Guide to Coolgardie Western Australia Australia

Coolgardie is known as the Mother of the Goldfields. It was here, in September 1892, that Arthur Bayley and William Ford found the gold that started the great Western Australian gold rush. Within a few years about 25,000 people lived in and around the town, and grand stone buildings went up along its very wide main street. Today it is a quiet town of fewer than 1,000 people, about 39 km west of Kalgoorlie and 558 km east of Perth.

This is Wangkatha (Wongi) country; the town’s name may come from a Wangkatha word for a mulga tree near a waterhole. Coolgardie sits at the junction of the Great Eastern Highway and the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway, making it a natural stop for travellers heading east to Kalgoorlie or south to Norseman and the Nullarbor.

Known For

• Where the Western Australian gold rush began in 1892
• Bayley Street’s grand gold rush buildings
• The Goldfields Exhibition Museum in the Warden’s Court

Things To Do in Coolgardie

Goldfields Exhibition Museum

The two-storey Warden’s Court of 1898 on Bayley Street houses the visitor centre and the Goldfields Exhibition Museum. Displays cover the gold rush, the 1907 Varischetti mine rescue, a huge collection of old bottles and an old pharmacy. It is open daily, with shorter hours at weekends, and is the starting point of the Golden Quest Discovery Trail.

Bayley Street and the heritage plaques

More than 100 plaques with old photos line Bayley Street and the side streets, showing what stood on each site in the 1890s. The street was built wide enough to turn a camel team.

Warden Finnerty’s Residence

Built in 1895 from local stone by Robert and Arthur Bunning, who went on to found Bunnings, the residence was home to the first warden and magistrate, John Finnerty. It is run by the National Trust and open on limited days.

Ben Prior Park

On the corner of Hunt and Bayley Streets, this open-air museum displays old mining machinery and equipment.

Coolgardie Cemetery

The cemetery holds the grave of the explorer Ernest Giles and many early miners, including victims of typhoid, which spread when water was scarce, and Afghan cameleers.

Coolgardie railway station

The 1896 railway station is no longer a museum; it now houses a recording studio, but you can still see the old locomotive and carriages from the platform.

Granite rocks

West and south of town, Gnarlbine Rock, Victoria Rock, Burra Rock and Cave Hill are granite outcrops with bush camping, reached on gravel roads.

Where To Stay

Coolgardie Caravan Park on Bayley Street has powered and unpowered sites, cabins and on-site vans, and the GoldRush Motels also have rooms. Fully self-contained vehicles can stay free for up to 48 hours at the RV stop on Woodward Street beside the old railway station, which has a dump point and drinking water; it has a gravel base and little shade. The truck stop on Lady Loch Road is for trucks only. All the highways around Coolgardie are sealed, and fuel is available in town.

Bush camps at Burra Rock and Cave Hill, south of town, are on gravel roads, best for off-road vans in dry weather.

Eat & Drink

The Denver City Hotel on Bayley Street, built in 1898, is the town’s only pub, with meals and basic rooms; it was the setting of the 2016 documentary Hotel Coolgardie. Roadhouse food is available on the highway, and Kalgoorlie, 40 minutes away, has many more options.

History

Explorer Ernest Giles passed through the area in 1875. In September 1892, Bayley and Ford found gold at Fly Flat, and Bayley carried 554 ounces to Southern Cross to register the claim, setting off a rush. The townsite was gazetted in 1894, the railway arrived in 1896, and the Warden’s Court was finished in 1898. When Kalgoorlie’s richer Golden Mile took over, Coolgardie declined. The Golden Pipeline was first planned to end here, before being extended to Kalgoorlie.

Getting to Coolgardie

Coolgardie is about 558 km east of Perth on the Great Eastern Highway, around six hours’ drive, and 39 km west of Kalgoorlie. Kalgoorlie has the nearest airport, and the Prospector train from Perth stops at Kalgoorlie.

The best time to visit is April to October. Summers are hot, and winter nights can be frosty.