Kalgoorlie

As we edge our way further north we find ourselves camped on Wongatha country, in Kalgoorlie, Australia's largest outback city.

In June 1893, an Irish prospector by the name of Paddy Hannan set up camp roughly 40km north of Coolgardie. He liked the look of the country and decided to stay and do a bit of prospecting. Together with a couple of his Irish mates, Paddy discovered an abundant deposit of gold and dug up 100oz of it within a week. On 17 June, Paddy loaded up his saddlebags with gold nuggets and rode off to Coolgardie to claim his reward. While he was gone, his two mates had found another 100oz of gold.

Word spread pretty quickly and before long thousands of miners had moved in and created a shanty town. Trades, tent brothels and public bars soon followed and "Hannan's Find" grew into a large settlement, later named Kalgoorlie, meaning silky pear.

It's an eclectic town - wild west meets sushi bar. There are beautiful old colonial buildings interspersed with dilapidated corrugated iron shacks. If we'd wanted, we could have taken a tour of the town's brothels, or played two-up in an iron shed for a $50 minimum wager. Or we could dine out on East African street food, Thai curry and just about everything in-between.

Gold mining is still Kalgoorlie's biggest employer. The town's surrounded by various mines, many of which can be seen from lookouts dotted around the place. But it's the Super Pit that's the most impressive. It's a really gigantic hole that looks about as big as Tasmania when you're standing on the viewing platform. We were lucky enough to be there when they were blasting away one side of the mine. I thought it was pretty cool, but the Labs weren't as impressed.

We hope you enjoy the photos, including a couple taken by Phil-E-Buster the Drone, which we hope will be getting more of a workout in coming months.

And if you're wondering what became of Paddy Hannan, he died a relatively poor man in Melbourne in 1925. But there's a statue/water fountain in his honour on Hannan Street, so it's not all bad.