me & my monkey

We had great night at the pub last night, excellent quality meals a tad on the big side. Bob found his coveted Mixed Grill so he was happy. We stayed there until around nine before heading back to our free camp in the RV Park. This morning we left Cue a little later than we would normally depart a town, but this one has caught our imagination. We cruised around the few streets in the town checking out the historic buildings before heading into the Op shop for the mandatory poke around then off north again (we had to let an extra wide load go through first – it was a day of wide loads on the highway)

We arrived in Meekatharra just before lunch and Bob headed to the servo for a gas refill while I headed to the only tyre service in town, only to be told that there was no tyre fitter at work today and no-one else in the town could help us. Looks like we will have to wait until Capricorn or Newman to get a replacement spare. We found a shady spot for lunch before heading back up to the main street to visit the museum where Bob attempted to find information on his maternal Great Grandfather and his Grandfather, who had travelled together to Meekatharra to try their luck in the gold mines. Unfortunately Bob’s information was scant and the museum didn’t really have any records of worth.

We decided to refuel and hit the road north to the Gascoyne River (South Branch) to freecamp in the rest area there. On the way we crossed the 26th parallel and we can definitely feel the warmth increasing (it reached 28*C today). Also noticeable was the amount of wildflowers on the roadside, all steadily building up.

We reached our camp at around 4 o’clock and gathered some firewood for a nice fire for a quiet night around the campfire.

Well as we all know nothing goes quite to plan on these trips. We left Mount Magnet after refuelling and headed north along the Great Northern Highway with the intention of going to Cue and from there out to Walga Rock (extremely extensive example of aboriginal rock art painted on Australia’s second biggest monolith) and to the ghost town of Big Bell which is situated near the Big Bell Gold Mine. However, an errant set of pliers laying on the highway at a point where on coming traffic didn’t allow me to dodge it, managed to pierce the sidewall of one tyre on the rear right hand side. This means that we can’t go out on those gravel roads without a spare and Cue, with its population of 300, doesn’t have a tyre service (or much of anything else other than impressive old buildings)

We plan to head to the pub for tea tonight and we will free camp in the RV Overnight camp area at the back of the main street before moving on to Meekatharra tomorrow to get a replacement tyre. Looks like we will just have to come back here at some later time. Still, as we are well prepared, changing wheels comes relatively easy (even if it seems they get heavier as I get older)

One unusual building is the rather grand looking Masonic Lodge, built in 1892 from corrugated iron. It was active up until 1979 when the local lodge was disbanded due to lack of membership.

It seems a shame that all these old buildings are quickly reaching their use by date although one entrepreneur is trying to let shops with the assurance that the owner is renovating all the shops in the building. By the look of the building from the rear lane, he may be being a little optimistic.

Poor old Mount Magnet, established as a gold mining centre since 1891, is losing its shine at a quickening rate. When we were last here it boasted a Chemist Shop, Foodworks, a seven day a week hardware shop, newsagent and cafes. Sadly the Chemist Shop is gone, the hardware shop opens at reduced hours. The newsagent /post office is still going but only one cafe remains and its temporarily closed, at least the Foodworks opens Sunday as well. Of the three hotels only one seems to operate any normal trading hours, the others looking eerily abandoned but one appears to have some accommodation available.

As the Cafe was our intended destination for the Big Breakfast we had to improvise and cook up bacon, eggs and baked beans for lunch. We’ve enjoyed the rest day, taking the opportunity to buy some groceries and to top up our fresh water tanks, as well as check over the vehicles before we move on tomorrow. We will head North into new territory for all of us, exploring the township of Cue and the outlying attractions of the area. Tomorrow marks three weeks on the road and we’ve ticked up about 4000 kms. to this point.

We left our camp after a night around the campfire watching distant thunderstorms to the south of us. We moved on to see Sandstone where we stopped for morning tea at the old Post Office Cafe and after coffee and cake, we booked our sites at the Mount Magnet Caravan Park for the next two nights so we could reminisce about Turtle’s demise four years ago.

We couldn’t get a powered site for both nights as apparently the Park is booked out tonight (what the??) but we will have power tomorrow night. We arrived in time to have lunch then it was hit the showers and do the laundry. As it’s Saturday, all the shops are shut (when I say all I mean the 4 shops) and only the Foodworks will be open tomorrow morning. Even our planned big breakfast at the cafe had to be abandoned because its closed for the month of August while Len recovers from his operation (well that’s according to the sign on the door – hope he’s doing well). I guess its feet up time and sitting in the sun with the strong breeze keeping it just right.

Since leaving Kalgoorlie the weather has been mainly sunny in the mid 20s, although we got a sprinkle of rain while cooking tea, just enough to be a nuisance but didn’t stop us sitting out around the fire admiring the stars all night

We left our roadside camp and headed North. The industrial scale of the mining in this area is staggering. We passed one mine, Thunderbox, whose mullock heaps ran for 5kms alongside the road. At almost every turn there is another vast mine beside the road all the way to Leinster. Leinster itself is mining town set up by BHP for its Nickel mining operation nearby. We refuelled and then decided to head on up to Wiluna.

Wiluna sits at the western end of the Gun Barrel Highway and is the point from which Alfred Canning and his party set out in 1906 to map the longest stock route in the world.

An even more interesting story is the one associated with an aboriginal couple…

WARRI and YATUNGKA (1909-1979) (1917-1979)

Warri and Yatungka were believed to be the last of the Mandi djarra tribe and were perhaps Australia’s last desert nomads leading a traditional lifestyle. Long after the Mandildjara people (known also as Martu) had gravitated to urban settlements this couple survived for decades on their own, living on traditional hunting and fruits such as the Quandong

Warri and Yatuncka met in the 1930’s and fell in love but tribal law Toroade them from marrying decause they were the wrong match according to ‘skin group’ law. The consequences for going against this could have resulted in severe physical injury or even death. so the star-crossed lovers ran away together in the middle of the night. Living in their country in isolation, the couple had three children, one daughter died young, her two brothers survived their parents.

Despite the couples defiance and departure the MandildMarra elders had not forgotten them nor had they stopped worrying about them. In 1977 when a severe drought had dried up the waternoles elders anxious for their welfare asked for help to find the last of the nomads. Led by local elder Mudjon and white explorer Stan Gratte and party, after several weeks in the Gibson Desert the couple were found, still inseparable but close to starvation. They agreed to come in to Wiluna although they feared that they might still be punished; but the elders had forgiven them.

They stayed in Wiluna and passed away within weeks of each other in 1979.

Their deaths marked the end of a tribal lifestyle that has stretched back more than 40,000 vears

We had lunch in the town and returned on the road we had come up on, passing JWD Mines Matilda Pits, Mt Pearce Mine, construction of a vast complex at Sir Solomon. We refuelled at Leinster again and headed out along the Agnew Sandstone road to set up camp at Munjeroo East Rest Area (and pray that there is no rain tonight or we could be in a spot of bother)

We covered a lot of new ground today. We left Niagara Dam camp and headed back to the Goldfields Highway to up to Leonora from where we moved North East to Laverton approximately 190 kms toward the Warburton and The Great Central Road which stretches to Alice Springs. It’s a very active mining area with one of the biggest Nickel Cobalt mines processing ore in the middle of nowhere. The town itself is mainly an aboriginal settlement with some mining support services. It has variety of dwellings, many older types and a lot of boarded up houses. The town has a particularly sad history as there was a massacre of aborigines in the area in 1910 but all those implicated were acquitted by the white court system. It seems unfathomable that such a thing could occur a little over a hundred years ago.

We made our way back to the highway and went and visited the ghost town of Gwahlia, situated next to the vast Gwalia gold mine. We had an interesting tour through the museum and Hoover House (yes it was once occupied by a 24 year old Herbert Hoover who went on to become president of the USA) before heading North again and setting up camp on the side the road.

We left Menzies and headed out to the Inside Australia Sculptures at Lake Ballard. On the way we stopped at Menzies’ Cemetery to take in some of the tragic stories of the hard lives people led in this remote area with little medical assistance and poor sanitary conditions.

Lake Ballard didn’t disappoint, the road is now sealed from Menzies to the viewing area (53 kms) which was largely unsealed only seven years ago. Jenny and I climbed two thirds of the way up the hill but we chickened out on the last steep bit! We returned to Menzies for fuel and a feed before moving on to Niagara Dam and Kookynie.

The dam was built to provide water for the construction of the railway line and all the cement was bought in by camels. It was a pointless exercise as shortly before its completion, gold was discovered at Kookynie and the mine at that site required constant removal of water which was used locally.

We checked out Kookynie which is listed as a living ghost town, but it only had a few buildings remaining interspersed among the more recent houses (who seem to all enjoy collecting scrap metal). We returned to Niagara Dam to free camp for the night.

Turtle went in for its wheel alignment while we waited at camp. The job was completed just before lunch so we refuelled the vehicles then made our way North in blustery conditions to make our camp at h\the Menzies’ Caravan Park. It is packed with caravaners which came as a bit of a shock. Fortunately we had pre booked so our sites are secure. We plan to go out for dinner tonight at the pub.

After a cracker night at Newmans Rock watching a glorious sunset and then the full moon rising and sitting around the fire watching the stars, we rose for our first true morning in the Western Australia time zone. After having breakfast we took off early and headed onto Norseman where we refuelled and did some grocery shopping before striking out towards Coolgardie.

We had lunch on the side of the road then cruised the streets of Coolgardie admiring the old buildings. We headed up the last forty odd kilometres to Kalgoorlie and set up camp at Centennial Park (free camping for 72 hours). Bob has booked Turtle in for a wheel alignment on Monday afternoon so we’ve booked a bus tour for Monday morning. I have to chase up a new lock for the motorhome’s side door.