St Barbara is the patron saint of mining and each year a festival is held in her honour and to celebrate the mining industry in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia.
A highlight is the big parade down Hannan Street, held this year in the late afternoon on Saturday, December 2, 2006.
Our kids loved seeing the floats and machinery, especially the big trucks from KCGM (pictured).
According to the festival website, all over the world, miners carry a faith that St Barbara will protect them as they work and it is no different for the local Kalgoorlie-Boulder community where mining has been the lifeblood of the Goldfields for more than 100 years.
In 1999, the Eastern Regional Council of the Chamber of Minerals & Energy WA presented the inaugural Saint Barbara’s Festival as a gift to the Goldfields community. Local artist, Nana Lye was commissioned to design the official St Barbara’s statue and fountain in the town square, and it still stands there proudly today.
The unveiling of the sculpture was accompanied by a community celebration and street parade and from that time on, the Goldfields community has celebrated the annual St Barbara’s Festival coinciding with the first weekend in December.
Twitter: delmerw
says:
I’m 46, and *I* love the big trucks.
We might have one of those festivals in Bright (Victoria) soon; they’re looking at re-opening the gold mining over here. They might as well, all our other industries are stuffed!
Twitter: mgorey
says:
I’m not a revhead but the big trucks had me in awe, I must say. A lot of towns have parades but not many others, if any, have the big machines associated with open-cut gold mining.
Ray, I saw a gold mine near Harrietville for sale recently. Most of the early gold in the alpine region was alluvial, so you’d have to think there is some more below the ground.
I’m not a geologist but I think there must be some potential there. The problem would be getting approvals to explore and mine in the Victorian regulatory environment, which I doubt is industry friendly.
The mining companies have known for years that there’s more gold in the ground here than was ever taken out.
It’s just a matter of the gold price being high enough to justify the costs of extracting it, which it now is.
They’ve been doing aerial surveys for the past ten years and now they’re drilling core samples.
It won’t be long, I’d say, before there’s a new mine or two, although I’m not sure what method of extraction they’ll use.
As for the State Govt, they couldn’t care less about what people in this area think (no votes in it for them) so if there’s money to be made they’ll OK it.