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Swimming in
a Goldmine
The
distance from Perth to Laverton is about 1,000 km, a long
drive out in nowhere, or in other words for those who don't
know - the Outback. If you're crazy enough to do it, like
us, in the middle of February with an average temperature
of +40-45 degrees Celsius, you get hot and bothered, first
during the long car trip and then as soon as you
arrive.
So what
do you do when you get there? I mean it would be nice to
cool off. But since it's so close to the desert, there is a
water problem. The water coming out of the ground is salty
and mineral laden and there's not enough of it. And what's
there is not exactly for human consumption. Instead, the
small population has to buy drinking water to be on the
safe side. The sum of this is
that people in
town don't have swimming pools at home, although one is
available in town.
Can you guess what we did? We continued to the local swimming hole, a disused goldmine. If you look at the photo, you might think that it looks like the Mediterranean with its fantastic blue-green colour. Yes, the colour was absolutely beautiful, but you worry what's in the water to make it that colour.
When mining companies deem a mine to have been
worked out, they fill the mine with water. If the
prices on gold increase substantially, they may drain the
water and start up the mining process again.
Sometimes when a humungous hole is filled
with water, it's possible for poisons, used in the
processing, to leak out. Cyanide is apparently one of them.
According to the locals, this mine was safe to swim in. I
sincerely hope so. Okay, so we survived and it was a fun
experience. Not something I ever thought I would do. On the
left hand side, it's steep, but you can drive all the way
down to the edge.
Sorry,
but I can't add a photo of myself in a bathing suit. Not a
pretty sight, I promise
you.
On the photo below, you
see some roof tops of houses in Laverton.
You can also see the desolate landscape, flat with
low growing shrubs. This is on the edge of the Great
Victoria Desert where wild horses come to town to
gorge on the green, green grass of home,
or, in other words, at the only
oval.
Take a
drive from Laverton onto the Outback Road leading to Alice
Springs and you will hopefully and eventually get
there. You'll be able to experience
the incredible landscape of the red pindan first
hand.
Please read Important Warning about
driving on this outback road: My trip to
Tjukayirla.
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RED PINDAN where the red dirt meets the writer |
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Do you want to know more about Lena Nilsson? A site about writing for children.
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© Copyright by Lena
Nilsson 2009. All Rights Reserved.