Just got back from my trip to Kalgoorlie/Leonora/Gwalia :)

In Leonora, I met with some of the mine managers up in the north eastern goldfield regions (think Murrin, Leinster etc) where we had our meeting at Hoover House - an amazingly historical building, built by the ex American president, Herbert Hoover when he was a mine manager.

Hoover House stands on the edge of the old Gwalia minesite (now St Barbara's Mines). The site is amazing - his house was built literally on the edge of the site, so that as a mining manager, he could walk straight to work. It's a fascinating sight to behold - he's got the house, the white picket fence, and then the site right next door. One can only imagine the amount of noise, dust, etc that Hoover had to contend with! I tried to capture the sight with a photo, but nonetheless, pictures have failed to tell the story here :

And yes, being an asian tourist type , I took pictures of myself in every single room of the house "this is kae in hoover' bedroom, this is kae in hoover's kitchen, this is kae in hoover's dining room etc" .. even Mathew looked at me a little weird and even told my supervisor "kae took a LOT of photos" hehe :)

After that, we had a look at the Gwalia, which is a ghost town nowadays given that the old miners have moved on . They have the old miner's camps out there, and it looks as if during dinner they all just got up and left. There are remnants of their old cultlery, broken down cars and bikes, and everything else that is part of the history there.

Then it was a two hour drive back to Kalgoorlie with the minister , and then back on the plane to Perth.