Hang on to your hat and hop aboard one of Australia’s most impressive long-distance trains with British comedian and travel enthusiast Griff Rhys Jones, as he experiences the gold thrills of an adventure through the heart of our nation.
Griff at The Perth Mint’s Refinery.
Griff with Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) students in Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Griff atop the edge of KCGM’s Super Pit gold mine in Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
The six-part documentary series, Griff’s Great Australian Rail Trip, sees the Welsh-born comedian, writer and actor visit large cities and tiny communities whilst travelling across the expansive outback from Perth to Sydney.
In the first episode, Perth to Kalgoorlie: Find a Sandgroper, Griff explores Western Australia’s earthly riches.
Pilbara
Arriving in WA, Griff travels to Karratha in the Pilbara, a mining region encompassing 2.5 million square kilometers of red earth bursting with mineral wealth, and discovers an automated iron ore train.
At $1.3 billion and operated by technicians 1,500 kilometers away in Perth, the enormous train represents the first pit-to-port operation in the world, taking Griff completely by surprise.
“The figures that surround this whole idea, boggle the brain,” he said.
Deciding there must be more to the land than its mineral wealth, Griff engages a local Aboriginal guide to discover the sacred cultural significance the region also holds for Indigenous people.
Owner operator of Ngurrangga Tours, Clinton Walker is a descendant of the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people of the Western Pilbara and shows Griff images his ancestors left upon the red rock, illustrating their connection to the land.
He further explains a ‘sandgroper’ is a small insect and also a term to define people born in WA.
“We are proud, we own the name,” said Clinton.
Griff concludes that to find a proper sandgroper, he should find someone digging for gold.
Perth
Back in Perth, Griff arrives at the suburban fortress of The Perth Mint’s Refinery, to meet with Refinery General Manager Nathan Edwards.
Griff watches in awe as workers pour molten gold in a furnace at 1,100 degrees Celsius. After the impurities are removed, he is left standing in front of containers full of gold, each worth approximately $2.5 million.
“I’ve never seen so much portable wealth in once place!” he exclaimed.
“There’s a fighter plane in there, there’s the whole budget of a town in here, there’s row after row of houses in here! It’s just extraordinary to confront it,” Griff added.
After seeing the gold transformed into shiny 1kg bars, Griff decides to travel to where he can witness mining processes. Boarding the Indian Pacific in a Gold Class cabin, Griff begins his adventure in earnest – traveling to the State’s golden capital.
Kalgoorlie
Disembarking in Kalgoorlie, Griff realises the small town has a big history, luring a diverse mix of people and cultures to the outback since gold was first discovered in the region. Griff begins by meeting students at the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) which was established 10 years after the region’s first gold discovery.
“This school honours its ‘digger’ past. University mining students still train in traditional techniques and compete in teams up against the clock,” Griff discovers.
To help the students train for the next international mining games, Griff joins in an exercise to shovel ore into a cart and push it to the end of a line.
Griff then arrives at KCGM’s Super Pit gold mine to observe how much mining processes have changed in 125 years. He finds a ‘metal dinosaur’ scooping 60 tonnes of raw earth at a time – part of a 24/7 load and haul operation. KCGM haul truck driver Hannah Rout demonstrates how ore is transported to the crusher, a process that takes 30 minutes as the colossal vehicle works its way up from the bottom of the Pit.
The episode ends with Griff trying his hand at prospecting with Amalgamated Prospectors and Leaseholders Association and Eastern Goldfields Historical Society President, Scott Wilson. Upon Griff enquiring as to whether he thought the activity was fruitful, Scott confirms he’s enjoyed some luck.
“Gold fever is a real thing,” he said. “The first big nugget I had, I was a 16-year-old with my dad, and I found a four-and-a-half-ounce nugget. I used that to buy my first car, and it was a car that I could go out prospecting with,” Scott explained.
Relive all the highlights from Griff’s trip down under on ABC iView.
Enjoy your own gold experience with the Heart of Gold Australia app, free to download from iTunes or Google Play.