2026 Australian of the Year, Katherine Bennell-Pegg, inspires regional Western Australians during Tour of Honour
Australia’s first astronaut, Katherine Bennell-Pegg, visited Kalgoorlie-Boulder during her WA Tour of Honour as 2026 Australian of the Year, meeting with local students, business leaders and elected members.
The tour began at 6.30am at Jandakot Flight Centre for a sunrise charter to Kalgoorlie. First stop was Boulder Primary School, where Katherine, donning her flight suit, encouraged the students to be ambitious and see the opportunity and pathways that lie in the region for space research.
During the special assembly, Katherine presented the Aussie of the Month award and met with previous recipients from the school year so far. Year 5 and 6 students then got the rare opportunity to ask questions to Australia’s first astronaut.
Of the visit, Boulder Primary School Deputy Principal, Josh Harder, said: “It was such a wonderful experience for our students, staff and wider community to meet and hear from someone who has achieved so much. Katherine’s visit was incredibly inspiring, and the excitement throughout the school was evident all morning and still being felt. Opportunities like this create lasting memories for our students and help encourage them to dream big.”
After saying goodbye to the students with a snaking line of high fives, Katherine dropped in on the WA School of Mines to tour the facilities and speak to young and mature students about local resources and opportunities in the space sector.
In the afternoon, Katherine was the guest of honour at a formal Civic Reception hosted by the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Held at the Town Hall, the event gave current and aspiring community leaders the chance to hear about the role space plays in life on Earth, particularly regional areas, and the pathways to working in space research, including her own from engineering student to astronaut.
“My first job to grow Australia’s space sector, was to look across our country, and see what we could be good at,” Katherine told guests. “It was incredible to visit WA and learn about the phenomenal technologies and capabilities that you have here, especially in your regional areas, that are used in resources and energy.
“Should I have the opportunity to fly into space, it would be my honour to unlock access to this incredible world for all Australians. When I received this beautiful flag on this blue flight suit at the Astronaut Centre in Europe, it said to me that the door has opened for Australia to take its place at the forefront of human endeavour and take part in all those discoveries. It gave me hope that one day we will have more Australian astronauts, because imagine what that would do for the aspiration of people in this country.”
The day ended on a high – quite literally – with a fly over Kalgoorlie’s iconic Super Pit, one of the largest gold mining operations in the world at 3.5km long, 1.5km wide, and 600 metres deep.
