A prosperous goldmining town roughly halfway between Kalgoorlie and Esperance, Norseman is also home to Australia’s richest quartz reef, which is still being mined. The Central Norseman Gold Corporation conducts tours of the mining operations on week days and you can wander around the old workings. Legend has it that the town got its start in the late 1800s when prospector Laurie Sinclair’s horse, Hardy Norseman, unearthed a big nugget while pawing the ground. A search of the area by Sinclair turned up a rich reef of gold which he called Norseman and the rush was on. Since then, almost five million ounces of gold have been extracted from the area, making it the second richest field in WA behind Kalgoorlie’s Golden Mile. Visit the Historical Collection housed in the old School of Mines building on Battery Road to learn all you need to know about gold mining and follow the Heritage Trail along the route taken by Cobb & Co coaches at the turn of the century. For travellers heading east out of WA, Norseman is the junction town where they join the Eyre Highway from the trip across the Nullabor Plain.
A prosperous goldmining town roughly halfway between Kalgoorlie and Esperance, Norseman is also home to Australia’s richest quartz reef, which is still being mined. The Central Norseman Gold Corporation conducts tours of the mining operations on week days and you can wander around the old workings. Legend has it that the town got its start in the late 1800s when prospector Laurie Sinclair’s horse, Hardy Norseman, unearthed a big nugget while pawing the ground. A search of the area by Sinclair turned up a rich reef of gold which he called Norseman and the rush was on. Since then, almost five million ounces of gold have been extracted from the area, making it the second richest field in WA behind Kalgoorlie’s Golden Mile. Visit the Historical Collection housed in the old School of Mines building on Battery Road to learn all you need to know about gold mining and follow the Heritage Trail along the route taken by Cobb & Co coaches at the turn of the century. For travellers heading east out of WA, Norseman is the junction town where they join the Eyre Highway from the trip across the Nullabor Plain.