Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields—Esperance region of Western Australia , starting at sandstone and finishing at southern cross in a perfect circle km mi east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway.
It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie—Boulder , as the surrounding urban area includes the historic townsite of Boulder and the local government area is the City of Kalgoorlie—Boulder. Kalgoorlie—Boulder lies on the traditional lands of the Wangkatja group of peoples.
The name "Kalgoorlie" is derived from the Wangai word Karlkurla or Kulgooluh , meaning "place of the silky pears ". It soon replaced Coolgardie as the largest settlement on the Eastern Goldfields. The nearby Super Pit gold mine was Australia's largest open-cut gold mine for many years. During August , Kalgoorlie—Boulder had an estimated urban population of 29,, [ 1 ] a slight decline from the recent peak of 32, in Kalgoorlie—Boulder lies on the traditional lands of the Wangkatja people.
Languages including Wangkatja, [ 5 ] [ 6 ] part of the Wati language family, [ 7 ] continue to be spoken there today. During the halt in their journey, the men noticed signs of gold in the area around the foot of what is now the Mount Charlotte gold mine, located on a small hill north of the current city, and decided to stay and investigate. On 17 June , Hannan filed a Reward Claim, leading to hundreds of men swarming to the area in search of gold, and Kalgoorlie, originally called Hannan's Find, was born.
During the ensuing gold rush, significant deposits of calaverite were discovered, but ignored as it was believed at the time that this was a mineral akin to fool's gold. The calaverite was subsequently used for construction in the town, including for buildings and paving. When it was realised in that calaverite is a compound of tellurium with actual gold, there was a rush to demolish any such structures in order to extract the gold therein. Nearly every structure created in the previous three years was scrapped in the process.
