Discover Top Posts Tagged with #norseman

1942 Noorduyn Norseman UC-64A photographed at Wittman Regional Airport

#Noorduyn #Norseman #UC-64 #UC-64A #Bush plan #Planes #Vintage aircraft #General aviation #Civil aviation #KOSH #Wittman Regional Airport #Fly In #Oshkosh #Airventure

A restored 1944 Noorduyn Norseman VI photographed at Bodø Air Station, Norway during the 2019 Airshow

#Vintage aircraft #Noorduyn #Norseman #VI #Aviation photography #Bodø Air Station #Airshow photos #Air Show #Utility #Transport #Plane #Planes #Airplane

Thursday 29th January 2026

In 1893 Laurie Sinclair was on his way to Esperance on the south coast, from Coolgardie. He stopped overnight whilst he visited his brother. His horse, Hardy Norseman, was tethered and when Laurie started off the following morning, Hardy was limping. On close inspection of the affected hoof, he discovered that where Hardy had been pawing the ground, he had scraped up a sizable nugget of gold. And they say this is the rather fetching story to the founding of the town of Norseman and more importantly the mines. As a reward, they fashioned a statue of Hardy Norseman and he proudly stands guard of the crossroad in town. The gold was initially alluvial, but now it is a deep mining operation. As a mining operation, it is the longest serving gold mine in Australia. The town grew from nothing in 1893 to a peak population of 4,000 souls in 1905 to the 562 recorded in 2021. 17% of the townsfolk are Aboriginal/ Torres Strait, while the largest group are 60-69. The town suffered a sharp decline when the mine closed between 2014 and 2022. Many houses remain empty to this day, with the impression because of this, that it remains in decline. However, new life, apparently, is returning; the mine did restart and is in full production with estimates of at least a quarter of the gold stock remaining even after over 125 years of production. The downside is that the mining workforce is predominantly FIFO. Fly in, fly out. But, the town is neat, clean, has a huge new swimming pool, hospital and other factory work options for the local school leavers. The Kalgoorlie to Esperance passenger train comes through Norseman, but sadly, no station and therefore does not stop here. There's a bus, though that will enable a Norseman resident to get to Kalgoorlie KMart and back in a day. So good news there then, assuming no restraining order applying. As always, it is so interesting to see these remote outback communities functioning against, what townies would say, impossible odds. Despite empty homes, empty plots, empty shops, there are the usual signs of life: pretty front gardens, clean wide streets, well equipped children's play areas, nice looking school, and well attended cafés operating as a community hub. Of course these places look good against a clear blue sky and temperatures of 35 plus degrees, but we, and the townsfolk are hopeful for its survival.

Around here you are never alone. In most parts of Australia, locals are satisfied with their allotted fly. Here, they prefer many and extended this generosity to us visitors. You think people are very friendly, waving to you in the street, but its the invasion of flies, boldly seeking out new orifices where no fly has been before. Anymore of this and we shall need the ultimate doomsday weapon, the black widow fly net ensconced over our heads.

After luncheon, the car was reversed and extracted like a winkle out of it's shell, from our rather narrow and deviating driveway then taken up to the mines lookout platform. The lookout enabled us to see what was making the constant hum that pervades the town. It is a three stage rock crushing facility that will eventually extract the gold that has lain hidden within the rock since the world began. Tiny amounts of gold versus vast quantities of ore. It certainly takes a particular type of obsession. Maybe this is mechanised gold fever? We partook of a short walk around the lookout point, which not only enabled us a better view of the rock crushing, but better than that, extensive 50km views in all directions as far as Esperance to the south and the salt lakes just a few kilometres to the west. These 'lakes' will only have visible water after intense rain, which is rare. For the most part, if there is water, it will not be much and the rest is pure salt.

We then drove back towards town for a woodland walk, also with good views across the plains. This walk was illuminated with information boards describing the fauna and how aborigines would have obtained sustenance from them. I have to say though, I have seen more aborigines outside Coles than were queuing up here at the gum trees.

ps. The following collective acronym for the grey nomads we meet was passed to me at the time of writing: SADs, See Australia and Die.