20151003 WA Kambalda

20151003 Kambalda is our next stop on this round trip and yes another small mining town, it is split into two town sites 4 kilometres apart and is located on the western edge of a giant salt lake, Lake Lefroy.  The town was once mined for it’s gold but soon after nickel was discovered.

We drove into Kambalda West and I wonder why the town still exist as all the shops are closed down apart for one convenient store and a small bottle shop that seems to choose their own working hours.  We left for Kambalda where we parked in a car park behind a closed Motel because Des didn’t like the dusty free camp, he’s gana get busted.  I took advantage of the free internet at the library to catch up on my blog.

Gold was discovered in 1897 sparking a gold rush and over the next 10 years Red Hill in Kambalda produced over 30,000 ounces of gold. During that time mineral specimens were discovered and by 1908 gold had depleted, in 1954 a specimen was found which turned out to be “Gossan”, a green nickel bearing ore sparking Australia’s great nickel boom of the 1960s. 

To this day Kambalda continues to rely on nickel mining with much of its ore being processed and smelted at the nearby Nickel Smelter.

02-10-2015  I blogged some more then left for Norseman for one more night before our next adventure, the Nullarbor.

We passed the Lake Lefroy salt lakes on our return where Land Yachts is a popular sport.

I swear we keep on passing these pair but man that’s what I call doing it the hard way, but they actually look like there enjoying there travels.

The round trip entailed following the pipe line which in 1894-1903 Visionary engineer C.Y.O'Connor battled searing heat, rampant disease and bungling bureaucracy to lay a water pipeline from Perth to the gold rush Mecca of Kalgoorlie. It took five years an incalculable amount of money in today’s terms, and ended in the suicide of O'Connor himself. Some 9 million gallons of water daily is piped through a pipeline from Perth to outback towns.

I found this black and white photo of the workers laying and joining the pipes.