Warwicks Wander Our Great South Land: Part 4

After leaving the old gold mining area of Paynes Find we headed in a southerly direction until we were about 35k north of the town of Wubin where the first wheat farms began to appear, though in this northern area of the wheatbelt they appeared to us as if they would be marginal. We had already decided to head south rather than take the shorter route towards Moora in case the road was still not fully passable due to the recent rains. We certainly didn’t want to get bogged. Thus we stopped for the night at Jibberding Nature Reserve and had a wonderful walk where we came across the historic well (caged off for safety reasons) and Jibberding Rock. The sun was shining on something a couple of hundred metres away so we walked over to see what it was. Someone had put up a memorial to their father, using a blue Truck Parking sign, an Australian flag, a painted rock and an old truck wheel. It would appear that this fellow had been a truckie. Before we went to bed we had everything ready, including the stabilisers tucked away and the gas turned off, just in case the rains came during the night and we needed to make a quick exit so we didn’t get bogged.

Campsite, Jibberding Nature Reserve

Well, it didn’t rain that night, but we had an early breakfast and were away by 9.00 am. That’s rather early for us. We stopped at Dalwallinu for a coffee and, by the time we had finished, there were dark clouds building ominously towards the south and west—the direction we were heading. The wind, which had been with us from a northerly direction since the previous day, picked up in intensity, though still from a northerly direction, which was good for us as long as the road kept heading south. However, we hadn’t gone too far down the road passed the township of Pithara when the rains belted down. We were able to pull off into a parking bay and rode out the worst of the rain and wind, which didn’t last too long. I was quite confident in the ability of both vehicles to withstand what was happening around us and so we set off once again, though at a slower pace as I was mindful of wind and rain. We turned off the Great Northern Highway at Miling so we could make our way to Moora for Saturday’s parkrun. There is an RV spot behind the Council Chambers at Moora at which you can stay for up to three nights if you have a fully self-contained RV, though we only wanted to stay until after parkrun and a coffee with the locals. It continued to rain, quite heavily at times and we could hear the water running into the drains within the parking area.

After parkrun and coffee we headed towards Badgingarra driving through a variety of country—from farms to bushland. There were many small, rolling hills to drive over and, usually, at the top of each hill there was a wonderful vista opening before our eyes of farmland and bushland. The farms were showing the benefit of recent rains and those that had already been sown were certainly green. On a dead tree a Goshawk was sitting on a branch, but we couldn’t stop for a photo because the road didn’t give us that opportunity. Likewise, we weren’t able to pull over for the wildflowers beginning to show. Just before reaching Badgingarra we stopped at the Vern Westerbrook Nature Reserve for a cheese, tomato and lettuce sandwich before wandering slowly along the track—slowly because we were still sore and tired from this morning’s run. We couldn’t find any orchids but yellow, red, pink and white wildflowers were beginning to show. After the recent rains there surely will be a great display in coming weeks. We discovered why there had been so many WWII army camps around Moora. Because the Japanese were our allies in WWI and had been escorting our vessels they knew the area and had even used Jurien Bay during WWII for their submarines to recharge their batteries. The concern was that the Japanese would attack Jurien Bay during WWII so a number of army camps, with some 20,000 troops, were set up and in this Nature Reserve machine guns had been set up in slit trenches, the remains of which can still be seen.

Sculpture of Machine Gunner, Vern Westerbrook Nature Reserve

Grass Tree, Vern Westerbrook Nature Reserve

After completing our wander we drove into Badgingarra, booked into the Tourist Park and met up with Ian Cowdell, as we did 5 years ago. Val had a coffee while I had a lime milkshake and a chilli beef pie. As we were going back to the van we saw a white peahen—I didn’t even know that they existed.

White Peahen, Badgingarra Road House

Flora, Badgingarra NP

Panorama of Badgingarra

Flora, Badgingarra NP

Banksia, Badgingarra NP

Leaving Badgingarra, after having walked through part of the Badgingarra NP, we drove further south. The road for quite some distance was lined with the most beautiful Banksia trees with their pink flowers that had a white tip. We decided to make for the little community of Wannamal and stay overnight in their free camping spot on the site of the old school. We had paused here five years ago on our way to Mt Magnet. As there had been no churches anywhere where we were today we missed out on meeting with some of God’s people. As night fell, Val really found it to be very cold.

The next morning we followed the Wannamal Walk Trail looking at all the historical sites. Apart from some markers and a bit of foundation work in some places, next-to-nothing remains of the majority of what had been on these sites. But it was so interesting to walk the trail and examine the different sites. What struck me was the Old Wannamal Cemetery. Situated on four acres of sandy land it was gazetted in 1912, but is now closed. I found it strange that it was divided into six religious areas, even though there was no mention of a church building in town (though the Church of England did hold services in the old hall). Between 1912 and 1920 six people were buried there (three of whom were children, one a visitor from Italy, the schoolmaster from Mogumber [born 1881 in Scotland, he drowned leaving a young widow and five children, the youngest being just six weeks old] and one other person). However, the exact location of each of these plots is today unknown. For most of them, the funeral service was read by the local school teacher and it is presumed that that was because they had the status of being the only government employee in the area. The Cemetery Committee last met in 1954 and in 1997/97 the Wannamal community re-fenced the area and placed granite boulders within on which to mount memorial plaques to commemorate former residents, soldiers killed in war and those known to have been buried there.

The next morning, after writing a note of thanks to the community of Wannamal for the provision of the rest area and making a $10 donation, we headed north to Mogumber and then east towards Yerecoin. However, we had a longish stop at New Norcia to further explore this unique monastic town. This time, however, after looking over some of the buildings; spending time in the cemetery; purchasing a loaf of bread and a Boston bun; having a coffee in the hotel; we, after a bit of hesitation, took the River Walk, along the banks of the Moore River. What a great decision that was. It was well signposted with distances and times to the various points of interest that were part of the community. I was particularly interested by the fact that the monks put down some 200 wells in what had been regarded as an arid area. The result was a magnificent farming community, and we admired the wonderful farms from that point on as we made our way eastward. A sad fact about the cemetery was that the Aborigines who lived and worked at the mission had their graves marked with a simple wooden cross (nameless as far as I could see) in contrast to those of non Aboriginals.

Cemetery, New Norcia

Aboriginal Graves, New Norcia

Graves of Abbots, New Norcia

We then made our way to Yerecoin where we stopped in town for lunch, followed by a walk over the road to get a hot chocolate from the local shop that had near-empty shelves that bore testimony to the smallness of the community and their shopping needs. It was then on through rolling hills until we arrived at the town of Wongan Hills, where we booked into the local caravan park for two nights. We so loved this place that we booked a further night as well, giving us the opportunity to explore the area in greater detail. We wandered along the Christmas Rock Walk Trail and through the Gathercole Nature Reserve. Both of these were wonderful places to walk. One of the surprising things I learnt from our walk on our last day in Wongan Hills when we drove up to Mt O’Brien Lookout was that during the 1999/2000 season there were 832,854 tonnes of wheat harvested in the Wongan Hills Cooperative Bulk Handling District, which could make a staggering 1,686,527,325 loaves of bread.