The top of Peak Charles was too scary to climb, but the view from just below the summit wasn't bad either. The area forms part of the Great Western Woodlands, a 16 million hectare woodland/heath interspersed with salt lakes. It apparently contains 20% of all Australian flora species!
At Kalgoorlie we visited my friend Leana and did a tour of the KCGM mine. Gold was discovered here in 1893 and the Super Pit now produces over 22 tonnes/year. One tonne of rock contains only an average of 2.5 grams of gold. That's a lot of rock to move, crush and process!
The pit is over 600 metres deep, approx. 3 km long and 1 km wide!
The size of everything is staggering! Every one of these trucks costs $17 million and each tyre $38,000! Haha, no wonder they like women driving them!
Note the little white dots on the parking lot are "normal" sized cars.
Kalgoorlie town centre below. The town has gorgeous old buildings and nice pubs (with topless bar-maids). Due to the proximity of the Super Pit, the whole town shakes every time they blast a new section of rock (which happens at least twice a day!).
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