WA School of Mines Mineral Museum Overview

WA School of Mines Mineral Museum

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Be mesmerised by minerals.

More than just rocks of the region, this collection is a learning tool, with mineral specimens from all around the world, housed in a beautiful heritage building. The minerals include sulphides, like pyrite or fool’s gold; carbonates such as calcspar and dolomite; and native elements such as graphite. Unfortunately, there are no diamonds in the collection! The mineral samples were used as teaching aids at the WA School of Mines, which first opened in Coolgardie in 1902, and then relocated to Kalgoorlie a few years later.

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Address:

117 Egan Street
Kalgoorlie WA 6430
Australia

Tel:

(08) 9088 6170

Email:

WASM-MECEAdministration@curtin.edu.au

Opening Hours

Mon to Fri 9am - 4:30pm

Pyrite from Broad Arrow

Listen to the rocks talk

Minerals like galena and pyrite were used as conductors in early crystal radios. If you wrap chicken wire around a large pyrite sample and shape it into a dish, you can pick up radio waves. It is as...

Staurolite

Twinning

Staurolite, a silicate, is used in geology as an 'index mineral'. This means it is used to estimate depth, temperature and pressure changes to rock, like movement of the earth’s crust or magma...

Malachite from Murin Murin

Viridescent deposit

Malachite, a carbonate of copper, is one of the oldest known green pigments. Malachite was used as an indicator of the presence of copper. This sample is from the Anaconda copper mine near Murin Murin...

Old Police Complex

A country police station

The first Laverton police station is described by the guide as ‘tents, tin and fibro,’ with the prisoners brutally chained to logs. In 1899 the original jail was moved from the close-by settlement of...

Merredin Regional Library

Old school local history collection and research in the library

The local history collection at the Merredin Library was started to gather items not connected to military and railway history, captured in other local collections. The Merredin Library is located in...

Goldfields War Museum

Wartime memories

Housed inside the historic Boulder Town Hall, the Goldfields War Museum's intriguing collection tells the story of local people fighting on the frontlines and homefront during times of conflict....

Merredin Railway Station Museum and Historical Society Overview

Merredin Museum and Historical Society Incorporated

A railway museum inside an old railway station building.

Stand on the railway platform which once welcomed steam and diesel passenger trains. Imagine a time when rail travel was the cheapest and easiest way to travel. Be immersed in the fascinating history...