Margaret and Jock: May 2013

Kanowna is a goldfields ghost town located about 20 km east of Kalgoorlie After gold was discovered close to the surface (alluvial gold) in the area in 1893 the townsite was gazetted in 1894 and the population grew from 2,500 in 1897 to over 12,500, drawing thousands of hopeful prospectors. By 1895 the town had a hospital, later there was a school, a race course, post office, churches and no fewer than 16 hotels and 2 breweries.

The town was first known as White Feather, Kanowna is derived from the Aboriginal 'gha na na' which means place of no sleep and refers to the rocky ground making it unsuitable for a decent campsite. The name may have originated from Kanowna Station on Cooper’s Creek in South Australia.

There are few markings left to where Kanowna once stood. A hundred years a few dirt roads, signs showing where former businesses once stood and many lonely graves mark the area.

At its peak a railway line ran from Kalgoorlie to Kanowna, and there were fears that it could overtake the golden mile in population and prosperity.

Kanowna Townsite

Old Kanowna Graveyard

Dopey the Emu - ran towards us instead of running away.

Wild Goat in the distance

Jock's new Bush Home

Gidgi Roaster - roasts all the gold dirt from the Super Pit.

Goldie at the top of the Overburden Stockpile.

Jock Detecting

Marg Prospecting

Open Cut Mine

Ora Banda

Oro Banda Pub

Located 66 km northeast of Kalgoorlie, Ora Banda is a goldfields town which hovers between ghost town and revitalised mining centre. Over the past 100 years ghosts, gold rushes, biker feuds and cold-blooded murder have been all part of the past of the Ora Banda Historical Inn in Western Australia.

The old ruins are really all that live on in this town with a few isolated homesteads, and the hotel which has been restored to its original condition when it was first built in 1911.

Ora Banda Townsite

Hannan St - Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located 595 kilometres east-northeast of Perth. The town was founded in 1893 during the Yilgarn-Goldfields gold rush and is located close to the so-called "Golden Mile". Kalgoorlie is derived from the Wangai word Karlkurla, translating as "place of the silky pears". Kalgoorlie-Boulder has a population of 28,250, making it the largest urban centre in the Goldfields-Esperance region and the fifth-largest in Western Australia.

A Richter magnitude 5.0 earthquake hit near the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia on 20 April 2010. It was recorded as the largest in the Goldfields region and one of the largest in Australia causing major damage to the historic buildings in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Both Hotels were near my old home.

Metropole Hotel

Golden Eagle Hotel

Kalgoorlie/Boulder is a very transient city of approximately 30,000 people plus fly in/fly out workers. We left six years ago and feel we are back in a different town with all the new faces.