Norseman to Lake Ballard - and a little bit naughty in between!!

The tin camels at the entrance to Norseman - WA gateway to the Nullaboor

Historic York Hotel in Kalgoorlie - had a beer there

Paddy Hannan statue at the end of Hannan Street aka as The Golden Mile

Another lovely old Kalgoorlie building

Hannan street - the streets are very wide in Kalgoorlie

Historic Burt Street in Boulder where we stayed

Old mine shaft in the floor of the Metropole Hotel in Boulder - yes we had a beer

KCGM Super Pit Gold Mine Kalgoorlie

Another view of the Super Pit - look how small the trucks look

The sign says it all - Charlie's eager to get in and have a look

The "starting stalls" of the brothel where the ladies stand from 6 pm nightly

X-RATED - Now how can I explain that?

One of the rooms ready for business

The bondage room - sticks and stones may break my bones but whips and chains excite me!!

The Broad Arrow Tavern

Charlie reading some of the graffiti on the walls of the Broad Arrow Tavern

One of the male statues in Lake Ballard

One of the female statues - she's got boobs like me - saggy!!

They looked quite eerie

Charlie with a child statue

Happy Birthday!! - My official Birthday Photo

Happy Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Happy Happy Birthday

We are now travelling up through the Northern Goldfields and would you believe it Charlie's metal detector has decided to die!!  He could have found me a huge nugget to pay for this trip but its not to be.  So we will have to have some fun instead.

We travelled through Norseman and had lunch there in this little cafe - it was yummy.  Norseman is the gateway to the Nullaboor on the Western Australian side.  Apparently it is the second richest goldfield in WA but you wouldn't think so.  At the entrance to Norseman are the unique corrugated iron camels which depict the importance of camels in the Gold Rush days.

After lunch we headed on up to Kalgoorlie-Boulder which I must say was a surprise to me.  It was a lot bigger than I expected with very wide streets and lots of historical buildings.  The city traces its origin to one of the most significant gold strikes in Australia and was made by an Irishman called Paddy Hannigan (the luck of the Irish eh?).  The main street is named after him and is known as The Golden Mile.  Its a lovely street with lots of the original buildings still standing and some wonderful old historic pubs and of course we had to have a beer in a couple of them - its in the rule book.  The Super Pit gold mine is huge and is one of the biggest working open cast mines in the southern hemisphere. 

The discovery of gold in The Golden Mile triggered one of the biggest Gold Rushes in Australian history and so you can imagine there were lots of men here without their women which led to lots of brothels opening up!!  We did a tour of the oldest  (108 years) original still working brothel in Kalgoorlie called Questa Casa.  What an eye opener!!  It was conducted by the "Madam" and the first half hour of the tour was introducing us all to all the play toys which were passed around - small ones, big ones, a HUGE BLACK ONE, and a 2 headed one which Charlie immediately decided he liked!!!  The girls charge $280 an hour (you can just have 15 mins which is about $125 but that's usually just the young men as it doesnt take them so long - that's what she told us!!)  but that is just for the plain old fashioned act.  If you want anything else, its all extra!!  This brothel has been operating since 1890 but its still illegal - however the Madam pays tax - work that one out.

She then took us to have a look at a couple of the rooms, one of them being the "bondage room".  All sorts of things were laid out but if they were used they were extras, i.e. the black leather boots $100, whips $50 to $100 and so on.  Apparently in the early 1900's the so called respectable men of Kalgoorlie (who were using the brothel of course) decided that they wanted to bring their wives and family out to Kalgoorlie as they had established themselves and tried to run the working girls out of town because obviously they didn't want their wives to know.  However, none of them had considered the implications of this in a town with thousands of miners and their newly arrived wives and daughters the only females so the working girls stayed to provide a service.

We had a look at an excellent museum in Kalgoorlie which portrayed the early life of the miners on the goldfields in an area where there was no water and the ingenious inventions they came up with which enabled them to pan for gold without any water.

We also saw a pub in Boulder which had a glassed over mine shaft in the floor so of course we had a beer in there so that we could have a better look at the shaft.  The barmaid actually took us down the shaft to have a closer look which was good.

After Kalgoorlie, I decided that I really would like to have a look at the Inside Australia exhibition in Lake Ballard at Menzies which was about 180 ks north of Kalgoorlie before we headed over the Nullaboor to South Australia.  Another  former gold mining town but now only about 70 people live there but the pub serves great counter meals.  We went out to Lake Ballard which is a dry salt lake with 51 sculptures scattered over its 10 sq km surface.  These sculptures were commissioned by the Perth Arts Festival in 2003 and are taken from laser scans of the Menzies residents (actually they all looked much the same to me!!).  It was really interesting and was quite a different way to spend my birthday.  I'm glad we went and saw them because they are quite unique.

After a night in the caravan park in Menzies and a lovely meal and a few wines in the pub, we headed back south towards Norseman to start our journey across the Nullaboor.  We copped bad weather though - lots of rain from the cyclone which hit Port Headland yesterday so we are a little bit soggy today.  We stopped in at the historical Broad Arrow Tavern for lunch as they do the "famous" Broad Burger and I must say it was huge and yummy.  That's what I like about these country pubs - the food is good and plentiful - hence my increasing size.  The tavern was established in 1896 and is the only remaining building in Broad Arrow which was once a thriving gold mining town.  It was doing a good trade though so the burgers must be famous after all.  We often wonder who decides on this fame?  The walls, tables, doors, everywhere is full of graffiti which is quite interesting to read.

Anyway I am now sitting soggy and a little bit chilly so the heater will have to go on soon, writing this blog before we head down to the Nullaboor tomorrow and across to SA to see my little family - so excited about that.  Oh the joys of caravanning.

Until the next blog its Adieu from The Wandering 2s.