Kalgoorlie Town Hall

Kalgoorlie is located 40 kilometres east of Coolgardie, 595 kilometres east of Perth and 200 kilometres north of Norseman.

The traditional landowners of the Kalgoorlie area are the Maduwangka people and the name Kalgoorlie is said to mean "Silky Pear Bush" in the local aboriginal language.

European settlement of Kalgoorlie began in June 1893 with the discovery of rich alluvial gold deposits near Mount Charlotte. The three Irish gold prospectors credited with the discovery were Paddy Hannan, Dan Shea and Tom Flanagan. Paddy Hannan later reported discovering 8 pounds of gold nuggets to the mining warden in Coolgardie, and within a matter of days 700 gold diggers were frantically pegging out mining claims around Kalgoorlie. Kalgoorlie's gold rush had begun and by 1903 the town boasted a population of 30,000, along with 93 hotels and 8 breweries.

For Kalgoorlie's pioneering gold diggers the pickings were rich indeed, but if the pickings were rich, so too were the costs of essential miner's supplies. Early reports of the time indicate that Kalgoorlie's miners were forced to live on overpriced "tinned dog" - a commonly eaten but universally detested canned meat product. For the digger even basic foodstuffs such as flour were extravagantly priced. At the time Kalgoorlie's wholesale price for flour was 120 pounds per ton whilst the going rate in Perth was a mere 10 pounds. Water too was almost more precious than gold. Chronic water shortages allowed owners of water desalination plants to sell water for anywhere between 6 pence and one shilling and sixpence per gallon. It was little wonder then, that many diggers died of typhoid - the inevitable result of drinking contaminated water.

By the late 1890s Kalgoorlie's rich alluvial gold deposits had been largely worked out. With the discovery of deep gold reefs and rich telluride minerals at nearby Boulder the age of the independent digger soon drew to a close.