The Super Pit Tour was run like clock-work today. We were asked to meet outside the tour office at 8.30am for a 9am start. At 8.33am we had parked the car and walking towards the tour office when I received a phone call asking where we were. By the time I had answered the call we were standing outside the office! Now that's efficient. Mind you we then waited inside the bus for another twenty minutes for a last minute participant......
Philip loved this tour, as I knew he would. Boys and their toys. I also found it interesting but probably not quite as much. The tour guide was ever so passionate about the KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine) Super Pit and, as he also drove one of the dump trucks in a previous time, so he was able to splatter his dialogue with lots of funny anecdotes. We first drove to the "spare parts" yard that held everything from truck tyres to full blown dump trucks that were in the process of being stripped down. The workshop was larger than an airport hanger, as you would expect, because they certainly need a lot of room to work on mine machines.
We then moved on to the crushing area where our guide explained the process to us. The dump trucks tip their load, that can hold rocks the size of a car, into a gigantic crusher that crushes them to more manageable size. From here they are then sent to the processing plant. This is the simplistic explanation as there is a lot in between that I didn't even begin to understand. The gold is extracted with the use of chemical and finally sent to the "gold house" for sale and distribution worldwide.
We were told that the mine will expire in 2035 but then we were shown giant mounds of rock that still contained gold particles that will take 10 years to process. Little old me thinks that this mine's life could extend for a very long time. We were allowed to take photographs but not post to social media so I don't have a lot to share. I'm hoping that these photos will pass scrutiny if KCGM analyses them 😩
It was double tour day today so this afternoon we drove to Questa Casa Bordello - Australia's oldest working brothel. "Madam" met us at the door and once we were all seated in the waiting room she pulled up a chair and regaled us with tales of what it was like to be the Madam of a brothel. She has owned the business for 31 years so she had plenty of tales to tell. We were then shown the "waiting stalls" where the girls would sit and wait for their customers and three of the bedrooms. Hay Street was made the red light area of Kalgoorlie when the council and constabulary decided that the town should be family friendly. At the time brothels were spread out all over Kalgoorlie so they (the buildings) were all relocated to Hay Street. There were no less than thirteen establishments in the street at its peak. The Questa Casa has a sign out the front that says "Yes still an operating brothel when the girls are here" however no girls reside here now and haven't for some time. Madam now makes her money running these tours!
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