Gateway to the Goldfields

We left Esperance this morning and headed north to Kalgoorlie-Boulder which is the amalgamation of Kalgoorlie and the nearby town of Boulder which happened in 1998. The forecast for K-B today was 31 degrees so we were heading into warmer weather again. On the way, we stopped for morning coffee at a little town called Salmon Gums named due to the Salmon Gum trees which have a beautiful pink trunk which grow in the area. It took us a while to find the public toilets and picnic tables but once we did, we were surprised at how the town has done the area. A little gazebo exists with information inside about the town from various perspectives including the CWA women. The concrete table has metal plaques set into it with names of people on it and on the path that leads to the car park and ultimately the conveniences, has more special commemorative plaques or bricks set in it. It is very nicely done and portrays a town that is very proud of itself and its heritage. They had planted some flowering gums in the vicinity too and although they make it hard to see the picnic table form the road, they were flowering beautifully and several nectar eating birds were enjoying the spoils. The public toilet was attached to a hall which seemed to be used for a playgroup and both the little girl, who was entering from the hall, and I got a surprise when we nearly bumped into each other. I thought that this was a risky thing considering all the regulations and precautions we take at home in Melbourne but guess that at the moment that is the best they can manage and don’t perceive any risk being a little country town but I would accompany the children if their toilets are used by the public also.
Our next stop was Norseman where we stopped for lunch at a really kitsch little cafe; it had a bottle collection up on a shelf on the back wall of the front part of the shop, a mural along each side wall and paintings hung above them in places also. There was a glass cabinet at the front with all sorts of things for sale in it including sunglasses and ornaments and there were large, empty ice-cream buckets for sale in front of the main counter which was obviously a way to recycle what the ice-cream comes in. The town has an interesting display of corrugated tin camels on the main round-about from the highway into town which I guess relates to the fact that the town is on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain desert and the first stop when crossing from South Australia. We saw the sign pointing to Adelaide! It is also known as the Gateway to the Goldfields. The other thing you see a lot of in Norseman is horses since the town owes its beginnings according to stories to Laurie Sinclair (yes really!) who was camped overnight in the country side nearby and his horse whose name was Norseman scraped at the ground with his hoof and unearthed some gold so when the town was established, Sinclair named it after his horse.

One of the things we observed along the way was the proliferation of the species Litterata glarsbotlii of various types and also Litterata tinnii. These are out of their usual environment and although the glarsbotlii species retains its shiny skin attempting to gain the attention of humans who may help give them a new life, the tinnii lose their shiny coating very soon and are destined to remain where they are. It is very sad! Another species we have seen a lot of along the highways is the Rubatira shredii - mainly the subspecies semii or roatrainii We have seen some quite big specimens but they seem to vary in size.

We got to Kalgoorlie by about 2pm and booked into our 5 star motel; it’s very nice! After checking that the dial-up will work OK we went into town to the post office to try to get some cards posted before 5pm (which we did!) Hopefully they will get to Melbourne in a couple of days. (Ange – check the mail regularly - hopefully you’ll have it for Echidna group but definitely for Platypus before the end of term.) Unfortunately, Tom had some trouble with the street name we put in and after a big drive around, put in the post office in the CBD and got there once we did that. Hmm, every now and then Tom-tom just can’t find the street we want so you have to be careful about relying totally on it.