Across the Nullarbor: Norseman to Port Augusta. 22-28 August

The Nullarbor Plain has always, in my mind, assumed mythical proportions, the enormous space linking east and west in Australia. Consequently I had many preconceptions about it that remained to be tested.  And they certainly were.

1. The Nullarbor covers much of the distance between Norseman and Ceduna.

Incorrect. The treeless part that is actually the Nullarbor is only about 100km or so.

It is flat and treeless at Nullabor Roadhouse

2. It is remote and a lot of planning required.

Incorrect. The maximum distance apart of any 2 places is about 150 km. There is is fuel and accommodation at each place, and basic necessities can be bought.

Lots of road trains service these communities

Cocklebiddy has a sense of humour

Some of the population

3. It is dry.

Incorrect for us. It rained part of every day we were there, and in some places it had rained heavily and everything's slushy and muddy. I know it isn't always like that.

4. It is a flat and treeless expanse.

Incorrect. Much of the distance has very good plant cover, often with large trees. Plants are not sparse. Neither is it flat.The Fraser Range is near Norseman, and the Hampton Tablelands follows the coast for about 200km near the SA border. Much of the rest is undulating. However the Nullarbor does have the longest stretch of road without a bend. Known as the 90 Mile Straight it is 146.6km long.

One of the many hilly and not so treeless places

5. The wind will be behind us, blowing from the west, so we will make good time and have better fuel consumption.

Incorrect. The wind blew a gale from the south, and judging from the wind shaped trees, it usually blows from the south. There is nothing between the Nullarbor and Antarctica,  and it was obvious from the temperature.

6. It might be boring.

Incorrect. There are things to see at most of the roadhouses, and at places along the Great Australian Bight. There is also the Nullarbor Links Course, the longest golf course in the world, which required 15 stops after Kalgoorlie. Two perhaps 4 of the holes were okay, but the rest were "goat tracks".

The Bunda Cliffs are stunning

The Nullabor Links Course

As most of my preconceptions were shown to be wrong it was an interesting trip. Some of the most memorable aspects were:

The campground at Fraser Range Station which had a fully equipped camp kitchen with all utensils, plates etc, slow combustion stove, TV and all the comforts of home. Fantastic on a cold wet night.

We stayed at Old Koonalda Station, an abandoned property in a National Park. The road in was in a fairly poor state with lots of mud and puddles, and no signage, so we were a bit surprised to actually find it. It was a bit of an adventure into the relative unknown. The shearers quarters had a fireplace and with 2 other couples we had a very convivial evening around the fire and out of the wind.

Home comforts and a place for the empties as well

Another high spot was the Old Telegraph Station at Eucla, slowly being covered with sand. We decided to take a short walk out to the beach. After 20 minutes trudging throughout sandy track we reached the water and the remains other old jetty. David put his hands in the water, declared it very cold, then we walked back through the sand.

Another beautiful spot was Fowlers Bay. It was settled by 1840, which is very early by WA standards, and Edward John Eyre set off from there when he walked across the continent to Esperance in 1841. Today it is a village in decline, but has great fishing, and usually a lot of whales. We did a whale watching cruise but there were none there. We did see NZ fur seals and Australian sea lions, and a few little penguins. It was a pity as there was a camera crew on board from a caravan magazine, so they missed out as well.

Approaching the town you first see these magnificent dunes

However they are steadily encroaching on the town

The Jetty

An Australian sea lion on display

After Fowlers Bay we stopped at Smoky Bay.  Nice sunset and cheap oysters, $8 a dozen.

Smoky Bay swimming pool and town

Bringing in the oysters

A final sunset over the water

Streaky Bay was next where the highlights were the whistling rocks, blowholes in the making, making a lot of noise. The town has numerous historic buildings but is unusual in that it has several seats on the footpath which honour significant women in the community. One of these was an early midwife with an excellent record of never losing a mother.

The boardwalk to the whistling rocks and blowholes

The coastline nearby. The holes weren't blowing, and whistles don't show up well

Our final night was spent at another disused farm, this time outside Wudinna with its beautiful monument to the Australian Farmer. We parked the camper in a farm shed with other machinery and an old caravan and had a very welcome fire as well. The farmhouse is left unlocked for travellers to explore and in 3 years hasn't been damaged. A beautiful sunset as well.

This stunning sculpture was paid for by public subscription

The end of a long trek across 2 states

Kalgoorlie-Boulder 19-21 August

 Kalgoorlie and Boulder, originally separate towns have merged into a single entity. Kalgoorlie has the major shopping centre and other commercial areas, while Boulder is the site of the major mine known as The Superpit. Both areas have very well preserved buildings reflecting the wealth brought by gold mining for over a century, and the audio tour gives a lot of extra information. For example the Old Federal Hotel in Boulder has at least 3 resident ghosts, and the owner will tell you all about their antics with very little prompting.  We spent about half a day checking out the sights of Kalgoorlieand Boulder as there is plenty to see. The Superpit viewing point gave us a good view of the mine. The Questa Casa brothel has daily tours, but unfortunately we didn't have time to check it out.

Kalgoorlie Town Hall

Plush seating in the upstairs gallery of the Town Hall

Ceiling detail in the Town Hall

Government Buildings. The dome is gilded bright gold

The York Hotel, lavish inside and out

Kalgoorlie Markets Building

Boulder Town Hall

Boulder Streetscape

Boulder Streetscape

The Old Federal Hotel, Boulder. Has 3 ghosts and an old mine shaft was discovered beneath the cellar

The Superpit is a major employer and attraction in town. All workers live locally and work a 7 on 7 off roster with 12 hour shifts. More than 50% of the truck drivers are women, who apparently keep their trucks cleaner and treat them better than the men do. We took a tour of the mine which filled us with heaps of facts which are difficult to recall. I was surprised to learn that before the rock is trucked to the surface it is sampled for gold content and then stockpiled according to quality. The lowest paid job in the mine is the stick picker whose job is to separate out from the rock any old pit props which are brought to the surface. These can't be burnt as they have previously been treated with arsenic - they're stockpiled and re-buried later. The tour took us part way into the pit to give us a better look. We also saw some of their collection of Komatsu trucks and some ore being crushed.

Safety message. Apparently the crushing of this truck is on YouTube

Old pit props excavated from the pit

Below, various views of the Superpit

Lots of ant like trucks at work

One of the larger trucks

David found the golf course which is fairly new and is a top class desert course. As I'm writing this he is out playing, so I don't know his opinion of it yet. Update: it’s a beautiful course but his skills don’t do it justice, although he did get one par in the 9 holes he played. Two of the holes are part of the Nullarbor Links Course which starts in Kalgoorlie and ends in Ceduna, SA. It is the longest course in the world, and possibly the roughest.

We have been camping at Lake Douglas, a free camp about 12 km out of town. It has a massive amount of space, and a generous pile of firewood was available for us to use. The pile will be significantly lower when we leave. We have found one easy way to keep warm at the campfire. Put a small pile of coals under your chair and the warmth goes right through you. Unfortunately you can't do it nowhere there is grass but that's not a problem at Lake Douglas, or many other places in WA either.

Hyden and Wave Rock 17-18 August

After a lovely weekend with Frank and Sue Egan in Rockingham, south of Perth, we reluctantly left the coastal areas for the inland. Frank and Sue had shown us the appealing seaside areas of Rockingham and Mandurah. Rockingham in particular has been beautifully landscaped and includes many lakes, both natural and artificial. Some, unfortunately, are surrounded by bush infested with tiger snakes. We also saw the Thrombolites at Lake Clifton (freshwater versions of the famed stromatolites, and just as exciting) and had a delicious lunch at Cape Bouvard Winery. We also checked out their new home in a lifestyle village at Pinjarra. It was great to catch up with them after such a long time. We wished we had more time to explore the southern parts of WA, but we have left enough places to see on another trip.

Rockingham and Mandurah from Point Peron

Thrombolites at Lake Clifton

Our destination was Wave Rock, located at Hyden, about 400km east of Perth. Contrary to my first imaginings it is nowhere near the ocean or any other type of wave. We had received mixed reports about it varying from "Why bother, it's just a rock" to "There are lots of things to see and do there". So it became a matter of go and see and make up your own mind.

Hyden is a small town of about 400 people in the middle of a major wheat growing area. It is heavily reliant on the tourist trade to bring money into the town and keep people employed. As it doesn't have a major supermarket it still has a butcher, which many much larger towns don't. It also has a very chatty librarian, who I suspect, doesn't have many people dropping by. The town has a historical display made of outdoor metal sculptures, and its garage gives caravan park patrons 4 cents a litre off fuel.

On the way we passed through Corrigan which has a dog cemetery, some graves shown below.

Above and below - sculptures in Hyden

Beautiful countryside at Hyden

Wave Rock itself is part of Hyden Rock which has several minor features such as the formation known as Hippo Yawn,  the Breakers which are small rocks, and the Hyden water storage dam. According to the Guru,  the wave shape has been formed because the lower rock was wetter and eroded more quickly, creating an overhang at the top. When we first saw it late in the afternoon it looked rather dull, but David went for a walk early in the morning after it rained and it looked much more spectacular.

Plants growing on top of the rock

Looking down from the top. Notice the safety ledge

The morning light is much better, especially after rain

Hippo Yawn

David took this photo of a reflection for me

Much more interesting to me were the Humps, a rock formation about 18km away. Although it was quite steep in places I was more concerned about coming down a steep slope than climbing up. However it was definitely worth the climb. We probably saw it at its best as the rock crevices were full of water and the plant life was quite different with a lot of mosses and lichens (yes, I know they aren't really plants) and some tiny carnivorous plants, among many other species. The Guru felt the need to give me  a lesson on plant sucession,  but my camera diverted my attention elsewhere.

The Humps also contains Mulka's Cave, an Aboriginal rock art site with hundreds of hand stencils, but we could only see a handful as the floor of the cave was covered with large rocks.

Approaching The Humps

Canola crop and interesting weather

The entrance to Mulka's Cave

Hand stencils in the cave

Walking up the Humps, beautiful plant life

Tiny carnivorous plants

Another wave rock in the making

Towards the top. At the top it was too windy to hold a camera, felt like I could be blown off the edge

There are several other places to visit near Wave Rock including the Lace Place, Toy Soldiers display and a wildlife park to name a few. I found the Lace Place interesting,  with displays from the 1600s to the present, but David stayed at camp to find someone to chat to, and to gather some wood for the firepits generously placed around the caravan park. We had an excellent fire, the first for ages, mostly fuelled by mallee roots.

Our verdict was that Wave Rock and the surrounding area had enough of interest to see, and was definitely worth the visit.