw of a blast - the after dust.

Our last full day in Kalgoorlie and haven’t we left a few things to the last minute. The two main things we wanted to do was a tour of the Royal Flying Doctors so after a few sessions and Hamish’s on air lesson we headed off. Even though we have done the tour of one already in Broken Hill we still enjoyed this one as it covers a whole different area and even got to walk into the plane and check it out. Thankfully both planes were on the ground today, which means no one was in need of help, but hearing of some of the stories it was quite amazing. The worst accident on the Nullarbor required four planes to be sent out. There are only two in Kalgoorlie so the other two had to come from another base. Another interesting fact is that the planes are set up with similar equipment that you would find in an intensive care unit, not like an ambulance.

On the ground - no one needs help at the moment.

Pretty impressive fit out.

Hamish thought it was cool.

Along the Nullarbor we had taken pictures of the sections of the highway where it was a bit wider for the RFDS planes to land and I was intrigued as to how this worked. So I asked and they said local cops come out and close the road and if there aren’t any around then they have volunteers in the service stations or local properties who will come out and close the road. If all else fails they will radio the trucks to park across the road and close it off for them. Certainly sounds like an amazing feat and one I hope I never have to witness.

The kids got a little bored during the first part of the tour with all the talking but all in all they did pretty good so we called into McDonalds on the way home for them. Then it was time for a bit of rest before trying our luck at seeing a blast in the Super Pit. This time we left extra early but I thought I should call the information line as we were driving there. Of course the announcement had that there would be no blasts at all today. That would be my luck. Oh well instead we decided to head to a local Mine Museum and check it out. I headed in first to make sure it was air-conditioned as it was a bit hot today so once I found out it was I headed back to the car but we realised that neither Jason nor I had thought to bring our wallets. Then we noticed Kayla was asleep so we decided to do the museum later after we had all had a bit of a rest.

I think we all tried to have a sleep, well all but Hamish! At least he was happy to watch a movie. Then when that was over we played another game as part of Hamish’s school before heading out to the Museum. That is one thing we have found with the two places we have been to today, they have both been so affordable and only cost us $10 for the family to get into. First stop we went up in the lift to check out the top and from there we got a great view out over the main street of Kalgoorlie. Jason even managed to get a picture of the bell tower on the town hall. It is made of gold!

Kalgoorlie main street - the town hall bell tower (made of gold) can be seen in the distance.

Yep glad for modern day cars.

Not to mention our cameras are a lot easier to carry around.

Hamish enjoying the outside part.

Talking about gold, the museum had four million dollars with it down in the vault on display. The whole centre was great and well worth the visit but unfortunately there wasn’t much at all to keep the kids entertained. So whilst we were trying to read everything it was a bit hard trying to keep two kids from running around playing chase. Still we managed to get through it with no death stares so it couldn’t have been too bad at all. Or either that the promise of a swim was enough to get us over the line.

Unfortunately they were not just handing these out.

Some lovely old pieces of jewellery.

Very impressive room.

Old buildings everywhere you looked.

I think Hamish prefers our style of camping.

So back to the van we went and got ready for a swim. We had a quick visit from Ian and Gwen and swapped our stories of getting our Pajeros fixed. They went into the local Mechanics in person and had way better response so theirs is also getting fixed on Friday, but here in Kalgoorlie. Finally after much persistence from the kids we went and enjoyed a nice refreshing swim in the pool. I am so glad that we made sure we got a caravan park with a swimming pool. It certainly makes these hot afternoons more pleasant.

As it is our last night we decided we should eat out. Making that decision was easy but picking where to go was hard. We thought there was the Palace which a local had recommended but decided against it as it looked like one of those places that kids might not be well received. So instead Jason called the Information Centre who recommended two places that were kid friendly. One was down the main street of Boulder so nice and close. It was worth going to as the meal was delicious and the kids ate free, but as for being kid friendly I probably wouldn’t recommend it. They had a caged off area approximately 2m by 2mx square with a tub of toys in it and that was all. The kids needed to be lifted over the fence to get in or out.

Yep - it was like a cage.

We have really enjoyed our stay in Kalgoorlie and it has surprised us with how much there is to do there. It has also been kind to us and provided us with nice warm weather. Certainly beats the cooler weather that we experienced in South Australia.