Mining boom leaves little room for tourists in Australia's gold capital

In short:

Tourism operators in WA's Goldfields say competition for accommodation is making life difficult for visitors.

A shortage of hotel rooms in Kalgoorlie-Boulder's peak tourist season is coinciding with record demand from mining companies and other industries.

Some tour operators have had to take innovative steps to secure their guests somewhere to stay.

The ongoing gold boom is starting to prove a headache for tourism in one of Australia's landmark mining cities.

With more than half a million passengers over the past 12 months, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport is one of the busiest in Western Australia outside of Perth.

But tour operators in the city, 600 kilometres east of Perth, say the mine workers accounting for the bulk of the passenger traffic are competing with other visitors for available accommodation.

With rents at historic highs and almost no vacancies, finding a place to stay is proving a challenge.

Tourism WA statistics show the region has had some of the highest hotel occupancy rates in the state during the 2025/2026 financial year.

The region's occupancy peaked in October 2025 with about 90 per cent of hotel rooms surveyed occupied.

Leanne Kamp has been running gold prospecting tours through the Goldfields for two decades.

While a jump in interest from would-be gold hunters has been good for business, she said it has never been tougher for travellers to find a room.

"With the mining boom and all the fly-in, fly-out miners, it does really crunch into the available accommodation," she said.

"We always cross our fingers because the accommodation is quite difficult to find, and we find that we are booking about 12 months in advance."

Winter and spring are generally considered peak tourism season, with the Diggers and Dealers Mining Conference and Kalgoorlie-Boulder Race Round bringing thousands of visitors to the city.

Identified by Kalgoorlie-Boulder's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KBCCI) as far back as 2022, the growing number of workers occupying previously short-stay accommodation has forced tourism operators to adopt creative solutions.

"Businesses and workers are increasingly relying on short-term accommodation, with examples of many short-stay establishments largely servicing workers," the KBCCI report stated.

Ms Kamp had to think quickly when accommodation arranged for a tour last year fell through.

"We brought tents over … we set up camp on one of our leases," she said.

Catching gold fever

There were about 120,000 domestic tourist trips to Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the surrounding region in 2025, according to Tourism WA figures.

In addition to the gold and mining, the city's rich history is a big attraction for visitors.

Sharon Ingham-Sellin is visiting Kalgoorlie from Mandurah with the Red Hat Society, a social club for women over 50.

She managed to find accommodation, but only by booking several months in advance.

"It's an iconic town of WA and probably the whole country," Ms Sellen said.

"I'm really loving the historic buildings, food's been amazing, your pubs are amazing."

Potential visitors lost

The shortage of rooms is taking a significant toll on mining engineer-turned-tour operator Allison Golsby.

"We are having people try to ring us and say 'How can we make this work?' particularly less than six weeks ahead and they're unable to get accommodation," she said.

"So that's really hard for our region and it's taking away some of the opportunities."

Ms Golsby said her tours were booked out months in advance, and believed the region was missing out on potential visitors.

"Think of those jobs, think of the prosperity," she said.

"Think of the things that we could do in our town with that type of thing coming through."

Could historic hotels help?

Despite the high demand and challenges, Kalgoorlie-Boulder's Visitor Centre is still encouraging people to come to town.

Centre manager Donna Malec agreed the accommodation crunch was holding the city's potential back.

She said she encouraged would-be visitors to be flexible with their dates, and the centre was always happy to help.

"We're trying our best to let people know, 'No, no, you can still come, it just might not be on the day that you want,'" she said.

"But if you're quite flexible with your time, we can always make something work for you."

Claire Smart manages daily bus tours to one of the largest open-cut gold mines in the world: Kalgoorlie's Super Pit.

She said historic hotels in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, now empty, could provide part of the answer.

"Old hotels would be a good one because there's a lot of history involved in that," Ms Smart said.

"And that's what a lot of the tourists come for; the history and just to see what's out there for Kalgoorlie-Boulder."