The Eastern Goldfields is part of the

Western Australian Goldfields The Western Australian Goldfields is a term for areas in Western Australia that have had significant areas of gold mining occur. Range of goldfields There are goldfields across the state of Western Australia, from the Kimberley region to the so ...

in the Goldfields-Esperance region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, covering the present and former

gold-mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface, ...

area east of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Extent and name origin

The region encompasses the towns of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located 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 includ ...

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

, Coolgardie,

Kambalda Kambalda is a small mining town about from the mining city of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, within the Goldfields. It is split into two townsites apart, Kambalda East and Kambalda West; and is located on the western edge of a giant salt ...

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

and other smaller settlements within this area. The name is derived in two parts: ''Eastern'' in relation to its location from

, and ''Goldfields'' as the name suggests comes from the mining of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

in the region.

Vegetation and biological survey

In the 1980s, a series of surveys were reported for the broader region. The component areas were designated: * Lake Johnston - Hyden * Edjudina - Menzies * Youanmi - Leonora * Duketon - Sir Samuel * Kurnalpi - Kalgoorlie * Norseman - Balladonia * Sandston - Sir Samuel and Leonora - Laverton * Boorabbin - Southern Cross and Barlee - Menzies

Transport

The region was the destination of the long-running ''

Westland Westland or Westlands may refer to: Places *Westlands, an affluent neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi, Kenya * Westlands, Staffordshire, a suburban area and ward in Newcastle-under-Lyme *Westland, a peninsula of the Shetland Mainland near Vaila ...

'' overnight railway sleeper train run by

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

; for decades this was the main means of travelling to the "coast" or metropolitan Perth. The ''

Prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * '' Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ...

'' is now the main railway service into this area.

Water supply

Water to the area is supplied by the

Goldfields Water Supply Scheme 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 co ...

Literary culture

It was the region of inspiration for a group of writers - Gavin Casey,

Katharine Susannah Prichard Katharine Susannah Prichard (4 December 18832 October 1969) was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia. Early life Prichard was born in Levuka, Fiji in 1883 to Australian parents. She spent her childhoo ...

, Henrietta Drake Brockman and others. It has been an important cultural region as far as labour history and Australian political history, with a rich worker and

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

history. The history of the goldfields region also developed into a significant number of publications over time.

References