RIDE THE PROSPECTOR
Friday 4 December 2026

Departing East Perth Train Station, experience WA's iconic rail journey from the green Swan Valley and Darling Range, through farming towns in the Wheatbelt and onto the vast red earth of the Golden Outback en-route to Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

HERITAGE TRAM TOUR
Saturday 5 December 2026

All aboard Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s beloved heritage tram car – ‘Ruby’! Take in the highlights of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Australia’s largest outback city, aboard a lovingly restored vintage tramcar. Visit the Superpit and historic museums.

OUTBACK NIGHT SKY TOUR
Saturday 5 December 2026

On this tour, you'll be treated to uninterrupted outback skies at Lake Douglas. Using high-quality telescopes and a dark sky laser you'll see visible planets, star clusters and constellations, while learning cultural perspectives that connect people to the night sky. 

ST BARB's PARADE
Sunday 6 December 2026

It's Kalgoorlie-Boulder's day to shine. Your exclusive seat is reserved on the Kalgoorlie Hotel balcony with a birds-eye-view of all the action, including a sit-down lunch, before heading back to the train station and your return journey aboard the Prospector to Perth.

WHO IS ST BARBARA?

St Barbara is thought to have been born in the mid-third century AD, in Nicomedia - Asia Minor (Turkey).  According to legend, Barbara was the lovely and intelligent daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus.  One of her tutors was a Christian who secretly introduced Barbara to the Christian faith.  

Because of her beauty and fearful that she may be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, Dioscorus jealously shut her up in a high and strong tower. He commissioned a bathhouse to be built for her and was enraged when she added another window so that the three windows might symbolise the Holy Trinity.

Her father was infuriated when Barbara acknowledged that she was a Christian. He turned her over to the Roman authorities who scourged her, but her wounds healed immediately. She was taken before the prefect Martinianus, a historical figure noted for his brutality. Softened by her beauty, Martinianus gave her a choice. Renounce your god or die a terrible death. She refused to give up her faith. She was taken away, tortured and condemned to die. Dioscorus took his own daughter`s life with a blow from his sword. Afterwards, he was struck by lightning and his body consumed. Saint Barbara was martyred in 306 AD. Her legend did not emerge until the 7th century.

The legend of the lightning bolt caused her to be regarded as the Patron Saint in time of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder made its appearance in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for aid against accidents resulting from explosions. She became the patron, not only to miners, but also artillerymen, builders, stonemasons, gravediggers and sailors. Mines, mountains, churches and other places bear her name. Barbara`s feast day, December 4th, appears on the most ancient holy day calendars.

EASTERN GOLDFIELDS MINERS MEMORIAL

Each year, the Miners Memorial Service brings together family members, mine management, mine rescue personnel, and the broader community in reflection and remembrance of those who have lost their lives in the mining industry.  The service concludes with the symbolic lighting of a miners lamp.

The wall, located at the forecourt of the Western Australian Museum in Kalgoorlie, is more than 10 metres long and 2.5 metres high. The wall currently contains the names of 1484 individuals including two women.

The concept of an Eastern Goldfields Miners Memorial was first conceived in 2004 by Mr James Donnelly and he was the inaugural chairman of the committee. Over the years Mr Donnelly was well known for his involvement in the Mine Rescue competitions on the Goldfields.

The committee decided that only those deaths that occurred due to accident on a mine site in the performance of their duties within the following nine goldfields fields:

• East Coolgardie (Which includes the Golden Mile)
• Coolgardie (Includes Kambalda)
• Broad Arrow
• Yilgarn (Southern Cross District)
• Dundas (Norseman District)
• East Murchison (Sandstone district)
• Mount Morgans (Wiluna, Leonora and Laverton Districts)
• North Coolgardie (Menzies District)
• North East Coolgardie (Kanowna District)

The Eastern Goldfields Miners Memorial was opened on the 1st of March 2013 by the Minister for Mines and Petroleum the Hon. W. (Bill) Marmion BE MBA MLA and dedicated by the most reverend Roger Herft AM Anglican Archbishop of Western Australia.

GREAT BOULDER MINE DISASTER 1904

The ‘Great Boulder Disaster’ occurred on May 25th 1904, when 5 underground miners tragically lost their lives  at the Great Boulder mine, located on the famous Golden Mile, adjacent to the burgeoning township of Boulder.

On this day, a winding engine in operation on Edwards’s shaft was in use to regulate the steam pressure to retain the gigs that were suspended in the shaft. In historical underground mining a gig was an iron-framed elevator cage or platform used to transport miners, tools, and material up and down vertical or inclined mine shafts.

The reversing lever, through some unaccountable cause, flew over, and this put all steam on to sink both gigs. With the combined power from the steam, and the weight on the drums, the engine “raced” like lightning. The engine driver, Matthew Reidell, tried to pull the lever back, but he could not do so with the steam on. So he screwed the steam off with one hand, while he tried to pull the lever back with the other. He pushed both foot brakes with all his might and got them on so hard that the blocks commenced burning.

This had no effect, however, until the steam was cut off, and then it was too late, as the momentum gained carried the gigs with a crash to the bottom.

The funeral for the 5 men took place in Kalgoorlie the very next day with a funeral cortege stretching for nearly a mile.  As reported in the Western Australian Newspaper on May 26^th, 1904 – “About five hundred members of the societies and organisations to which the deceased belonged came next, and. immediately following these came five hearses and five, mourning coaches, with nearly a hundred private vehicles bringing up the rear” – such was the outpouring of grief in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder communities.