Kalgoorlie, Australia

Whichever way you approach Kalgoorlie – the bustling gold capital of Australia: officially twinned, municipally merged but still fervently distinct from Boulder – it comes as a surprise after hundreds of kilometres of desolation. The conurbation possesses the idiosyncratic quality of places like Coober Pedy or Las Vegas. All three blithely disregard their isolation and bleak surroundings, so devoted is their attention to the pursuit of earthly riches – which, in Kalgoorlie's case, is gold.