Neglecting the losses of any kind thus assuming a 100% efficiency, one can thing about a boost convert as a voltage translator with constant power. I mean that Pin = Pout.
$$ P_{in} = V_{in}I_{in}$$
$$ P_{out} = V_{out}I_{out}$$
thus
$$ V_{in}I_{in} = V_{out}I_{out} $$
of rewritten differently:
$$ \frac{V_{in}}{V_{out}} = \frac{I_{out}}{I_{in}} $$
thus if you boost 3.3V to 30V and see a power consumption of 9A, then
$$ \frac{3.3V}{30V} = \frac{I_{out}}{9A} $$
$$ I_{out} = 1A $$
If you designed your boost convert to supply roughly 1A then it is working fine. Because we assumed a 100% efficiency, the real available output current would be less than 1A.
Usually you do the computation backward, you know your output current requirement and you can compute what would be the input current.
It takes almost 2 mA just to charge and discharge the gate of your MOSFET. You're also wasting about 5 mA in R1, since it is grounded through pin 7 about half the time. Your voltage feedback divider is drawing about 1 mA from the high-voltage rail, which translates to more than 20 mA at the input.
There's a problem with using a 555 to drive a large MOSFET: The limited output current of the 555 means that the MOSFET can't switch quickly from full-off to full-on and back again. It spends a lot of time (relatively speaking) in a transition region, in which it dissipates a significant amount of your input power instead of delivering that power to the output. The MOSFET has a total gate charge of 63 nC, and the 555 has a maximum output current of about 200 mA, which means it takes a minimum of 63 nC / 200 mA = 315 ns to charge or discharge the gate. If you're using a CMOS 555, the output current is much less and the switching time is correspondingly longer.
If you add a gate driver chip between the 555 and the MOSFET (one that's capable of peak currents of 1-2A), you'll see a marked increase in overall efficiency. A real boost controller chip will often have such drivers built in.
If you're serious about developing switchmode power converters, you definitely need to get an oscilloscope so that you can see these effects for yourself.
That regulator design is also rather crappy for another reason. The power through a boost mode converter is regulated by varying the duty cycle of the switching element. In this circuit, the feedback is created by using a transistor to pull down on the control voltage node of the 555, which reduces the upper switching threshold. However, because of the way the 555 is constructed, this also reduces the lower switching threshold by a proportional amount. This means that the change in duty cycle as the ouptut voltage rises is much less than you might otherwise think. It has a bigger effect on the frequency of the output pulses, but this isn't relevant. Again, switching to a proper boost controller chip would solve this problem.
By the way, the "regulator" part of the circuit is NOT using the input voltage as its reference, it's using the forward voltage of Q1's B-E junction as its reference.
As Spehro points out, a 100 µH inductor at a switching frequency of 30 kHz — nominal on time = 16 µs — with a 9V source is going to reach a peak current of 1.44 A. This is really abusing the hell out of a 9V battery, not to mention the I2R losses in both the inductor and the MOSFET. This is also uncomfortably close to the saturation current of the inductor, which only exacerbates the losses.
Best Answer
The basics for all DC/DC converters are:
It seems like you have placed them correctly in a small loop.
However I would consider adding ceramic capacitors on the output (at/near C3). I don't know what switching frequency you're running the 555 timer at, but fast di/dt pulses are likely not caught well by aluminium capacitors. Ceramic capacitors have a much lower impedance at high frequencies (e.g. >100kHz).
I also wonder if you have connected R4-R5-R6 network correctly on your board.
I would consider getting rid of all thermal reliefs on your board. You may want to keep them if you're not confident in soldering with your equipment, but the relief traces are very small which may play up at high currents.