THE SOUTHERN OUTBACK the Landscape, Bearing Eerie Witness to the Victory Ofthelandoverthe Landscape,Bearingeeriewitness Tothevictory Itsearlycolonists
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© Lonely Planet Publications 152 lonelyplanet.com THE SOUTHERN OUTBACK •• Getting There & Away 153 0200 km THE SOUTHERN OUTBACK 0 120 miles To Newman To Halls Creek The Southern Outback (120km) (1250km) WARNING Collier Range Outback roads should National Park never be attempted without NT current and sound local advice. Gibson Desert (4WD Only) Giles ute Contact the nearest police Nature Reserve Ro station before proceeding. Warakurna ock To Alice St Roadhouse & g Springs in Caravan Facility n ) (670km) n Only Welcome to iconic outback Australia, where the searing red sandscapes of summer give way a (4WD C Warburton Tjulyuru Cultural & to clear, cold winter days and an inland horizon that reaches forever. Along the coast, wild Civic Centre l Hwy Lake barre dune country fronts up to the lonely waters of the Great Australian Bight where, fringing it, Gun Carnegie Tjukayirla d Meekathara Wiluna R Roadhouse l Lake ra CENTRAL AUSTRALIA the relentless Nullarbor Plain leads on (and on and on) to South Australia. nt Wells Great Ce ABORIGINAL LAND Lake TRUST This is remarkable wilderness country, more so because of its long history of human set- Throssell Cosmo Yeo Lake Newbery Nature Reserve tlement by the Aboriginal people, whose lands stretch in great swaths through the centre. Sandstone Agnew Leinster Yeo Lake More recently, European settlers pushed through, slowly at first, and then in seething masses Lawlers Windarra COSMO NEWBERY ABORIGINAL LAND Great Victoria SA To Mt Magnet Desert as news of the discovery of gold in the late 19th century filtered out. (55km) Laverton Rason Lake Leonora Lake Barlee Lake Lake Gwalia Malcolm Carey The gold rush became a gold boom, creating population enough for permanent settle- Ballard Kookynie Neale Junction Nature Great Victoria Desert Nature Reserve ment to be viable. This led to the creation of a pipeline some 600km in length to ensure Niagara Reserve Menzies Goongarrie National Park Lake the constant supply of water that the extraction of gold – and its miners – required. The 91 Minigwai Lake Ora Broad Rebecca regional centre, the handsome city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is testament to the wealth that gold Banda Arrow Nature Kanowna Reserve Nullarbor Kalgoorlie-Boulder CUNDEELEE Regional brought, with its wide streets and substantial Victorian buildings; it retains the Wild West Lake Reserve Coolgardie Yindarlgooda ABORIGINAL LAND Trans-Australia Railway feel of a city on the edge. Settlement of more remote goldfields was more difficult with the Southern Gnarlbine Rocks To Perth Cross Kambalda Kitchener Border Nullarbor (262km) 94 94 Lake Lefroy Village National constant threat of drought, and tedious hardship for the shanty-dwelling miners, searching Esper Victoria Rock Widgiemooltha Park Merredin C nly) Cocklebiddy Nullarbor Plain Nature Reserve o Lake O Eucla olgard ance H Cave for that elusive nugget. The ghost towns of these less-fortunate mining endeavours scatter Lake Cowan Madura Mundrabilla Johnston Dundas Rocks Cocklebiddy Fraser (4WD To Nullarbor re Hwy ie Ey Eucla Roadhouse the landscape, bearing eerie witness to the victory of the land over its early colonists. Lake w Range Caiguna 1 (4WD Only) - Balladonia y Norseman National Corrigin Wave Rock Hope Station (100km); 1 Nuytsland Eyre Bird Observatory Park Ceduna Lake Dundas Nature Perpendicular Dundas Nature & Telegraph Station (395km); Hyden nly) Cliffs Reserve Red Wilson Adelaide Reserve O Lake Twilight Point Bluff D (1270km) HIGHLIGHTS King Salmon Gums Cove Rock Peak Charles l) e National Park Grass Patch v (4W Lake ra Mt Ragged Roam Kalgoorlie-Boulder ( p154 ) with its Grace Scaddan (G Great Australian Ravensthorpe (385m) Condingup Bight eclectic architecture, raucous pubs and enor- Gwalia Gibson Israelite Bay Hopetoun Fitzgerald Esperance Cape Arid mous mining operations To Albany 1 Stokes National Park (190km) River Cape Le Grand Duke of Lucky Bay National Park Inlet National Park Orleans Bay Walk the shimmering hard-salt surface of Lake Ballard Lake Ballard ( p161 ) to view sculptor Antony Gormley’s 51 haunting figures, based on the Getting There & Away The same company offers the Goldrush Tours residents of nearby Menzies Kalgoorlie-Boulder Travelling to Kalgoorlie-Boulder is easy; pretty Golden Triangle Tour, a hop-on, hop-off bus pass much everywhere else, you’ll need a car. ($475) that covers transport between Perth, Explore the eerie ghost town of Gwalia ( p161 ) and others in the goldfields Eucla Margaret River and the southwest coast and Eyre Hwy AIR forests, Albany and Esperance on the south Learn how gold fortunes were made and lost Eyre Bird Observatory SkyWest Airlines (%1300 660 088; www.skywest.com coast, and to Kalgoorlie. in a tiny glint of decades, along the Golden .au) and Qantas (%13 13 13; www.qantas.com.au) fly Quest Discovery Trail ( p160 ) Great between Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Perth at least TRAIN THE SOUTHERNOUTBACK Australian Bight Drive the Eyre Hwy ( p164 ), Australia’s great- twice daily. There are also regular SkyWest Transwa (%1300 662 205; www.transwa.wa.gov.au) est sealed-road endurance test, across the flights from Perth to Laverton, Leinster, Le- runs the Prospector train service from Perth to Nullarbor Plain from Perth to Adelaide onora and Wiluna. Kalgoorlie-Boulder daily (one-way adult/child Bird-watch, and walk in the footsteps of $72/35, seven hours). It’s wise to book, as this explorer Edward John Eyre, at the renowned Eyre Bird Observatory ( p167 ) BUS service is popular. Perth-Goldfields Express (%1800 620 440; www.gold The Indian Pacific, run by Great Southern Walk along the lonely Great Australian Bight ( p167 ) rushtours.com.au) does the Perth–Kalgoorlie trip Railway (%13 21 47; www.trainways.com.au), also goes Climb the shifting sand dunes engulfing the old telegraph station at Eucla ( p168 ) (adult one-way $70) most days, going on to through Kalgoorlie-Boulder four times a week Leonora and Laverton once or twice weekly. (twice to Perth and twice from Perth). THE SOUTHERN OUTBACK THE SOUTHERN OUTBACK 154 EASTERN GOLDFIELDS •• Kalgoorlie-Boulder lonelyplanet.com lonelyplanet.com EASTERN GOLDFIELDS •• Kalgoorlie 155 0 800 m Large mining conglomerates have been KALGOORLIE 0 0.5 miles EASTERN GOLDFIELDS at the forefront of new open-cut mining op- erations in the Golden Mile east of Kal. It’s KALGOORLIE-BOULDER probably the wealthiest gold-mining locale To Mining Hall of Fame (5km); INFORMATION SLEEPING Broad Arrow (37km); Leonora (235km); DEC Office...................................1 B3 Broadwater Hotel & Apartments..14 C5 Laverton (367km); Wiluna (540km G % o 08 / pop 28,900 for its size in the world. ld Department of Indigenous Affairs..2 B3 Golddust Backpackers YHA........15 A4 f ie ld Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital.........3 B2 Hannan's View Motel................16 A4 Kalgoorlie-Boulder (‘Kal’ to the locals) is one Kalgoorlie-Boulder represents Australia’s s H Netzone.......................................4 B3 Kalgoorlie Backpackers...............17 A4 w t S y of Australia’s great outback success stories. raw edge, and has the feel of a US ‘Wild West’ Post Office.................................(see 1) Palace Hotel...............................18 B3 is w e M RACWA Office............................5 C3 Quest Yelverton Kalgoorlie.........19 B4 A long, dry and dusty 600km from Perth, it frontier town. Several brothels and pubs attest L c K Visitors Centre.............................6 B4 Railway Motel............................20 B3 en zi York Hotel..................................21 B3 remains a prosperous and productive gold to the city’s function, the same since the 1890s, Lamington e St Cotter St SIGHTS & ACTIVITIES town in its own right, as well as service centre as a prosperous mining centre. At one stage City Markets.................................7 B3 EATING for the burgeoning mining industry’s remoter there were 93 pubs, and the amount of alcohol Gallery at the Goldfields Arts Acropolis Shishkebabs................22 B3 outposts. Its wide streets and well-preserved consumed here is twice the state average. Centre...................................(see 8) Barista 202.................................23 B3 To Goldfields Arts Centre..................8 C4 Blue Monkey Restaurant..........(see 16) G Goldrush Tours............................. B4 Hoover Café............................(see 18) Victorian buildings are testament to its early Come September, the town is packed with Karlkurla ra 9 Park (2km) em Hay Street Brothels....................10 A4 Larcombe's Bar & Grill..............(see 14) e wealth and colourful history. visitors from all over WA and further afield St Kalgoorlie Town Hall.................(see 6) Monty's.....................................24 C3 t S Kalgoorlie Miner & Western Argus Paddy's Ale House...................(see 28) In 1893 Paddy Hannan, a prospector, set out for the annual Kalgoorlie-Boulder Racing re a Building..................................11 C3 Saltimbocca................................25 B3 H from Coolgardie for another gold strike with a Round. Everybody gets frocked up and very Langtrees 181..........................(see 10) Top End Thai.............................26 C3 couple of Irish mates and stopped at the site of drunk to watch horses race around the red, Paddy Hannan's Statue..............(see 6) Questa gCasa............................(see 10) DRINKING utrid e T Kalgoorlie. He found enough gold lying on the red dirt in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Broad Arrow SchoolO of Minesce Mineral De Bernales................................27