Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields - Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located 595 kilometres (370 mi) east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. The town was founded in 1893 during the Yilgarn-Goldfields gold rush, and is located close to the so-called "Golden Mile".
As at the 2006 census, it had a population of 28,250, making it the largest urban centre in the Goldfields-Esperance region and the fifth-largest in Western Australia.
The name Kalgoorlie is derived from the Wangai word Karlkurla, meaning "place of the silky pears"
