Exploring the Goldfields of eastern WA

What an adventure we've been on since crossing the WA border! 

Cuppa and Campfire on the Nullabor

As always, we enjoyed our days on the Nullabor crossing, but we had a deadline to meet - parkrun in Kalgoorlie on Saturday and the car to be serviced on Monday - and so we booked into a caravan park on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie for four nights. Anyone who knows me knows that I much prefer bush camping to caravan parks and I much prefer rural areas to cities, but we could have spent much more time in Kalgoorlie as there is SO much to see. But first - Kalgoorlie parkrun! On Friday late afternoon, after parking the caravan, we found the location and walked the course in the gathering gloom. 

Wildflower in the woodlands

The sun sets and then darkness falls much faster than in Tassie! We discovered another 'undulating' course which incorporates the hills that give wonderful views of the flat landscape beyond the park, but it winds through bushland that displays the  beautiful salmon gums and other trees and bushes that are endemic to the woodlands. The woodlands of south eastern WA are the most extensive temperate woodlands left in the world. Having bought up fruit and vegies we returned to the van for dinner and a good night's sleep before parkrun on Saturday morning. I spent almost the entire 5km talking with a local runner who works at the Museum and what wonderful company she was! Having rained overnight, I found the surface very slippery and was concerned for Steve who was running, but neither of us came a cropper! 

Salmon gum

Rocking the Runphoria

Kalgoorlie parkrun through the woodlands

Finishing 5km of great chatting

Unfortunately there was no post parkrun coffee so we went back to the van for brekkie and to do the washing. Once finished we took off to explore, firstly going to see the Superpit, and what an extraordinary sight that is! Quite mind-blowing, but I find it even more mindblowing as to what might happen to Kalgoorlie when this vast opencut mine is completely depleted of gold! The estimated time frame is 2021 and that is very soon.

The Superpit

Look at the size comparison

There are huge mansions alongside abject poverty here in Kalgoorlie from my observations. After the superpit we went into Boulder and walked the main street. Here there were many permanently closed  shops, and following the earthquake of 2010 many of the grand old pubs had so much damage that they too are permanently closed. So many historic buildings were damaged beyond repair. 

During the night the rain came again and it stayed all day Sunday. We went to the little Lutheran Church in Boulder as planned and there we met up with someone from the Auld Kirk in Sidmouth with whom we had had a meal one Sunday when Steve was preaching there! 

Kalgoorlie Boulder Lutheran Church

However we weren't able to go to a working mine after the service as the rain was just too heavy. In the afternoon, trying to dodge the rain, we wandered through the historic cemetery that had so many children buried there in the 4 years in which it was operational that it was heartbreaking. How amazing were those early pioneers! 

So very many graves by number only

Again dodging the rain, we went to see the end of that amazing engineering feat of over 100 years ago - the bringing of water via pipes from Perth's Mundaring Dam to Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The reservoir is covered but the water comes up out of a fountain and pours down into the reservoir. What a precious resource water is.

Kalgoorlie

When Monday dawned, it was good to see that the rain had gone. We dropped the car at Mazda at 8.00 a.m. and walked the streets of Kalgoorlie until 10.00 a.m. when the Museum opened. Those grand old buildings as well as the smaller, crumbling edifices tell the story of the past, and that was continued in the couple of hours spent in the Museum. I would highly recommend a visit to this museum. 

There is a lot of art work around the streets

Paddy

The original Mulga Bill bicycle in the museum

In the museum grounds

 We shopped for supplies after picking up the car and on Tuesday morning set off early along the Goldfields Highway heading north. Now we were on a road we'd not travelled and everything interested us.

We arrived in the small community of Menzies to enquire if the road out to Lake Ballard was open or not after the rain. Menzies impressed us, not just for the tidiness or the history, but also the friendliness of the inhabitants we met. We purchased real coffee from the Achievable Outback Cafe and had a long conversation with the proprietor who came from Ballarat. We had a walk around town marvelling at the metal cutout interpretive panels that told both the aboriginal stories and the European stories of this previously large town. We as a nation could learn a lot from these residents about racial harmony and mutual respect. 

James Brennan OAM

Menzies Council Chambers and Centaph

When we finally made it out to Lake Ballard we set up camp overlooking what is usually a salt lake and then went out onto the lake to look at the sculptures, but there was no way we were going to be able to do the trail. Instead of walking on salt we were sinking and sliding and sticking to clay! I had taken two cameras with me but rapidly realised the folly of this. After taking a couple of the statues we made it back to shore but I was at least a few centimetres taller as I had SO much clay sticking to my shoes it was like walking on the old platform shoes we wore in the 70's! 

No salt in sight

  

Steve decided to go for a run and I went for a walk but with one camera only! I went away from the camping area to another part of the lake and enjoyed the late afternoon goldenness before venturing onto the Lake where I could see pools of water and stunning reflections. As this was away from the trail between the sculptures the surface had not been chewed up and so I did not have the difficulty of earlier in the afternoon. 

When Steve returned from his run he told me that there was water further out in the lake and that the reflections that he could see from the hill he'd run up were stunning. I stood outside and marvelled at the sky, taking some shots for a star trail, just to check I still could do it.

A comet crossed the sky

In the early morning, after a good night's sleep, we sat outside to watch the sunrise but very soon needed to go inside the van as the myriads of flies arose from their night-time stupor. We could see one person out on the lake who was walking more easily than the previous afternoon and so we set out across a slowly hardening surface to find the sculptures that were in the water. There was still the slipping and sliding but it was much easier than only the night before and then I discovered that it was easier again when walking in the water. That early morning was magical with the wide open silence, the reflections of the clouds and sky, along with the sculptures, and just the two of us out on the lake! 

Steve rolled up his camp trousers to stop the clay sticking to them

Salt crystals began reforming

We climbed the hill in the middle of the lake and loved the views, but not those pesky flies! One thing we noted as the sun got hotter was the reappearing of salt crystals. 

Lots of people have used the rocks at the base of the hill to write their names but the smily face was much better

Half way up the climb the reflections were magnificent but glary

All tracks led to one accessiblesculpture

The flies were terrible

After a late breakfast and chatting to others who went out in numbers later, and churned up the clay again, we decided we'd walk to Snake Hill Lookout. Steve knew we were 1km in from the main road and we thought the sign had said that the lookout was one kilometre from our turn off and so we set off with drinks and nibbles as the sun beat down, but now the wind had come up and it had a cooling effect. We saw that we were wrong about the distance from the turn off - it was 3 km but we decided to go for the walk anyway. A couple of mine vehicles whizzed past us and waved, we saw our first cattle grazing in the bush beside the road [despite having been warned about wandering cattle and kangaroos ever since the border crossing] and we found a couple of bushes bearing wildflowers as we walked up the road. We'd decided we'd go to the crest and then turn for home, but as I reached the crest first I saw the turn off for the lookout and so I headed up that dirt road. I also saw that there was a build up of clouds to the west and they were looking a bit angry. However, the 360 degree views made the longer walk worthwhile and the wind had dropped the temperature to a pleasant walking temperature. When Steve reached the top he realised that he had some intermittent phone coverage and so we checked on a few things, but then we decided to high tail it out for the 4.25kms back to the van as those angry black clouds, unseen before we got to the top of the hill, were rapidly descending upon us and to the north we could see the rain falling heavily. 

What a storm

The flowers beside the road
The clouds showed nothing of what was to come

Back down off the hill and onto the road we hurried as fast as my little legs would carry me and then the rain hit us! I had a cotton shirt on and my back felt as if it was being hit by hail, but on we walked becoming more and more saturated. We were on the long treeless straight when a loud and long roll of thunder sounded all around us and I admit to the fear that shuddered through me as we were the tallest things around on that stretch of the road ... and I prayed! Thankfully, within minutes, we heard a vehicle on that lonely road and a young fellow slowed down and asked if we'd like a lift. Would we like a lift - what a question! Jumping up into his cabin we found that he'd been slowed down by a blown out tyre, that he came from a Mt Magnet station and that our PIM friend Surendra had visited him, and he kindly drove us the two and a half kilometres we had left back to the van before he ventured on his wet way. 

Our lifesaver going on his way

We couldn't believe our eyes. The drying surface of the lake that had started to harden that morning was now covered in water! The next morning was still overcast and the lake was quite ethereal with some mistiness and silvery light shining as the sun attempted to break through the clouds. We may not have seen Lake Ballard and the sculpture trail in its normal state but we were oh so privileged to see it as it was. 

Back into Menzies we enjoyed another coffee, looked at a few more of the historic landmarks and then drove north to camp at Niagara Dam and do the walks there that we'd read about.

The almost empty Niagara Dam is all that remains of a town that lived for a short space in time as people dug for gold and then departed once the gold had run out. The dam wall had been built between the breakaway rock formation and would hold quite an amount of water after heavy rains when in use. A little water remains today but we think that it might be leaking through. We camped beside another section of the Breakaways and, after setting everything up, we went walking. We started on the Breakaway track but in the heavy downpour that arrived we lost the track across the scree. Later, standing atop one rock formation Steve saw the track again when the sun shone again and we scrambled across to it. The water on the gum trunks glistened with intense colour in the bright sunshine as we wandered the track and then up across the dam wall and around the top of the U shaped breakaway.

Roast beef and vegies made a wonderful meal

Steve set the fire for me to cook our evening meal

In the morning we left and drove to Kookynie, "a living ghost town". We walked the from former street to former street looking at fallen bricks where the Town Hall used to be, walls standing where one of the pubs was located and a lone chimney where a home once was, and all the while there was the relentless noise of machinery working to extract what old miners couldn't get by the old methods and the sound of the generator at the pub. About 20 people live in Kookynie today but it must be a very lonely existence.

From there we drove along the dirt road to Malcolm, another former mining town that no longer exists except as a name on a map. We had this road completely to ourselves and when we came to a narrowing of the road to single track running adjacent to the railway line as we crossed Lake Raeside  we just had to stop in the middle of the road for a photo! We couldn't draw over to the side as the clay was very wet and sticky. While Steve captured the shots he wanted I went for a walk up and back along the middle of the road beside the rail. Motorists are told to slow down and I suppose the train drivers do the same as the two converge for just over half a kilometre. It would have been exciting to see a train in such close proximity! At Malcolm we hit the highway across to Laverton but we turned west through Leonora to Gwalia. I had seen and read so much about Gwalia but all I can say is, do yourself a favour and go to see this ghost town! Herbert Hoover who became the 31st president of the USA was the Mine manager in the early days and his home, which cost £600 when normal houses of that size cost £100, is beautifully maintained atop the open pit. The original Oregon pine floorboards are spectacular. The day the mine closed in 1963 the town went from 1500 people to 50! Everybody just left everything where it was! Fortunately people with vision in the 70's decided to restore the town as a living museum. We spent hours there but that was not sufficient to take it all in. We really needed a couple of days but we'd given ourselves a deadline to be in Mt Magnet by Saturday afternoon and so we kept going, only refuelling in Leonora and driving into the setting sun past even more mines and beware the cattle and kangaroos signs. We eventually pulled up in a rest area just south of Leinster for the night. 

The verandah of Hoover's magnificent house

Hoover's home was 6 times as expensive as similar homes

A miner's house was very different to Hoover's

It was a very, very cold night and when we woke early there was a frost on the ground. We had decided to leave early, at sunrise, and drive for an hour or more before stopping for breakfast, and this we did when the iced windscreen had been blasted by the hot air of the car air conditioner. Later on we stopped at Sandstone, a town that now only has 100 residents with the demise of the mining and the wool industry of the area, but what a peaceful little town it is, and so beautifully kept. We spent well over an hour walking the streets and enjoying the ambience of the place, but we still had another 150 kilometres to go to Magnet.

A breakaway on  the way to Sandstone

Sandstone Golf Club putting "green"

Sandstone school

The school has a sign the reads:
"Might be small, got it all"

 Another stop saw us have our lunch and then we started to see the evidence of the heavy rains they'd had as there were great pools of water lying  everywhere and new life growing rapidly from the stony soil where the water had receded. At one very large roadside pool we pulled over and I found 7 different types of wildflowers already blooming, but we'd also seen the first of the tall white everlasting daisies growing from the red soil as we'd passed by. Hopefully there will be a wonderful wildflower season.

We arrived in Mt Magnet safely and definitely surprised our Presbyterian Inland Mission friends when we rocked up to church on Sunday morning. We've enjoyed our time in Mt Magnet before when Steve has filled in for the church there and I have taken the Sunday School and so we were thrilled to be able to share in the end of term Sunday School Picnic after the morning service. 

Sunday School picnic

Sunday School picnic

On Monday we spent the day  with Surendra and May, and as one of our hopes for this journey is to encourage our PIM personnel, I feel sure that we have been a blessing to them at this time by their words and actions. We loved having time with the three children too.

On Tuesday morning we went for an early morning run and had a leisurely pack up and leave driving south. We found more water as we went and a few clumps of everlasting daisies growing. However, we missed the bush camp entrance and therefore came on to Payne's Find where we enjoyed an amazing near sunset walk, revelling in the red soil that deepened as the sun dipped. The old Gold Battery has been turned into a tourist museum, but not yet being wildflower season it is not open.

After Steve had gone for a run before brekkie we had a leisurely breakfast and pack up, filled some more diesel into the tanks, had a coffee at the Tavern and Roadhouse and headed south. Before long we were wondering if we may need to change plans and stick to the sealed roads as we saw more and more water lying around and lots of very deep wheel marks in the clay. We stopped at a very large body of water to take photos and understood why the main northern highway two days ago still had that the road between Payne's Find and Wubin was 'Open with Caution', but by today there was no water across the road, just lots beside it. 

Having seen the clay and the water our decision was made and we continued south stopping for lunch at a rest area and decided on a site for stopping the night just a few kms further south, and what a wonderful camp spot it was. We had a 4 km walk around the campground, spoke with the only other campers who are from the north west of Tassie like we are and were amazed at the historic well full of water and the Jibberding Rock with its rockpools. We are just out of the goldfields and have re-entered  farming country, but we have thoroughly enjoyed this past fortnight seeing the arid country those mining pioneers tried to tame to dig that golden treasure. Some places continue with huge machines but it is the ghost towns and the mining remnants that live in my memory!