Goldfields-Esperance, WA
gold-rush · mining · outback · heritage
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Drive to the coast
4h 14m
By road
Nearest major hospital
3 min
By road
Airport access
30 min
By road
Schools access
Excellent
Average daytime temp
25.7°C
Rainfall
Very dry
Kalgoorlie-Boulder is a remote regional city that has to function independently because Perth is more than 6 hours 45 minutes away by road. Around 29,000 people live in the urban area, with a young median age of 34 and a population decline of roughly 4% since 2016.
That combination suggests a working-age community without the strong recent growth seen in some coastal WA centres. One practical strength is major-hospital access only a few minutes away and the airport about half an hour, both important in a city this far inland.
Climate-wise, the daytime average is roughly 26°C, but the climate is more extreme than the annual figure suggests: summers are hot, winters are cool and rainfall is very low. Fixed-line service gives residents solid connectivity for home and work. The practical reality of living here is distance.
Perth is not somewhere you casually drive for a shopping day or appointment, so local services and the airport carry much more weight than they would closer to the capital. The city’s regional status means there is more day-to-day infrastructure than a small country town can offer, but anyone moving here should be comfortable with an inland environment and a social world that is physically far removed from metropolitan WA.
20 photos
Kalgoorlie-Boulder suits people who are moving for work and want a real outback city around them: miners, tradespeople, engineers, health workers, teachers and professionals in resource-linked services. It also works for people who enjoy strong local identity, heritage pubs and wide-open country, but it is less natural for anyone primarily chasing beaches, café culture or a quiet retirement town.
The economy is heavily influenced by mining, so career prospects can be strong but concentrated. Perth is nearly seven hours away by road, summers are hot and the landscape is very different from coastal WA. Population decline since 2016 also suggests this is not a simple growth-town story.
Tour the Super Pit
Visit the Museum of the Goldfields
Explore Kalgoorlie-Boulder's gold-rush architecture
See Inside Australia at Lake Ballard
Median house price
$480,000
No WA-wide median published
Median weekly rent (3-bed house)
$700
≈ $3,033/month
Sourced from REIWA (Real Estate Institute of Western Australia) · REIWA, 12 months ending August 2026
Healthcare access
Excellent
Shopping & everyday services
Good
4–9 shopping centres within 20km
Internet connection
Fixed line
Plus 10 more within 20km — showing the 8 closest.
Job market by industry
Trades — 14.6%
Largest share of local jobs
Employment figures cover this town's wider statistical region, not the town alone — you'll see the same figures for Geraldton, Kalbarri, Esperance, Hopetoun, Exmouth, Denham, Coral Bay and Carnarvon.
The score ranks this region against other regions for the same occupation, not against other jobs here — a low score means it isn't a regional stronghold for that field, not that there are no vacancies. Counts online job advertisements, so trades and farm work hired by word of mouth are undercounted, and outside capital cities this is published at a regional level larger than one town.
Kalgoorlie - Boulder (UCL 512004) · 2021 Census
Younger than the national profile, with 9.1% aged 65 or over against 17.2%.
Population
29,068
Population growth
-4.3%
Kalgoorlie (SA2 511031279)
Median age
34 years
Labour force participation
69.5%
Growth is measured across the wider area named under the figure, which can be a different size to the town.
Share of total population in each band — rounding means these won't land on exactly 100%.
Couples are a share of total families; lone-person households are a share of total households — different bases, not one breakdown.
Median personal income
$1,204
Per week · ≈ $62,608/year
Median family income
$2,825
Per week
Median household income
$2,325
Per week
Personal is one person's income; family and household cover everyone living together — a single-income household will show a lower household figure than its highest earner's personal one. Personal income also covers every resident aged 15 and over, retirees included, so it reads low in a town with an older population even where household income is solid.
Owner-occupied
59.5%
Rented
36.8%
Born in Australia
66.6%
Born overseas
24%
Doesn't sum to 100% — people who didn't state a birthplace are excluded rather than redistributed.