The Scarlet Mile: A Social History of Prostitution in Kalgoorlie, 1894-2004

Then it happened that so great a noise was spread abroad by the lucrative traffic in vice in the Cities of the Desert, that whole hordes of immoral women descended upon our shores ... And they use all their vicious beauty and accursed arts to cause men to gaze upon them, and to stir up evil passions within their breasts. These are not the words of an Old Testament prophet but those of a Western Australian newspaper in 1897. Yet while the "scarlet women" - the "harlots" of the goldfields - were vilified and demonized in print, they were welcomed with open arms by lonely men living in the tent cities of the desert during the gold rush. That welcome continues to this day, and Kalgoorlie's red-light precinct has become one of its most famous tourist attractions. The Scarlet Mile is a compelling and fascinating social history of prostitution in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, where the local brothels and the police station have shared the same street for more than a century.