It took just 45 years to transform the desert around Kalgoorlie, in Wangkatha Country in Western Australia, into a city of gold known as the Golden Mile. Initially, prospectors came for the alluvial gold. But as the shallow deposits were exhausted, the landscape was transformed by industrial chimney stacks pouring out sulphur fumes, and popper-heads towering over shafts deep under the earth. By 1934, mines like The Lake View and Star were operating 1150 metres below the surface. Here a miner is lighting a cigarette with a blowtorch.