Not many places can boast of having an ancient brothel as a landmark... but we have one right in Australia itself. Situated 600km from Perth on 133 Hay Street, Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia, the Questa Casa is the oldest brothel in the Land Down Under and possibly one of the oldest brothels in the world. It carries with it 115 years of history.
The Questa Casa was established in 1904 to service men in the town of Kalgoorlie during the gold rush. It is the only remaining brothel from the era. Today, the corrugated white tin building with striking pink doors and flashy neon lights is still standing and unaltered from its original design. It is owned by Carmel Galvin, 82, who has been the Madam of the place for 27 years.
Madam Carmel bought the brothel in 1992 and has been managing it since. When she first arrived in Kalgoorlie, the Questa Casa was a popular brothel due to the containment policy of the Western Australian government.
The containment policy, which had been in place since 1910, restricted sex work to certain areas and premises. Working girls needed permission from the police to offer their services, as did madams who wanted to sell their brothels. Hay Street was the official red light district of Kalgoorlie, and naturally, Questa Casa enjoyed good business. Girls lived within the Questa Casa itself and were not allowed on the streets, as that would have been considered soliciting. They entertained men who came to Hay Street... and the Questa Casa. With the end of the containment policy in year 2000, other sex workers flooded into the suburbs and business for the Questa Casa began to slip into a steady decline.
Madam Carmel is not one to give up, and she has turned the Questa Casa into a tourist attraction. For a fee of AUD25 (AUD20 for seniors 50 years and above), curious visitors will be treated to a tour of this old brothel with its starting stalls where ladies would first talk to gentlemen before their bookings, rooms where the ladies used to stay, a dominatrix room, and more.
The Questa Casa also caught the eye of director Sascha Ettinger Epstein, who has made a documentary of this unique brothel titled 'The Pink House'. In 2017, the documentary won the Best Australian Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival.