Kalgoorlie and Goldfields

Kalgoorlie built itself on gold, and the Super Pit still proves the scale of it, a mine 3.5 kilometres long and 600 metres deep, open to guided tours. The Museum of the Goldfields tells the earlier chapter, prospectors and their finds laid out in glittering cases of nuggets and bars. Out at Lake Ballard, 51 haunting figures by Turner Prize-winning artist Antony Gormley stand scattered across the salt pans, a strange and quiet contrast to the mine's scale. Some places keep their gold on the surface, and some keep it buried.