The regolith of the Kalgoorlie region includes saprolite in deep weathering profiles, and a range of surficial deposits, including colluvium, alluvium, and duricrusts, the distribution of which is the result of a long geological and geomorphic evolution. The generally accepted model of landscape evolution, with an old lateritised plateau being replaced by a younger plateau, is shown to be oversimplified. Features in the saprolite indicate changes in the former position of water tables. Sand plains are essentially confined to areas of granite; and red earths, to greenstone belts. Neither of these appears to have any significant aeolian component. Ferricrete is generally unconformable over various substrates: it originally formed on lower slopes, and occupies high sites in the present landscape because of repeated inversion of relief. Silcrete appears to have the same landscape relationships. In a new geomorphic chronology of the region regolith formation is treated as an integral part of the geological history since the Permian.