After breakfast we head into town to the local Tourist Information Centre which is absolutely packed. Everyone that couldn’t get accommodation on the Coast must be here we think!!!
Jan and Alan have arrived here as well so we decide to book on the ‘Questa Casa’ Tour. They claim to be the oldest operating brothel in Australia so apart from the norm we may learn some history.
We spend the rest of the day in town, Jan and I shopping and Alan and Nick (on the bored husband’s chair at the local coffee shop “Monty’s”. After lunch we take Lucy back to the van (she is too young to go into a brothel) and Nick and I head back into town.
The brothel is an old pink building with 11 doors at the front. The name above the door is ‘Questa Casa’ (House of …….???????? We are not sure but if you speak Spanish you might be able to enlighten us).
We are ushered into a room by Carmel who is the Madame. A beautifully groomed, very well spoken lady in her late 60’s with a slightly risque’ sense of humour. She has never actively worked in this industry but came to it by chance.
17 years ago, while she was living in Brisbane and recently widowed she approached her doctor and asked her to perform some tests on her as she felt she was suffering perhaps from a hormonal deficiency. Her doctor told her she just needed to get out and busy herself.
Carmel brought many newspapers from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and scoured the Businesses for sale ads. One ad in each paper kept attracting her attention which was “Business For Sale – Brothel in Kalgoorlie “. She ignored it but after 3 weeks of reading the same ad she decided to enquire.
She flew to Kalgoorlie one weekend and then toured the brothel – she hated it. She checked into one of the local hotels – and hated it. She spent the weekend here and hated it all. She approached Ansett (where she had originally purchased her airline ticket) to ask for an earlier flight back to Brisbane. They said it would cost her an extra $300-00 and there were no flights for 3 days.
After 3 days she had fallen in love with the place and decided to purchase the ‘business’. Before she could though there were stringent rules she had to follow – provided by the local police so once she agreed, went through criminal checks etc the oldest operating brothel was hers.
She went back to her doctor and the doctor asked her what she had done. Carmel told her she had brought a Brothel in Kalgoorlie. The shocked doctor replied, when I told you to go out and busy yourself I meant do charity work!!!! That was 17 years ago and she has never looked back.
We were told us of the draconian rules that made their existence possible – filled us in on ‘old Kalgoorlie’ – The wild west stories as well as many other stories of past and present. It was very interesting and well worth the visit.
Back to camp where we picked up Lucy, took her for a walk then drove to the Super Pit where we met Jan and Alan for champagne at sunset. Dinner at the Hogs Breath Café afterwards then a drive through town and the ‘red light district’! That was Saturday night in Kalgoorlie.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment