Energy Efficiency Audits - Kalgoorlie

KALGOORLIE
I arrived in Kalgoorlie (Kal) after a 7 hour train trip from Perth on a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon 13th June 2009. Kal is around 600k from Perth CBD heading due East and very slightly North. It is the heart of the Western Australian (WA) goldfields. Its been and still is a very important mining area for WA, holds extreme mineral wealth, over 150 years of gold mining history and if you don't believe me about its cultural and historical importance to West Australian, the fact we have named the daily train that services the towns from Perth to Kalgoorlie the "Prospector" says it all about its laconic place in our recent history.

The town itself is a delightful place with old historical builds and pubs on nearly every corner. Alas, maintaining its bygone days, most of these pubs sport 'topless' bar staff of the female kind... Try as I did, I didn't find a pub with 'topless rippling muscles and rock hard abs' bar staff of the male kind... Though the place is riddled with males of wide girth from spending much time frequenting the bars with the 'topless' female bar staff... Not to mention the bordellos that are 'legal' in this town. And by golly 'topless' or bordello employment is a tough way to make a living in this outback town, mostly on account of how unbearably cold it gets. Not just at night, but all day. I swear that an Iceland summer is balmy, compared to a Kalgoorlie winter.

The roads, whilst not paved in gold are very wide. This was because in its early days all item arrived by 'camel trains' which needed to turn around. The town now has a decorated medium strip of plants, trees and astro turf. All cars must park on an angle, which makes for reversing a large 4x4 interesting.

My Saturday arvo was spent collecting a hire vehicle, shopping for food for a community meeting on Monday, finding the community, unpacking and working out how to use a folding ladder, charging a cordless drill, and attending the local basket ball game between the Kalgoorlie Giants and the Rockingham somethings. The Giants won.

Sunday was spent trying to stay warm, over coming hay fever and thinking I was going to die from the cold. I did manage to pack the 4x4 with all my equipment which had arrived at the hotel the day before. I spent my day walking around Kal to get a feel for the place, with its wide streets, tin and wood houses, snappy gums and lay back lifestyle. I'm forever grateful for the work beanie, for which I would have suffered from frostbite without...and for Dome cafe where I worked on my audit report design and updated emails.

I chose to take the train to Kalgoorlie because it gives one the best view of the Avon Valley as it winds itself through the base of the Avon Valley National Park. Only the train passengers, adventurist kayakers or mad mountain bike riders can really get to see this bit of the National Park. There is no public road. Besides the carbon saving by taking the train vs flying are huge. The train trip was not uneventful on account of 6 young men on a 'wild weekend boys only' trip. I suspect the all the beer drinking was to give them courage to venture into wildwest lifestyle. Ignoring them, I watched the last of the Avon Valley forrest fade away into the wheatbelt, salt lakes and latter the woodlands of the goldfields.

I shed a tear or too as I thought of the may times I have camped in these woodlands. My most memorable was on my 1st recumbent bike ride in about 2000, riding from Bonnie Vale (Coolgardie) to Lower Chittering over 8 days. Camping each night in the snappy gums, malley and other unknown gums...

So why was In Kalgoorlie in the middle of our winter? I was about to embark on a Home Energy Efficiency Audit and Behavioural Change Education Program for several Indigenous communities in the Goldfields area. Namely, Kalgoorlie, Wiluna, Laverton and Leonora. I was rather excited about this project, thought will admit a little bit unsure of how it would all unfold.

Before I could embark on this project I needed to sit my physics exam on Thursday 11 July. I was rather stressed about this exam! i liked the unit, topic and everything I had learnt, I just found it rather hard to remember it all. I spent the exam morning at the physio for my shoulder. I had sometime ago returned to swimming and cycling, though there till is some slight pain in the shoulder. So I'm trying to build up my strength in my left arm. I then went to the library at Murdoch to go over my notes before the exam. This paid off well, as a past exam questions I was still 'week' in understanding finally 'clicked' and you guest it, it was one of the questions on the paper. I managed to answer all the questions and within the 1st 10minutes of reading time I knew I had passed and was likely to get at least a Distinction.

Monday 14-18th June 2009
My auditing day stated by getting to the airport to meet my co-auditor, Fred from Synergy on the 7.30am flight. We then had an introduction meeting with the folks from the Goldfields Indigenous Housing Office and arrived at our community meeting at 9.30am.... By 10.30am we now number 4. Fred and I had been joined by only two others for our meeting... Oh well you get that. so the biscuits found a new home at GIHO.

We simply decided to just know on every ones door and ask if they had read my flier delivered last week and were they happy with me undertaking an Energy Efficiency Audit of their home. This plan worked a treat and was the basic plan for the rest of the week. I had a ball! Alas, Fred could only help me for two days and had to fly home...Thanks for your help Fred it was a great couple of days...

Tracey then stepped in to give me a hand for two days and we managed to finish the whole community. Thanks Tracey it was great working with you, thanks matey :)

I spent the rest of the week meeting with a few key stakeholders, starting to build a database from the data I had collected and trying to stay warm! I did visit the Mining Hall of Fame on Saturday where I went underground into an old mine shaft. Very interesting.

I needed to wait for a colleague to fly in on Sunday morning for our long drive to Wiluna...