Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Mining Hall of Fame, Super Pit, Hay St, Langtrees tours
Travel to Kal, in Oz's wild west, for the attractions of the country's biggest Outback city. These include a big mine, skimpies bars and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Kalgoorlie in Western Australia is what many see as the real Australia. It's a frontier city based on mining, and has a lot of curious attractions.
Those coming to Australia wanting to find it full of Crocodile Dundeee stereotypes may have been sorely disappointed with the big cities, but, never fear, there is a place where you’re guaranteed to meet cast-iron, rough-as-guts Aussies. It is Kalgoorlie, a place which sprung up pretty much in the middle of nowhere after gold was found there in the late 20th Century.
Whilst it is definitely gentrifying somewhat, Kal has frontier territory stamped all over it. 30,000 people may live here, in the middle of the outback, but you still feel as though a gunfight could break out at any minute.
There are a surprising amount of attractions, however, including the Mining Hall Of Fame (08 9091 4074), in which you get a lift-cage right deep into the earth, then taken round the mine, learning about the conditions and history of the place.
You can combine that with a visit to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, seeing how the people living in barmy out of the way places get medical help, and a trip to the Super Pit (which does exactly what it says on the tin). All of these major attractions are linked together in a 6 ½ hour package from Goldrush Tours (08 9021 2954). The whole shebang costs $55.
The other alternative is to have a look at the seedy side of Australia’s biggest Outback city. As you’d expect for what is largely a testosterone-heavy town of miners, many women can find gainful employment by not wearing very much (if anything at all). Thus, ‘skimpies’ bars, where the barmaids are clad in just enough to be legal, are a bit of an institution.
There is also the infamous Hay St, an area so swathed in red lights that invading aliens would probably see it as a homing beacon. However, like Kings Cross in Sydney, the rough edges have been ironed out somewhat, and it’s now a somewhat kitsch tourist attraction rather than just a series of knocking shops. So much so that one brothel (Langtrees 181 – 08 9026 2181) actually runs a $25 tour of the premises.
