As Captain Cool Gardia – television actor Peter Docker and with local actor, Elizabeth Trott, 15, helping – led a noisy procession of young people and adults around town, moving coloured light displays turned the park in the centre of town into a magical place.

The parade, which had a giant caged echidna as its centrepiece, featured the Junkadelic band playing musical instruments made out of junk, students from the Coolgardie Shire’s four schools carrying lanterns they had made and young Aboriginal people in stark white masks and costumes.

It started at the gnamma hole in Hunt Street and made its way around town, stopping at a number of different locations, on its way to the park as Captain Cool Gardia told a tale about a mythical monster which turned out to be the giant echidna.

At the park the echidna was released from its cage and the formal part of the Rock Hole Long Pipe celebrations ended with a fireworks display.

A team of artists from Community Arts Network WA working with the Kambalda and Coolgardie communities for the past four weeks to create the performance about the area.

They worked with more than 100 school children, firemen and women, and fireworks experts to create the show which was a great success.