Tues, 26th Apr, 2016 Lake Douglas Recreation Reserve, near Kalgoorlie to Centennial Park RV Stop, Kalgoorlie, WA (exploring Boulder)

Warm night, 24 degrees at 7am. A light shower of rain passed over with a bit of wind making it cooler again.

Went over to say bye to the Skoda couple as they were getting photos with Jason and Kate. They have just been issued with visa to go to Russia so now they just need to round up some money to freight the car over in 5 weeks. They only had a 3 month visa for Australia.

Rain started again as we packed up. Jumped in the truck to find the battery was dead. Got out the brolly while Steve investigated. Looks like it just died – lucky we have the 2^nd one in the truck and we are near Kal to get a new one. He jump started us off the 2^nd battery and off we went. Headed back up the hill passed Lake Douglas (just a quick photo out the window) – not the prettiest lake. In the caravan magazine the photo makes it look so pretty.

Into Kalgoorlie and we dropped off the van at Centennial Park again. Another Nova van was there but they were just about to leave so we chatted (from Gladstone) then took their dry spot. They had a bit more rain here than we had by the looks.

Looks like it’s going to be a bleak day – glad I got my washing done yesterday. Steve dropped me off a Telstra while he went to get a new battery for the truck. I wanted to see about changing my Prepaid offer to the one Leanne has which has more data which would be good if I get the smart phone. I had seen one at the Minelab shop so with the new Prepaid offer changed and guaranteed that I could just swap the Sim card from one to the other I bought the phone. Now just to work out how to use it!!

Back with Steve so we went back to the van for lunch. The drizzly rain has now stopped  so we headed off to explore Boulder. Boulder, as a town, was more where the workers in the mines lived so they only have narrow streets in comparison to Kalgoorlie which was the richer more plush town with the wide streets for the camel trains to turn etc. Boulder was named after the Great Boulder Mine on the Golden Mile. They two miners named their mine that after their other mine further south which was the Little Boulder Mine – very inventive naming!! Boulder and Kalgoorlie and the mines were linked by a Loop Train Service – I will have to check out the Museum next time.

Boulder had been rocked by a 5.0 magnitude earthquake at 8.17am on Tues, 20^th April, 2010 and a lot of the buildings around historic Burt Street were damaged. Two blocks were cordoned off and buildings evacuated. Luckily no one was hurt, the students hadn’t gone into class as yet which was great at the ceiling fell down in two classrooms. The facades of the shops and upper stories of the hotels were damaged severely. The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder has spent in excess of $8 million to restore the majority of the shop fronts back to quaint Federation style shop fronts, working off photos of the early days. We had thought it all looked very clean with new painted signs etc everywhere. Apparently they had a little earthquake here at 4.30am this morning and they are regular occurrences as this area is on a large fault line – hence the gold.

The Recreation Hotel, 1898.

Up Burt Street.

The Metropole Hotel still needs a lot of work – will come back to check out the glass floor showing the mine underneath.

The Post Office with C.Y. O’Connor painted above the windows.

Parked the car and wandered up the street. In the Court House (1910) were info boards about the people of WA voting for the Federation and a group that wanted to create another separate state.

Across the road was the Court House Hotel.

Into the Boulder Town Hall for our tour. It is home to a stage curtain, which depicts a scene of the Bay of Naples as if looking through a window with curtains. It was created by Englishman, Phillip Goatcher. He painted it for the opening of the Town Hall in 1908. This particular curtain is the world’s last surviving example of a working Goatcher Curtain.

Our tour guide is a historian and was working the day of the earthquake. He said he rushed outside then back in to check on the curtain then went looking for the caretaker – the curtain was first priority!! It was an amazing sight, especially set in such a lovely hall with the cast iron columns, wrought iron balustrades, pressed tin ceilings and highly polished timber floor. The 3D effect was fabulous. The curtain painted on the curtain looked so soft that you felt you could touch its folds. Over the years of use, the canvas became cut and torn in places and the paint layer became unstable and badly stained. They received a grant to restore the curtain and reline the canvas before pitting it onto a new stretcher. The restoration process was undertaken in Sydney by International Conservation Services in 1997 and took 6 months to complete at a cost of almost $250,000 – and we could come and see it for free, how wonderful.

Not sure about the comfortable chairs they provide though!!

Up the stairs to the back stage area. Looking up to the high ceiling (the wind is whistling around up there) to where other curtains for shows are hung.

Each afternoon the Goatcher Curtain is raised and stored in its canvas cover for the night. When all the restoration work was being carried out after the earthquake they had made a huge box for the curtain to hang in protecting it from the dust etc. Kalgoorlie Town Hall had offered to look after it but there is a strong rivalry between the two ‘towns’ that there was no way the curtain was going to Kalgoorlie. Apparently in the old days the rivalry between the two towns was very strong and led to the Boulder Community voting for its own municipality in 1897. It was logical for this new Council to have its own impressive civic building hence the erection of this Town Hall and it was opened on 23 June, 1908.

In the dressing rooms were names of performers who have left their mark over the years. The walls have been patched after the earthquake but they tried to leave as much old wall as possible.

Up the grand stairway to the board room where the Boulder Council met for many years. Interestingly only one man was a miner out of all the Mayors of Boulder, the rest were businessmen. Eventually the two towns were joined to become the city. Boulder was started after Coolgardie and before Kalgoorlie so Boulder people think it should be Boulder-Kalgoorlie.

A few posters about the Town Hall etc. Great photos of everyone seated watching a performance. A huge variety of performers have been here and he said that the old timers would never have believed that the likes of AC/DC would ever play here but they did, along with Prince.

Eileen Joyce was a famous pianist who grew up in Boulder. The Community helped raise funds to allow her to study in Germany but she loved coming home to perform. Her agent though had to beg her to perform in the Kalgoorlie Town Hall to keep the peace between the two towns but her love was for Boulder.

Our tour guide was very informative and interesting with lots of little stories too. Back outside where we found Eileen’s plaque in the footpath with many others.

The Boulder Town Hall is a majestic building.

Down the road a bit was the Palace Theatre which was built in 1937, art deco style and is one of only two such buildings remaining in the Goldfields region. It is now a Recreation Centre.

Heading back to the truck we passed the old Fire Station, 1904.

At the intersection was the Miners Monument. Erected in tribute to the miners who worked the Golden Mile.

All the Hotel’s advertise their Skimpy Barmaids.

Up the end of Burt Street again to the Metropole Hotel. The barmaid said the owner is slowly restoring the hotel. Story goes the publican had a mine under the hotel and there is now a glass floor to look down the shaft. Steve heard that the miners would come up at lunch and buy a beer with a nugget. Lots of stories around here of course. Very thick glass so hard to photograph.

Lots of pictures on the walls but under glass so too reflective to photograph. Got these ones of the Golden Mile.

Another great shot of the Super Pit in 2000.

Loved the toilet sign.

At the top of Burt Street is the Loopline Railway which I will check out later. Heading back to the truck we spotted a good mural – shame the car was in the road.

Stopped at the Coles Express to fill up with fuel and swap two gas bottles while we can still get them cheap. 

Out to Mt Charlotte Lookout where the town’s water supply is. C.Y. O’Connor masterminded a plan to get water to the goldfields via a long steel pipeline from Mundaring Weir in Perth. The water had to ‘raised’ up to along the route as the goldfields is about 400m above sea level. There are lots of information boards to read (on stainless steel so hard to photograph) before we walk around the hill to the top but dark clouds and strong wind are heading towards us so we skipped the reading and headed straight up. The reservoir is covered and fenced but the opening where the water first flowed out has been raised.

Engineering plaque.

Great view of the coming storm as well as over the city.

The gold dome is a great landmark.

Across over the site of the first gold discovery just below this hill to the Super Pit which now covers the many old underground mines of the Golden Mile.

On the way back down took some of the info plaques.

There is a trail called the Steel River Run which we can follow back to Southern Cross. I quickly took photos of some of the boards as the wind picked up bringing the rain.

Back into town as the rain pelted down making the gutters flow well. Parked near Rivers and jumped out to look for a pair of scuffs for Steve – he had worn the soles of his. The tin roof thundered under the rain. As quickly as it came it left so we headed down to Woolies to get the fresh vegies etc before we head north tomorrow. We were going to go off with Jason and Kate but they were not too organised so we decided to head up to Mike’s spot south of Meekatharra and then work our way south as it warms up.

Back to the van to pack away the food etc, nice and cool now after the storm. Transferred some money to Jon for his birthday in two days. He had received his card only recently that I posted in SA. Will have to send Dan’s off shortly too.

Quiet night watching TV.