Dinner with Chris and Carly

Yesterday we spent the afternoon with Dan, Verity and Kobie, then came home and cooked Indian for Todd, Chris and Carly. We made Pork and Coriander, Curried Potatoes, Spiced Pan-fried Fish, Chickpea Curry, and Rice. It was delicious and the house still smells wonderful.

Perth

We arrived in Perth at Todd's around 3 o'clock. I'd spoken to Dan when we stopped for lunch outside Northam and again while we were chatting with Todd. He didn't know we were in Perth and was expecting us Monday.

Around 5ish we went up to the restuarant and suprised Verity who was there with Kobie. Dan was out getting some groceries, arrived back, saw our car and boat and the suprise was over. We played with Kobie and fed him until Allan (my ex) turned up to take him (Kobie) home, then came home and cooked pasta for Todd. It's lovely to be here and feels like being home.

Southern Cross

We drove from Menzies to Kalgoorlie yesterday thinking we might stay a whie in Kal. We took a look at the caravan parks, did some shopping and drove on here to Southern Cross instead. We've been a bit spoilt the last few weeks with small and often quite empty parks so the ones in Kal looked too big and crowded for us.

This is a great park with spacious sites, nice showers and toilets, not too many people and SC is a lovely little town. This is the edge of the wheat belt and it is so nice to see it looking green and lush with mile upon mile of wheat.




We took a drive today out through a few smaller towns (Bull Finch and Westonia) and saw some great rocks and wild flowers. We thought we'd get lunch along the way in one of them, but ended up buying a dip and biscuits in Westonia and calling that lunch. I'm looking forward to a chicken curry for dinner tonight!



Tomorrow we'll drive into Perth arriving a day or two earlier than expected. I'm looking forward to it.

Menzies

Yesterday after setting up and a bite of lunch we drove out to the ghost town of Kookynie stopping at Niagra Dam and the town of the same name.


Niagra Dam is a really pretty spot, with free camping and yabbies!!! The dam was built at the end of the 1800s to supply the town but they discovered more reliable underground water closer and the dam became a white elephant. It is only tiny, but cost 1/6 th the amount Mundaring Weir(Kalgoorlie and the goldfield's main water supply but coming from Perth) did, but Mundaring holds 335 time the volume of water. The little dam is remote and cement for it had to be carried in on 400 camels from Kalgoorlie.

Kookynie is one of the more interesting ghost towns we've visited. It has a pub sill operating and a couple of houses and the ruins of others are pretty good. The pub is for sale, but you'd have to be a major optomist to buy it.



After all that, we went looking for a number of rocks that should have been nearby, but could only find one. I'm guessing the rest weren't very imposing. I can't tell you the name of the one we found as we don't know where we were on the road.



Today we drove out to Lake Ballard to view 51 sculptures of Menzies residents, actually set in the salt lake itself. It's a really question as to why you would do it, but very interseting anyway. The red dirt and the snow white salt make amazing backdrops for the figures. They are scattered over a 4 km walk which is supposed to take around 2 hours to complete. We spent just over an hour out on the lake and saw about 30 of the sculptures (got close and personal with about a dozen). It was pretty hard going on the salt as it got really slippery-just like ice- as it crusted to the bottoms of our shoes. In wetter years, we'd have been wading through knee high water apparently. We were the only ones there until two sisters turned up as we were leaving. They were both widowed within 6 weeks of each other and were on their first trip away together out in the gold fields "getting some red dirt back in their veins".



We left the lake and drove to a lookout which gave us great views of the lake. It's massive seen from there. Then we visited a few more little towns, stopped for some lunch, found an old Cobb and Co staging post at Ularring Soak, missed a turn and took the long route home through stations and past mine sites and generally had a great day out.

Menzies

Today we drove 110ks from Leonora to Menzies. We've booked in at the extremely tiny and cheap ($14pn) park for two nights so we can go to Lake Ballard to see the Inside Australia Sculptures that rise up out of the lake. There are 51 of them apparently.

On the way here, we had a near death experience. A woman driving a large 4WD and towing a camper trailer took a corner way too fast coming towards us. The car and trailer nearly tipped on the corner, swayed and bounced around over our side of the road, still doing probably 110ks per hour. Fortunately, I had enough flat shoulder to get off. I watched in my rear view mirror and saw her finally pull up way down the road, so I pulled back on to the road and kept driving. As we drove on, we could see her tyre marks all over the road. It was truly terrifying for us but I'm sure she was even more terrified. It reminds me that when we left Coral Bay I waved and tooted a man down whose brakes were on fire as he towed his van down the road totally oblivious to it all.

Leonora

We've ended up in Leonora for 3 nights (tonight's our last). After setting up on Saturday, we spent a lazy afternoon chatting to the neighbours and not much else.

Yesterday we drove the 4 ks to the ghost town of Gwalia 4 ks from Leonora. It's great. The mine wound up in Decemeber 1963 when they sent trains from Kalgoorlie to collect the miners. They walked away leaving the tiny tin and hessian shacks many of them had lived in. In 1993, locals from Leonora adopted the shacks, did them up (sort of) and they are now just standing there open for tourists to wander about if they wish.




I especially liked the Patronis Guest House with the kitchen, laundry, bathroom, and signgle mens lodgings sort of as t would have been. The town is rough and dusty, but really interesting and it's FREE.



Gwalia also has an excellent museum that we spent a bit of time in. The old guy taking our money was a bit of a museum piece himself-my guess was he was about 95 years old and when he had to give us the change of $20 from his own wallet in his pocket, it was the slowest thing I've ever seen. The museum was a good mix of mining and local history and we both enjoyed it a lot.



Today we drove to Laverton along the sealed Laverton/Leonora Highway and came home on the unsealed Old Leonora Road along the old rail line past a number of former town sites, the largest of these was Mt Morgans which had an old rail siding, a lovely brick Municipal Chambers building and a prison work camp (complete with prisoners) next door.

Mt. Morgans Municipal Chambers
Abandoned Mine Pit

We stopped at various lookouts, mine pits, Malcom Dam and then came home. We decided to treat ourselves to lunch in Laverton which was a bit of a mistake. The only thing open was Fred's Deli that sold Sensational Chicken and was a bit forgettable! The dam was nice-not much water, but a huge group (flock?) of emus grazing on the short green grass, plus roos (so nice to see a few live ones), pelicans, ducks and herons.hey

Sandstone Not Tombstone!!

Grevillias in Flower Near Sandstone

Friday we drove a very short distance to Sandstone. It's a former mining town with a population of about 70. It has a mixed business, shire office, tourist info centre and a caravan park and that's basically it. Once upon a time, 3000 people lived there and it was a bustling town with lots of shops lining the streets-not any more, but it's clean and we enjoyed our stay there.

Tourist Info Sandstone


The information centre had a really good display of well mounted black and white phots of old time Sandstone. It's amazing to think the town was ever so large. A video by 60 Minutes done in 1993 was a fun look at the town too. After all that excitement, we went for a drive out to an old brewery in a cave, London Bridge, the deserted state battery, and Deception Well (the original site of the town's water supply).

London Bridge
Old Cottages at the Deserted State Battery



At 5 pm, we had drinks with a nice couple from Melbourne who have sold everything and left home 17 days ago to see Australia. She's not fond of the outback and loves the Sunshine Coast Hmmm, I think she's in for a bit of a shock in WA!

Today we drove to Leinster, had lunch then drove on to Leonora where we'll stay 2 nights. It's a friendly little park and I was suprised to meet Trish, formerly from Camperdown and sister-in-law to Stuart and Denise who had the Kilarney Hotel and now run it as a motel. Russ and I know them and their family well.

Mount Magnet

Yesterday we lazed around for the morning, then drove out to The Granites (not the same The Granites we saw in Meekatharra) and the remains of a former mining town Lennonville.

The Granites


The Granites is an aboriginal site a few ks out of town and absolutely huge. We just drove on and on through very photogenic outcrops of granite over an area of many hundreds of acres.


When we thought we must be at the end of it all, we'd turn a corner and find something else to stop and climb or take a photo of. There are rock paintings, wells and secret places, but we couldn't find any of them. It was an enjoyable couple of hours poking around.



Not much remains of Lennonville apart from the old rail platform, a lot of broken glass and bits of rusty iron and a few mine shafts.

Today we made some lunch and went to Big Bell-another mining town site. It was created in 1936 and wound up in 1956 so it wasn't very old. It was interesting though. We figure the houses must have been sold for removal as there are heaps of concrete slabs still on the ground and there is most of a church and the hospital foundations and a huge hotel. The hotel once boasted the longest bar in WA and is in fairly good condition considering it is open to the weather and people to wander around.

Big Bell Hotel



Walga Rock


After lunch we went on to Walga Rock to view some rock art. I wasn't expecting the rock to be as large as it was or the art so interesting. After viewing the art, we took a drive around the rock-we travelled over 4 1/2 ks. It's one of a number of granite rocks in the area, but is the biggest we saw. It's not as big as Ayers Rock, but it was almost as imposing and wonderful to visit when you are the only people there.



On the way home we made a detour to a meteor site. I'd never heard of it, so wasn't suprised to find out it is the smallest known in Australia with a diameter of 21metres! Now that's a claim to fame!

Shearer's Quarters at the Abandoned Station


We travelled 300ks today-80 was sealed, the rest was on gravel mine, or station roads (which were mostly in excellent condition). We drove right through two station homesteads, one abandoned, one inhabited, we saw sheep, emus, goats, eagles and on the way home, heaps of kangaroos. It was a really, really great day out through lots of beautiful country.

Stone Cottage Near Mount Magnet

Meekatharra

Sunset Over Peace Gorge (The Granites)


We stayed two nights in Meekatharra. There's not much there, but I hate just driving on and on and on-I'm just not up to it mentally I don't think.

Meekatharra was another mining town and while there's one mine on the outskirts of town, I'd say most fly in-fly out to work it. At it's peak, the town had a population of a couple of thousand-now days it's about 200 and most are aboriginal. The school tries hard with competitions, give aways and animals, to get the kids to school, but it doesn't seem to work. The park owner asked a couple of kids outside the shop this morning why they woeren't at school and the older one (maybe 9 or 10) said "we don't go to school".

With the closing of the mines, the town is trying to promote tourism. They have produced a few good brochures and some well signed walks and drives around town. On our first night, we went out to the Peace Gorge on sunset, then back to the lookout just as it went down. The lookout is built on one of the mine tailings.

Along Meekatharra Creek



The next day we did a three kilometre walk along the Meekatharra Creek, looking at various points of interest along the way. It was a pleasant walk and we really enjoyed the way someone had written the material on the signs.

In the afternoon we took a drive out to the airport (which is built to service 737s if they need to be diverted from Perth)and the RFDS station, visiting a couple of old mines, the old hospital site, the BOM office and Globalstar on the way. Globalstar is one of three sites in Aus that transmit our mobile phone calls around the world via satellites orbiting the earth.

Globalstar


Along the Great Northern Highway


This morning we left just before 10 and drove to Mount Magnet. We stopped for a few hours in Cue where we took a walk around the town, had lunch then drove on to the old hospital ruins and th Gt Fingal Mine office.

Cue Police Station, Court, Post Office
Old Hospital Ruins



Cue was another important gold mining town and has some lovely old buildings in the main street. The shire building has a really good photographic display of the areas history that we took a look at.

Abandoned Offices of Gt Fingal Mine



Tonight we are in Mount Magnet. The park is small, friendly, very clean and cost us $18 which is so cheap. After we'd set up, we took a drive round town (5 minutes) then went to the IGA supermarket. It used to be owned by a couple (Des and Gaile) we met in Streaky Bay SA this March. They sold it over two years ago and I had to laugh when I noticed the register computers both still say "Hello Gaile". They were smart to sell when they did as all the mines have moved out now-the only mine left is 100ks down the road.

Tomorrow we are off to look at Walga Rock Art Site-the largest art site in WA.

Newman to Meekatharra

Wild Flowers at the Revolving Restaurant


We enjoyed our 3 days and four nights in Newman. Like I said, I really enjoyed the park and the town had more than enough services to satisfy us.

On our second day we took a drive out to the local water supply Opthalmia Dam and then on to Kalgan Pool. The dam is very pretty and a 4WD track up a steep little hill gave gave excellent views of it and the surrounding country. We got a great look at a mine blast across the dam while we were there.
Opthalmia Dam


After stopping at the dam, we headed back the way we came and on to Kaglan Pool. We turned right onto an excellent road we'd got a permit for and travelled along the railway line as we were supposed to, but couldn't find the road under the railway line. On and on (and on) we travelled, until the rail line stopped and the mines finished and the aboriginal land started. So back around we went. Reading the map, we crossed at one of the two level crossings and took a hard left and headed to the pool. The sign to the pool was missing, but "that happens". We drove about 15ks but instead of heading to the hills, we seemed to follow the railway line. Finally we arrived at a GATE. As it happedned an ambulance had just gone through and the driver was shutting the gate. He waited for us and when we explained we were lost, said that he'd guessed that. We said we'd turn back but he waved us through explaining we'd better be careful as we were going through an active mine site, but it would put us on the Marble Bar Road in moments. It did and we realised we'd taken a wrong turn coming out of the dam and forgotten that that bit of the Marble Bar road was sealed unlike the good mine road we'd found!

So, once again we headed out along the Marble Bar Road, made the right turn under the railway line, found the sign to Kaglan Pool and managed to lose our way again and end up up in the hills on a degraded overgrown 4WD track.

It Looked OK, But Wasn't a Couple of Ks Later!



So back again to the railway line where we eventually found the second sign to the pool. Off we went only to decide after 13ks of huge corregations and a boat motor banging around in the back, to turn around, go home and have a glass of wine.

Yesterday we decided to go see the Aboriginal rock etchings 73ks back towards Tom Price. We stopped along the way at Silent Gorge-it really is silent and the colours in the rock were amazing.

Silent Gorge


The art site isn't sign posted (not unusual for Aboriginal sites we've discovered)except by a pole with a pink ribbon tied to it, but we'd spotted the turn on the way in to Newman on the day we arrived. Well, guess what, there'd been roadworks in the area, the pole and its pink ribbon had been knocked over and we missed it. It wasn't until we were 13 ks down the road we thought to check the speedo (just talking and looking around), turn round and go back.

Rock Art Site


It was well worth it. We were the only ones there, the etchings were easy to access in one small area and were amazing. We sat on a large river boulder, ate our lunch and just looked at etchings that have been there for tens of thousands of years.



This morning we packed up and drove the 420ks to Meekatharra. We both agree we have never seen so many trucks, passed so many over width trucks or had move off the road and stop as massive mine trucks and equipment were driven by us. I think we saw a new mine being outfitted today. We have seen trucks of all sizes , mine equipement of all sizes and shapes, rail trucks, rail truck wheels, and dongas being hauled. We saw trcukloads of small vehicles too-new mini busses, 4wds, fire trucks, ambulances. It makes the days we've travelled across the Nullarbor seem quiet almost! After visiting a few mines, it's been amazing to see all the pretty colours new equipment comes in. I don't think it takes too long before everything turns basic brown. It was a big day for road kill too with the road littered with dead roos, cows and eagles.

Newman

A Pretty Place for Some Repairs


We are now in Newman for 4 nights. It was a relatively short drive of 255ks from Tom Price to here yesterday and very pretty through this part of the Pilbara. We joined the Great Northern Highway about 100ks out of town and were amazed at the instant increase in traffic-mostly road trains and mine vehicles. On the way here, one of the straps that tie the boat down snapped and we had to stop fix it but it isn't much of a worry as the boat is actually bolted on to the roof rack. It's a bit like gloves on a food handler-just for looks!

Newman boasts the largest open cut iron ore mine in the world and is found in the largest shire in the world. Things are BIG out here.

Big


The caravan park we are staying in was much cheaper than Tom Price ($25 compared to $33) and although it has only 25 tourist sites and about 200 rooms in dongas for mine employees, it has a nice feel about it. The 6 washing machines are marked NO WORKCLOTHES or WORKCLOTHES and there are 4 dryers (I've never seen so many driers in a park before). Our site is right by the laundry and clotheslines and last night one guy had hung out his washing and had a whole line of socks. I haven't seen so many socks since the boys left home. We never wear shoes and socks these days.

After setting up we went down to the shopping centre. It's a nice enough little one with a Chinese restuarant, pizza and Chicken Treat and a huge Woolies. It was difficult to get into there and not feel like we had to buy a months worth of groceries before moving on. And amazing to think they get fresh meat, fruit, veg and herbs everyday. It will be pretty much like that now apparently until we get to Perth as we are now on the main highway to Broome and many of the other mining towns.

This morning we got up and did a mine tour. It was really pretty good and quite different from the other two we've taken. This took us through the work shop areas and tyre stores before going to look at the open cut. It is supposedly the largest mine of its kind in the world.

Bigger


After lunch we went 4wding out to the Revolving Restaurant. I originally thought that it was pretty impressive that a tiny town like Newman should have a revolving restaurant out in the ranges, but it turned out to be the name of a hill that gives 360 degree views of the Pilbara. I'm sure the girl behind the desk was smirking as she patiently explained that to us.....