Farewell Kallgoorlie Boulder

Our last full day in Kalgoorlie Boulder before we start heading south for Esperance was a day of housework things. Stuff like stocking up on supplies, filling the petrol tank and getting spare fuel.  Also getting to a few other things that needed doing.

Then I took myself off to get a few photos of the historic buildings along Kalgoorlie's main street Hannan St. I have never been in a city, town or anywhere for that matter that has so many old historic buildings. It seemed that every time I turned around I was confronted with another beautiful relic from the past.

Kalgoorlie Town Hall - Erected 1908

Kalgoorlie Public Buildings....

...1899

Exchange Hotel ....... this is one amazing building!!

The Australia Hotel .... now guest accommodation

 

Even the butchers had very fancy buildings!!

Cohn's Building - Erected 1899

 

Coolgardie - Mother of the Goldfields

On September 17, 1892 Arthur Bayley rode into Southern Cross and deposited with the Mining Warden 554 ounces of gold that he and his partner William Ford, had found at an area called Fly Flat (part of what was to become Coolgardie). Within hours the frenzied rush to Coolgardie began and with it the greatest movement of people in Australia's history. While the lucky found gold and fortune, many more only found hardship, sickness and death. Despite this, within a decade Coolgardie became the third largest town in Western Australia, with a population of over 16,000 and many more people settling in the surrounding areas. While the surface gold ran out and the original mine, Bayley's Reward, closed in 1963. Coolgardie now with a population of around 800 people and viewed by many as a ghost town has retained many of it's magnificent buildings associated with it's rich and colourful past. So Coolgardie was my destination today, to have a look around and get some photos of the towns magnificent historic buildings.

Wardens Court Building

This was a very imposing building on the main street

One of the two remaining old pubs

Denver City Hotel

Coolgardie RSL - This was my favourite

Main Street of Coolgardie

Geraldton to Port Denison

Well we certainly didn't exert ourselves on this journey as we only had to drive 72kms (44.7 miles). So you would think we wouldn't be tired in the afternoon, oh no we still had to have our Nana nap in the PM. Port Denison and Dongara are twin towns divided by the Irwin River that have a real seaside village feel about them. There isn't a huge amount of touristy stuff to do, but then sometimes that's nice. It's nice and relaxing just to spend some time enjoying the sounds of the waves and doing nothing. We decided to stay on Port Denison rather than Dongara for no other reason than someone had recommended it to us. Travelling around Australia you soon get to learn to listen to peoples recommendations - word of mouth certainly is the best advertising. Port Denison is the home of Western Australia's largest rock lobster fishing fleets. Unfortunately the season doesn't start until after the Blessing of the Fleet is conducted next week. As with a lot of the villages we have visited along the WA coast there is a lot of history and historic buildings all built around the 1800's.

The Old Dongara Post Office

Dongara old Police Station, Courthouse and Gaol

Once again we are right on the Indian Ocean with beautiful white sand beaches - well normally that is. For some reason Mother Nature has decided to dump a huge amount of seaweed on the closest beach to us. Some of the piles would be at least 2 metres high. Not only does it look really unattractive it really really stinks. Needless to say I'm glad I bought a can of Eucalyptus spray to keep Myrtle smelling nice. I would presume all the would need would be a really high tide and most of the weed would be taken back out to sea. If I lived here I'd be down at the beach collecting some of this smelly stuff to use on my garden. When my Mum and Dad lived on the coast in St. Helens, Tasmania they used seaweed all the time on their garden and  their garden was fantastic.

 

I wonder why Mother Nature decided to dump this on shore -
doesn't do much for the beautiful beach

Last night we once again we had a beautiful sunset. But when I turned around to look back at the township, the sky was equally as striking. The clouds looked a bit dark and ominous. Then during the night there was lots of thunder and lightening and I got quite excited that we might see some actual rain. Haven't seen rain in a very long time. But no Mother Nature had other ideas as she only gave us about six drops of rain and then it all moved on.

Sunset over the Indian Ocean

Don't forget to always look over your shoulder

For my regulars you may remember I have been running a lucky draw for one lucky person who commented on my blog during the month of October. I thank you all for you lovely comments, but there can be only one winner. Drum Roll........ and and the winner of one of my pieces of chainmaille jewellery is Filip Demuinck. Filip if you could email me on davinerae@hotmail.com we can work out which piece you would prefer.