After a few days in Geraldton for sightseeing, restocking, car servicing and even a cinema visit (Last Cab to Darwin). We packed ourselves up and moved east to Mullewa a area renowned for its wildflowers. We hit wildflower country about an hour’s drive from Geraldton. Broad acre farming, cleared land, crop growing, sheep grazing, a train line that parrelled the highway and of course colour, colour, colour by the side of the bitumen. We found a free camp at “The Waterfall” (dry of course) on the Northern Loop drive about 8kms out of Mullewa Township.
A look at the town map showed us where the wildflower walks were so off we went. It was a hot 2km walk for not much to see, a little disappointing.
Next day we went a little north to Pindar, renowned for the special wreath flower and we were not disappointed.
Then onto the Southern Loop, drive through old abandoned towns with stories to tell of days gone by and then back to camp. Mullewa is a great tidy, friendly town doing it tough.
Saturday we moved on to Yalgoo, Mt Magnet and a free camp with a difference at Windsor. It was just like setting up camp in someone’s garden, wildflowers everywhere. But you couldn’t sit outside because of flies, we had to light the campfire to make smoke to drive the flies away for happy hour. It was one of those places in time, after dark there was a perfect mild night, great campfire and great night sky.
Sandstone was our next stop, what a great, tidy town. Great pride by the Shire and residents in displaying their history through the town. The loop drive around town took us to an old Brewery, an escapement called London Bridge and an old crushing Battery.
This area is on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, but is known as the Goldfields Region of the State. It has great displays along the way of goldfields history, Agnew, Leinster and Leonora. About 2km through Leonora we stayed at the “Sons of Gwalia Mine Museum” perched high on a hill that overlooked the open cut mine and the now abandoned township of Gwalia. We stayed a couple of nights, there was just so much to see and all for free.
We came east to get away from the coast for the WA school holidays and have been pleasantly surprised at the history and culture out here.
From Gwalia we went south to Menzies, once again a gold mining town. It has Lake Ballard within its Shire, a salt lake that has the “Inside Australia” display on it. Well know artist Antony Gormley recreated 51 sculptures of Menzies inhabitants as a 50th Anniversary of the Arts WA in 2003. The figures are strategically placed through this striking landscape. We camped here for two nights and it was different. The striking white of the salt lake, small islands with low vegetation dotted through the lake and the prominent silhouettes of the sculptures at sunrise, sunset were stunning.
Kalgoorlie Boulder
WA has such a great outlook on travellers, there always seems to be a free camp in the middle of town even if only for 24 hrs. Great for restocking, laundry and general sightseeing. We wanted to stay a couple of extra days so moved 10 kms out of town to Lake Douglas. A few days R-N-R, the men were booked in for a super pit mine tour in a couple of days and the ladies were going to walk through the shops. Shopping, we found the old town struggling, as we walked the wide streets with some special old buildings, there was not a lot of people walking or shopping in the main street area.
The men were very impressed with their tour of the mine. They went deep down in the pit, saw big boy’s toys and came home with a list of statistics. The KCGM Gold Mine is the main employer in town.
