On show ... Fashions on the Field.Credit:Mary Mills
Bookies are nervous,miners are flush and fashionistas ignore the dust when the racing season blows into town,writes Malcolm Chenu.
THE Kalgoorlie race round is not for the weak of liver or light of wallet. For the locals,these are not issues - this is a hard-drinking,wealthy town,home to hardy miners,legal prostitution and a smattering of high society types well known for charitable fund-raising.
A one-hour flight east of Perth (or a six-hour drive),the twin towns of Kalgoorlie-Boulder rise Las Vegas-like from endless red desert,a barely believable mirage of sin and fun where fortunes are made and lost in the twinkling of a nugget.
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Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields put on an intriguing show in September each year for the annual race round,a three-week festival culminating in the running of the $150,000 Kalgoorlie Cup,this year set down for September 18,when all manner of humanity gather for a punt,a pint and a perve.
In this rumour-sensitive town,where the whisper of a gold find can send a mining company's share price into orbit,plunges at the races are common and wary bookies scan the crowd nervously watching blokes with wads of dollars in one hand and stubby holders in the other. Fashions on the Field and the local Scottish pipe band add to the occasion and portray a range of Kalgoorlie's whimsical talents.
Spring is mild in the Goldfields but it's often windy at the races and the egalitarian westerly brushes Akubras,stilettos and rubber thongs with the area's ubiquitous red dust.
When a wiry,inveterate Irish prospector called Paddy Hannan rode into nearby Coolgardie in June,1893,with 100 ounces of gold he found where Kalgoorlie now stands,he became a legend overnight - his moniker forever linked to Australia's greatest goldfield,his statue overlooking the main drag of Hannan Street.
The gold rush that followed is still going strong. In the past eight years,the most recent boom has seen the gold price surge from less than $US300 an ounce to nearly $US1200 an ounce and the frocked-up,hard-living tart that is Kalgoorlie shows no signs of becoming a faded outback belle.