The Eastern Goldfields is part of the Western Australian Goldfields 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 t ...

, covering the present and former gold-mining 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,

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 ...

, 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 l ...

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 ...

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'' overnight railway sleeper train run by Western Australian Government Railways; for decades this was the main means of travelling to the "coast" or metropolitan Perth. The '' Prospector'' is now the main railway service into this area.

Water supply

Water to the area is supplied by the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme.

Literary culture

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