Life in Kalgoorlie - what is it like?

[chiara]

OK so the fifo saga continues...but there have been whispers about the possibility of DH being placed permanently in Kalgoorlie as he's made it clear his Mrs ain't diggin' the whole fifo thing. To be honest, I'll live anywhere to be with him (and have! including a dusty city on the UAE/Omani border surrounded by noisy mosques and staring men in pyjamas), but I'd love to hear from any of you who do actually live there already. I've been told it's very red neck with titty bars and all the rest, but are there any redeeming features? Any opinions?:yes:

[Irishgirl1]

Hi Chiara I have friends that live in Kal and they love it, there is good schools and there is alot in town, I think if it meant being with your Husband all the time you should give it a go:-))

Good Luck and if I can find out an info off my friends just let me know and I will ask

 

Laneyx

[Guest51810]

Theres a member on here that lives there, she's a geologist, my memory is so bad.. i cant remember her username but it will probably come back to me in a minute! hopefully she'll notice this post. her and her partner live there and i think they've always gave a honest account of what its like to live there. I think most people say that its got everything you need. If its a way of being with your husband every night then i'd go for it. definitely doesnt sound the worst place to live. ive watched kalgoorlie cops and it didnt even look that bad, some fights but nothing more than you'd see in any town or city over here IMO.. just a bit more dusty :laugh:

 

you should def look into it. best of luck :hug:

 

edited - their name is fourcorners. if you do a search on here theres a few threads/posts about the area

[WeegieDave]

From what I hear it is just a mining town that is starting the develop into modern civilisation a bit in recent years but yes, Lots of titty joints, brothels and bars that resemble the 'ok corral'... I have never been but I am actually going there in a couple of weeks to visit people so if I make it back to Perth I shall report my findings!

[Guest]

WeegieDave - I would like to read your findings as its a spot Ive thought about. I like working on site but most sites are FIFO in Oz

[Guest51810]

From what I hear it is just a mining town that is starting the develop into modern civilisation a bit in recent years but yes, Lots of titty joints, brothels and bars that resemble the 'ok corral'... I have never been but I am actually going there in a couple of weeks to visit people so if I make it back to Perth I shall report my findings!

 

if its starting to develop then hopefully it will improve. might be a better option to stay there than do FIFO.

 

Let us know how you get on Chiara!

[nollie]

my neice lives in kambalda and loves it, she has young kiddies who also love it xxx good luck, i would move to kalgoorlie or kambalda xx

[Rugby Lad]

OK I've actually been there, working, but only for 3 weeks.

 

XXXXXX - WARNING: I'm an ex-Infanteer, who's "dream" as I stated on another thread is to live in Nanyuki, a hard-arse military / ranching town in northern Kenya. Sane people may not want to take my advice: WARNING - XXXXXX

 

I quite liked Kalgoorlie. Yes it has "skimpy" bars but I was on a "dry" contract and actually stuck to it - it's not as though they have someone inside dragging you in. There was a big shopping centre with a Woolies and a main street with normal shops and a posh cafe type place (Dome, from memory). I'm sure there's plenty more nice places if you poke around. It is nowhere near as rough as people say.

 

Downsides - it's a long way from anywhere (and flights are very expensive), you'll live in legoland towards / by the airport and pay through the nose for it, some things will be very expensive (blokes I worked with were paying $180 for a carton of beer - not decent stuff but VB or Carlton Cold - but I think they did it because they were thick and because they could, not because they couldn't have found cheaper if they'd looked), everyone in the same business (mining) makes for dull town.

 

Upsides - see your husband, probably find some hidden gems, adventure, see your husband, you may love it, see your husband, small places that actually want to attract families normally have very good community services (downside - you may hate that type of thing), probably loads of other upsides personal to you that I don't know about.

 

Good luck with everything.

[Rugby Lad]

Actually Chiara,

 

I was being a bit tongue in cheek in my last post. What I really wanted to say was - MOVE TO KALGOORLIE, MOVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, HOPEFULLY YOU'LL LOVE IT.

 

I'll tell you my story. May help you, take it or leave it.

 

August 2008 got posted to Kenya, sleepy backwater of the British Army suddenly decreed to be the main training centre for all troops going to Afghanistan (13000+ per year) and muggins here is very first of the upgrade officers sent.

 

All British troops posted with families (all 16 of them when I arrived) lived in Nairobi. But the work was 3+ hours north. Now as a sleepy backwater that didn't matter. But with my job, where I was working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week it was a big deal.

 

Now my wife was used to me being away, I'd done a tour of Iraq and two of Afghanistan, but me being only 3 hrs away and not able to see her or the kids was killing both of us. I immediately asked if she could come to live in Nanyuki.

 

Everyone told me it couldn't happen, rough town, no services, full of brothels and dodgy bars, inadequate services (sounding familiar Chiara).

 

Anyway I'm a persistent little so-and-so and my wife was the scourge of the Army establishment - REMFs actually used to run when they saw her coming because she's nails and gave them such a hard time.

 

 

Cut a long story short eventually found our own place, got the Army to agree to rent it for us, and after 11 months we were together as a family, first one up north. And what happened - every new person posted to Kenya from the Commander down came as a family to Nanyuki.

 

 

Guess what happened to the town - it boomed. "British Army are coming, move in". We weren't alone but the flower / vegetable farming, ranching and oil industries all saw our appearance as adding security and also expanded. Nakumatt (Kenyan Tescos / Woolies) opened, couple of sports bars with a no-prostitutes door policy, nice cafe, boulangerie, good butchers. The local International school moved to new, purpose built premises, heck the Kenyan government even paid the Chinese to tarmac the road to Nairobi.

 

My boss loved my wife and family as we proved everything, kids in school, wife gave birth to youngest daughter, middle daughter had medical emergency etc. etc.

 

But the most important thing was my wife and daughters loved it. It was the best quality of life we've had in our married life. My daughters loved the school and my wife found many, many friends. We loved our house (it was one of, if not the, oldest in town built in 1908 and whilst lacking nearly all mod-cons was brilliantly designed and we loved living in it. We were on 15 acres (though shared the house, we had the front, landlady had the back and two other families lived on the property) which was awesome.

 

Now I'm not saying the same will happen with Kalgoorlie but in my opinion families should live together. And when they do towns benefit. Hence my dislike of the whole FIFO concept

[chiara]

Rugby lad, thank you!! What a wonderful post!! I soooo agree with your sentiment - families should be together, and the Australian government really need to consider making these mining towns a possiblility for families. I love the Nairobi story, how exciting and what wonderful stories you have!! I'm not in oz for the long run, I'm here for the experiences and stories - who knows where next - khazakstan - China - I don't care, the point is to live, and living requires each member of our family being present.

[Rugby Lad]

Cheers Chiara,

 

mine is probably an unfashionable view, FIFO seems all the rage, but I believe in it.

 

Good luck with the adventures. I'm a tinker, always want to be on the move, but the wife wants to stay in Aus. There's always ways and means to marry the two though!!!

[Guest51810]

i agree aswell that they should try and improve towns so that couples and families can be together

[VERYSTORMY]

Worked around Kal for a while. Its ok to visit, but personaly i wouldnt want to live there. It depends on what you like. For example, if you like to go to a nice restaurant forget it. For most people in Kal, dressing up means putting on a clean high vis shirt.

If you like cultural things then you will struggle.

Its a fair way from anywhere and flights to Perth can be very expensive. I was once charged $800 one way by thieving Quantas.

 

It is basicaly a very big hole in the ground known as Super Pit with a town tagged on the edge

[chiara]

Haha, that's funny. Well I do like cultural things and nice restaurants, but with dh away I can't do this stuff anyway. It still comes down to the fact that if my choice is being in perth alone, or being in Kal with my husband, well there is no choice...

[fourcorners]

Hi Chiara,

 

I'm currently living in Kalgoorlie! We have lived here before, from 2006 to 2008, then spent a few years in Canada and UK where one of us was doing FIFO work in various forms. We moved back to Kalgoorlie in October last year as we had had enough of FIFO and Kal is one of the few places where you can live a relatively 'normal' life but both have jobs in the mines. I work for a mining company 25 minutes drive west of town, my OH works for Barrick 25 minutes north-east of town. We rent a nice older house in Lamington with a bit of character (not a lego-land house!), a nice wood fire and a big garden.

 

Things I love about Kalgoorlie:

1. Both of us being able to sleep in the same bed every night. I get home at 4.30pm, OH gets home at 5pm, we generally go to bed around 9.30pm, and get up at 5.30am. That's pretty normal for round here, although other friends have to get up at 4am - all depends what site you hubby will be working at. I work monday to friday and get an extra day off each month which I can use whenever I want. OH gets two per month but he does work 10 hour days whereas I work 9 - again depends on the company. Transport is provided for us to and from work which saves costs. So, in the evenings I go the gym, hockey club, thursday night shopping, OH goes to the climbing wall sometimes.

2. No Traffic. I have never been in a traffic jam in Kalgoorlie! Having lived here for over 2 years now I think that's pretty good.

 

Things I like about Kalgoorlie:

1. Everything you need is in town, so no more than 20 minutes drive away.

2. Wages. They're probably not as good as FIFO wages, but still compared to what I was earning in the UK its bloomin' marvellous! Effectively we are living off my wage, and OH's goes directly into savings and paying our mortgage down in the UK. By November we will have paid off our brand new $20k car in full, we paid off my student loan a few weeks ago (I would still have another 7 years of payments to make had I stayed in the UK), and we've started making lump sum payments towards the UK mortgage, given the great exchange rate at the mo. And looks like I should be getting a decent promotion and pay rise at Christmas.

3. Getting out in the bush. Whilst there isn't a huge amount to do on first glance, once you dig a little deeper this region is very rich in history. One of our favourite places is out at Bulong, which used to have a small town and until the 70's a lady called Hilda Jarvis lived there with her herd of goats! Plus there's the Broad Arrow and Ora Banda pubs which are pretty cool. We have a chainsaw and collect all our own (and for friends too) firewood.

4. Friends. I've slotted right back into my hockey team as if I hadn't gone away. A lot of our English friends here we have known for a long time, and some are still here.

 

Things I don't like about Kal

1. There is often a lack of decent choice, particularly with things like furniture, electricals etc, and because of that you can often end up paying more

2. Takes forever or costs a lot to get anywhere else. But having said that, we often struggle to find the time to go anywhere. We had a 3 week holiday in the USA back in May, flights were cheaper than many domestic flights! But then we did use qantas points to pay for our Kal-Perth flights. If we have to go to Perth we generally drive. I used to regularly drive 6 hours in the UK to get places and wouldn't have dreamt of flying there, so what's wrong with driving 6 hours here? Plus it's easy driving, no traffic until you roll down the hill into Perth

3. First Impressions. Unfortunately despite the amount of tax this town must generate, it doesn't look like much of it is spent here. Streets can look a bit scruffy, shop façades faded or just a bit naff, some amenities can give off a neglected feel. Luckily the Mining Hall of Fame will re-open soon which is a great tourist attraction.

 

What others say about Kal. Lots of people on this forum say they would never live here, but then again they've never been here. Friends of mine who have started families here think it's great, and many of my colleagues have moved here because they wanted to start a family and get the work-life balance thing working a bit better for them.

 

The skimpy bars and brothels are only a tiny part of this town, and I don't feel particularly affected by any violence or brawling. Those are the symptoms of a town full of cashed up young single men, and you can't really get away from those. As far as crime goes, most people's houses get broken into because they were unlocked in the first place, so if you're careful, as with just about anywhere, you'll be fine.

 

If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me or write on here.

 

Lauren

[fourcorners]

And I forgot to write about culture and restaurants!

 

Because it is a cashed up town, yes there are some nice restaurants. My favourites are the Palace, Danny's, Judd's and Blue Monkey. There are lots of take-away opportunities too. Many people I know are really into food, one friend has built a pizza oven in his back yard, at work we have morning tea every wednesday and we all take it in turns to cook and try and out-do each other (in a fun way!).

 

Culture is here too. We have the Goldfields Art Centre which often has some good stuff on, like the Melbourne Comedy Roadshow, I also saw Ross Noble here a few years ago. The Russian National Ballet will be here soon too doing Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. There's a monthly Comedy Club. In January there are free concerts in the park - the Queen tribute was very good earlier this year. All in all there are a lot of community events on, far more than any suburb in Perth, and all within a cheap taxi fare home.

[northshorepom]

I've been told it's very red neck with titty bars and all the rest,

 

Sounds great! What do you want redeeming features for?

:biggrin:

 

More seriously, I like RL's and 4C's posts, even though I'v enever been to Kal I can relate I think - particularly to the belief that places are always much better for families. FIFO or any sort of working away is no kind of a life in the long term, I did it for a few years in Oil & Gas and couldn't do it with young kids, particularly a family of your size - it's just too tough

 

Even if a place is a bit scruffy or rough and ready, so long as the education is all right then I reckon you're much better off as a family - unless the place is actively dangerous

 

Got to be worth a try

[chiara]

Four corners, thank so much for that post! We still don't know if its a runner, but if it is, at this point I don't think there is much to think about; as long as I have internet I can shop online, and with 5 small kids our social life is pretty crap anyhow, so it makes no odds. Paying off our Irish mortgage would be lovely. DH is going to talk to his boss on Friday so fingers crossed. I will look you up if I end up there!

[fourcorners]

From what you've put down (and I just read the latest entry on your blog too), that you need to have your hubby at home and a residential position would suit you all much better. When we lived in the UK my OH was working FIFO to Australia, 6 weeks on 3 weeks off. So I know exactly the type of depression you talk about. The morning that I used to have to go to work knowing he would be leaving for the airport and not be back for nearly 7 weeks, were horrendous.

[Guest51810]

Great posts lauren! Really hope you get to move Chiara, sounds like it would be so much better for you as a family

[lisamic2009]

Four corners, thank so much for that post! We still don't know if its a runner, but if it is, at this point I don't think there is much to think about; as long as I have internet I can shop online, and with 5 small kids our social life is pretty crap anyhow, so it makes no odds. Paying off our Irish mortgage would be lovely. DH is going to talk to his boss on Friday so fingers crossed. I will look you up if I end up there!

 

hi me and my husband are moving to kalgoorlie... if you like we can be friends as you can never has too many friends.x

[ade555]

great post fourcorners

[collip99]

Hi Chiara

 

me, wifey and nearly 5 year old son are heading to Kal...two weeks today! Fourcorners has been an enourmous help and has, IMHO, helped greatly to battle and beat the daft negative trash people talk on here about Kal (mostly from people who've never been there). We're coming out with open eyes and a willingness to get 'stuck in' and see what Kal and life has to offer. I hope we meet you there!!

 

Phil

[SaffanZimbo]

I LOVE this post! I have friends in Kal (ex-Zimbabwe) who have been there 3 years and are doing OK. OH is adamant he does not want to do FIFO when we get to WA so if he can get a job in Kal it would be awesome! Plus I would be able to play hockey again.... I had hung up my hockey boots here as with 2 under 5's I was struggling to get the work/home balance right, but in Kal my friend said they are very friendly and welcoming at the sport club and I won't have to travel 1 hour to get a game! :biggrin:

[collip99]

All systesm go in Kal.

 

I'd love to play team sports, but I now had dodgy knees and could only do non-contact stuff. I really miss that side of things!