Kalgoorlie, not Calgary

I'm sitting on the 3rd leg of my flight (between Sydney and Perth) and strike up a conversation with the two people next to me. Since clearly I'm a Yank conversation turns to me and where I was headed. The trendy 24 year old woman sitting next to me is wearing a "Hollywood" sweatshirt and is returning to grad school in Perth after visiting some family in Los Angeles. She turns to me and says "Kalgoorlie? Where's that?" The surfer looking dude (many city dwelling Aussie's have this look it seems) turns to her and says "Its 600 kilometers east of Perth and its a shithole, I was born there."

The town hall is inexplicably painted a sickly greenish pink.

Kalgoorlie IS 600km east of Perth, IS NOT a shithole, and obviously easy to overlook. With a population of 30,000 its actually the 'bustling regional center' of last section of the Australian outback settled until you cross 3/4 of the way across the continent the other direction. If you think that's small you should see the towns that feed this metropolis which boast populations ranging from the upper middle three digits to whopping lower upper four digits. But don't call these ghost towns (even though you might see a tumbleweed blowing through) because there are actual REAL ghost towns--where a town was settled and abandoned but still leaves some short of architectural and infrastructure based shell...Population: O.

The Exchange Hotel, Friday night 11:52pm, center of local nightlife.

The consistent 100+ degree days, dessert dry climate, and isolation beg the question why come here in the first place. The answer to that question is the same reason why I'm here...and everyone else is here: gold.

The coin is about the size of a quarter and worth about 70 cents. The rock is about the size of a zucchini bread and worth about $15,000.