The Coolgardie Chamber of Mines building, circa 1900, when the chamber merged with its counterpart in Kalgoorlie.
It originated with previous bodies that emerged during the 1890s in the Goldfields region. The Coolgardie Chamber of Mines and Commerce, founded in 1895,[1] was followed in 1896 by a separate Kalgoorlie Chamber of Mines.[2] A Perth Chamber of Mines, founded in 1897,[3] quickly became defunct.[4]
The Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie bodies merged in 1900, as the Chamber of Mines of Western Australia.[4][5] The headquarters of the combined body were in the Kalgoorlie Chamber of Mines building. In the same era, there was also in London, a Westralian Chamber of Mines.[6] The Chamber of Mines formed a security unit known as "The Bureau", to prevent and investigate gold theft and, from 1907, the chamber financed the WA PoliceGold Squad (known later as the Gold Stealing Detection Unit), initially with an annual contribution of £2,000 per annum (more than $275,000 in 2016).[7][8]
In the 1960s, other geological resources and regions became significant, such as iron ore, oil and natural gas in the Pilbara, along with nickel, bauxite and mineral sands elsewhere, the organisation was renamed the Chamber of Minerals and Energy.[4] It later moved to purpose-built headquarters in Perth.
↑ "Perth Chamber of Mines". Western Mail. Vol.XIII, no.632. Western Australia. 4 February 1898. p.49. Retrieved 5 February 2017– via National Library of Australia.
Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located 595 km (370 mi) east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includes the historic townsite of Boulder and the local government area is the City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder.
Coolgardie–Esperance Highway is a 370-kilometre (230 mi) Western Australian highway between Coolgardie and Esperance. It runs in a north–south direction linking the state's Eastern Goldfields to the coast.
Coolgardie is a small town in Western Australia, 558 kilometres (347 mi) east of the state capital, Perth. It has a population of approximately 850 people.
The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme is a pipeline and dam project that delivers potable water from Mundaring Weir in Perth to communities in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, particularly Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. The project was commissioned in 1896 and completed in 1903.
Auralia was a proposed colony that would have been formed out of the south-eastern portion of the colony of Western Australia in the early twentieth century, and would have joined the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia.
The City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder is a local government area in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, about 550 kilometres (342 mi) east of the state capital, Perth. Covering an area of 95,575 square kilometres (36,902 sq mi), the city is the 12th largest in the world, larger than the country of Portugal with a land area of 92,212 square kilometres (35,603 sq mi). Its seat of government is the town of Kalgoorlie; all but 244 of the city's population live in either Kalgoorlie or Boulder.
Kalgoorlie railway station is the easternmost attended station in Western Australia, located at the eastern terminus of the Eastern Goldfields Railway. It serves the city of Kalgoorlie. Beyond Kalgoorlie, the line continues east as the Trans-Australian Railway.
The Gold Stealing Detection Unit (GSDU), or Gold Stealing Detective Squad (GSDS), is a special unit of the Western Australian Police, based in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. It investigates criminal activity and allegations at all stages of the gold production process in the state.
Gold mining in Western Australia is the third largest commodity sector in Western Australia (WA), behind iron ore and LNG, with a value of A$17 billion in 2021–22. The 6.9 million troy ounces sold during this time period was the highest amount in 20 years and accounted for almost 70 percent of all gold sold in Australia.
Mount Morgans, known as Mount Morgan until 1899, is an abandoned town in Western Australia 900 kilometres (559 mi) northeast of Perth and 40 kilometres (25 mi) southwest of Laverton on the original Malcolm-Laverton Road, in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.
Beria is an abandoned town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located 8 kilometres (5 mi) north of Laverton on the Laverton-Leonora Road.
Yundamindera, also once known as The Granites, is an abandoned town located between Leonora and Laverton in the Shire of Leonora in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia. The town is surrounded by pastoral stations, mostly raising sheep. Some of the leases include Yundamindera Station, Mount Remarkable Station and Mount Celia Station.
Kintore is an abandoned town in Western Australia located 46 kilometres (29 mi) north-west of Kalgoorlie along the Coolgardie North Road in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, discoveries of gold at a number of locations in Western Australia caused large influxes of prospectors from overseas and interstate, and classic gold rushes. Significant finds included:
Callion is an abandoned town in the Goldfields-Esperance region in Western Australia. It is between Coolgardie and Leonora, in the Shire of Menzies.
State Batteries in Western Australia were government owned and run ore-crushing facilities for the gold mining industry. Western Australia was the only Australian state to provide batteries to assist gold prospectors and small mines. They existed in almost all of the mineral fields of Western Australia.
The Coolgardie Miner was a weekly newspaper established in Coolgardie, Western Australia, at a time when Coolgardie was the prominent town in the goldfields region of Western Australia.
Elphinstone Davenport Cleland was a journalist and mine manager in South Australia and Western Australia.
Francis Ambrose Moss was a mine manager in Perth, Western Australia.
Robert Silvers Black was mine manager of Kalgurli Mines.
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