← Goldfields Pipeline Marathon·Day trip

Kalgoorlie-Boulder: The Super Pit and Hannan Street

A gold mine big enough to see from space, a museum with a lift up a mine headframe and a main street of 1890s pubs, all within a few kilometres of the finish.

DurationDay trip
TransitIn town; short drives or taxis between sights
DepartsKalgoorlie CBD

After the Goldfields Pipeline Marathon: Kalgoorlie-Boulder

The Route: Hannan Street → Museum of the Goldfields → Super Pit lookout → Boulder → Hannan Street Logistics: Short drives or taxis; each stop involves only a few hundred metres on foot. Marathon Month: July Duration: Day trip

Hannan Street ──(2 mins)──> Museum of the Goldfields ──(10 mins by car)──> Super Pit lookout
      ▲                                                                            │
      └───────────────────(10 mins)───── Burt Street, Boulder ◄──(5 mins)──────────┘

The Goldfields Pipeline Marathon ends at the Ray Finlayson Sporting Complex in mid-July, after 42 km of bush trail from Coolgardie. The city at the finish exists because of one discovery: in June 1893 Paddy Hannan and two companions found gold near here, and within a few years Kalgoorlie and its twin, Boulder, had tens of thousands of people and a strip of mines known as the Golden Mile, once called the richest square mile on earth. The mining never stopped. The day after the race, go and look at it.

July in Kalgoorlie-Boulder is winter: clear, dry days in the mid to high teens, and cold nights, often close to freezing. It is the most comfortable time of year to be outdoors here. Bring a warm jacket for the mornings and sunglasses for the afternoons.

All the stops are within a few kilometres of each other. A car or taxis make the day easy; walking between them is not practical on post-marathon legs.

Hannan Street and the Museum of the Goldfields

Hannan Street, the main street, is famously wide, built, the local story goes, so a camel train could turn round in it. Along it stand the ornate pubs, hotels and banks of the boom years, with iron-lace verandahs over the footpath. It is flat, and the verandahs give shade.

The Museum of the Goldfields, at the northern end of Hannan Street, tells the story of the rush and of the Aboriginal people whose country this was long before, with gold bars and nuggets in its vault. A lift climbs the Ivanhoe headframe, an old mine winding tower at the entrance, to a viewing platform over the city. Everything is level or served by the lift. Check opening hours and entry.

The Super Pit

The Fimiston open-pit mine, known everywhere as the Super Pit, sits on the eastern edge of Boulder, where dozens of old underground mines were merged into one huge excavation from the late 1980s. It is roughly 3.5 km long and more than 600 m deep. From the lookout, haul trucks as tall as a house look like toys on the terraced walls. A short, level path leads from the car park to the viewing platform. Mine operations and access to the lookout can change; check opening times and whether a daily blast is scheduled before going.

Boulder

Burt Street, Boulder's main street, is a smaller, quieter version of Hannan Street, with some of the best-preserved 1890s shopfronts in the state. Boulder Town Hall holds a painted theatre curtain of 1908 by the scene painter Philip Goatcher, shown to visitors on certain days. It is flat and short.

Getting Back

Taxis run between Boulder and central Kalgoorlie in about 10 minutes. For dinner, the pubs of Hannan Street are the obvious choice.