Ceduna 12 Sept

Since Angus is keen on these wombat creatures, we visit the Wombat Fauna Rescue Homestead. This place is a refuge run solely on donations and faith by a lady named Val. We learn of the mysterious disease which has affected a number of these wombats whereby it's central nervous system is becoming affected once the animal reaches 3kg. Studies are being conducted by universities in South Australia. The kids get to interact and cuddle these animals along with lambs and a baby emu all of which have been orphaned.

From here we visit the fish markets and move around to Thevenard which is a deep sea port exporting facility for grain, salt, mineral sands and gypsum. Pinky Point Lookout provided a vantage point for sea-lion spotting and they were happy to laze around on the rocks to be spotted.

We continue around the shoreline and foreshore to the jetty where we find crystal clear waters but no fish to be caught.

The Nullarbor Run 9-10-11 Sept

Day 1 Kalgoorlie  - Cocklebiddy

We set out from Kalgoorlie enroute for the Nullarbor including the longest straight stretch of road in Australia - being 146.6km in length. 

We appreciate having to share the highway with other traffic including Royal Flying Doctor Servive aircraft.

We make camp at the roadhouse at Cocklebiddy hoping to find the caves.

Day 2 

We find that the Department of Environment and Conservation has actually closed the caves to the public as they were underground and full of water.

We explore the old Telegraph Station ruins at Eucla. Just as we think that the sand is engulfing the ruins, we meet a fellow who says that more of the ruins are exposed now than when he saw them 15 years ago. We can work out the length of time that they were covered by the years of graffiti that are missing. We lunch and try to use the last of our fruit and veggies before crossing the border to SA. This includes cutting up our last onion and adding it to our sandwich. We set off for the border burping raw onion only to find we don't have to stop or get rid of stuff here. It's after Ceduna that the fruit-fly exclusion zone starts. We continue our journey and pass various trees adorned with items of apparel including shirts, shoes and underwear. Others are decorated with glass and plastic bottles, I guess you need to break the boredom when you do this trip all of the time.

We make camp in South Australia behind a truck parking area just before the aboriginal reserve.
Day 3 final run to Ceduna
We hear an almighty loud noise to break the silence as we finish packing up and we turn on the two-way to hear that a truckie with a wide load has just seized a wheel bearing on his dolly. Not much we can do except get passed before the road is blocked. He has a couple of pilot vehicles with him to help.

The Nullarbor Cliffs stretch unbroken for 209kms from Wilson's Bluff at the WA border to the Head of Bight and plummet 90m into the Southern Ocean.  It is at one of the various viewing spots that we meet 3 QLD couples travelling Redcliffe to Perth and back in 5 short weeks.
The Nullarbor NP adjoins the Great Australian Bight and extends inland. It encompasses approximate. 2,867,000 hectares from WA border to the  Nullarbor Roadhouse (297kms west of Ceduna), & north beyond the Transcontinental Railway Line. The Eyre Highway passes the coastal areas of the park and only traverses a short section of the true Nullarbor.

We visit the Head of Bight Interpretive Centre and viewing area which is also situated on the Yalata Aboriginal Lands (this aboriginal community consists of approximately 400 people and extends for 150kms of the Eyre Highway). This area becomes a playground for migrating Southern Right Whales from May to October. We are rewarded with unforgettable playful behaviour of about 30ish Southern Right whale mother and calves just 10-15m from us. One of these is a recently born white calf. These creatures are amazing and so trusting considering the history of whaling just down the road at Albany.
The Great Australian Bight Marine Park WA's established in 1996, further recognising the importance of these whales.
As we continue on, the landscape changes from windswept coast to green pasture with small earthy mounds. These mounds belong to the Southern Hairy-nosed wombat which breed prolifically in the good seasons. Thus the road kill changes from roos to huge solid wombats, better them than us. The sign at Nundroo Roadhouse says it all -
"Wecome to Nundroo,
Population 12,
Sheep 10,000,
Wombats 2.5 million".
We make it to Ceduna without making a dent in the wombat population.

Kalgoorlie 7-8/9/2011

The Mining Hall of Fame is our destination for today. Here we are able to immerse ourselves in mining history, memorabilia, and displays. We book in for an underground  mine tour and another gold pour. While waiting we explore the various areas including the huge 793C dump truck and underground miner's refuge. There are many displays of mining equipment and infrastructure that keep us busy until it is our turn to gather at the massive shaft headframe.

We choose our hard hats and wait to take our place in the small cage for the journey underground. It is a tight fit for 2 adults 2 kids and an operator. We are told that when this was a working mine that this cage would take 6 beefy miners for each trip. We travel 35m to the  first level where we disembark. We meet Jim who is our guide and an old hand at underground mining who in his later years has become a tour guide.

We are kept entertained with an educational, informative and funny narrative of the hardship and conditions of underground mining. Too soon we return to the surface informed and amazed at the tenacity and perseverance of the underground miners and the dangerous conditions that they encountered every day. We head to the gold room to see the gold pour. Although we had seen gold pours in Perth it is still interesting and informative. We find that the day has gone too fast and we still have much to see. We decide to come back tomorrow as our entry ticket allows us 2 days entry. 

8/9/2011

We come back to the Mining Hall of Fame to see what we couldn't fit in yesterday. We go through the main display building which houses a huge display of minerals from around the world. There are more 'ite's' than you can poke a stick at. Stolzite, Manganocalcite, Rhodonite, Apophyllite, Kutnahorite, and Calaverite just to name a few. There are also many more well know minerals and gems such as Gypsum, Copper, Silver, Rubies, Diamonds and of course Gold. We learn about the different methods of mining that are required for the different minerals. We read stories of the various prospectors and of the booms and busts associated with the mining industry. After we had dug through all the information we could process, we took our leave and headed elsewhere.

 The local RFDS base is our next stop but we arrive to late for the last tour of the day. We have a look through their display of memorabilia where the kids pedal on the Traeger pedal radio ( again ). We then head back to camp to find we had more neighbors in the overflow area where we were setup.  After we all introduced ourselves the chairs and drinks came out and many stories of our separate adventures were told. We head to bed a bit later than planned but still set the alarm as we are off across the Nullabour tomorrow. 

Kalgoorlie 6/9/2011

Today we head for the Superpit lookout where we can gaze into the depths of this massive open-cut goldmine. For years the area known as 'The Golden Mile' had been a series of individual mining leases where underground mining of the rich ore bodies was conducted by various mining companies and individual operators. A shrewd business man realized the need to progress to open-cut where the economic advantage of large scale operations would be more profitable. This business man started buying up the various leases in order to start what is now known as the Superpit. Unfortunately Alan Bond couldn't complete his plan and Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd (KCGM)  combined the entire area in 1989 and open-cut mining began.

From the lookout we watch the huge trucks and loaders operating at various levels in the mine and the drilling rigs drilling the precise pattern of holes required for blasting. After sometime watching these operations we take the chance to look at some of the various machinery on display when we notice the gravel that we are walking on has some distinctive sparkling specks that might be gold ( but are more likely to be pyrite or fool's gold). Claire develops a certain condition commonly found near goldmines and with some reluctance gets in the car when it is time to go.

We drive around the town seeing the old buildings, many damaged by the earthquake last year. We visit the Superpit shop where we watch an informative video about the Pit and the town before heading to the Mount Charlotte Lookout where we learn about the struggle to secure a reliable water supply and how in the past water was more valuable than gold. The pipeline was conceived by C Y O'Connor and was able to deliver 23000 kilolitres per day via 8 steam driven pumping stations and 566km of steel pipe and is recognized as a National Engineering Landmark. We head back to our caravan park to plan the next day. 

Esperance to Kalgoorlie Monday 5th September

Esperance is very much a coastal holiday village and after having a look around the harbor, we continue our journey through WA's Golden Outback region.
We head through Norseman which is situated at the crossroads of Highway 1 across the Nullabor and 94 to the Southwrn Goldfields. Gold was discovered in 1894 by prospector Laurie Sinclair when his horse Norseman went lame & Laurie discovered that the piece of rock lodged in the horse's hoof was gold bearing. This resulted in a major find that sparked a gold rush and established a town that was named in honour of a horse.
It became evident that there are no roadside recycling bins on the road between Norseman & Kalgoorlie - Boulder by the over abundance of glass bottles littering the table drains. Not sure what the targets are but there are plenty of misses.
Once again we find ourselves short of inexpensive accommodation as the asking price is $60 for an unpowered tent site. With a declaration that we are not miners, thus should not have to pay miner's rates, we accept an overflow site at a different park at a third of the cost. 

Albany to Esperance - Happy Father's Day 04/09/11

Staying in a cabin overnight not only keeps us warm and dry but provides an opportunity for the kids to cook Dad breakfast for Father's Day.
Albany was selected asthe departure point for ANZAC troops due to it's important coal and port facilities. The first convoy sailed out of King George Sound bound for Gallipoli on 1st November 1914 and took 30 000 ANZAC troops, 7500 horses and supplies on a fleet 40 transport ships & 5 naval escort vehicles. Albany was the last sighting of Australia for those who fought and died at Gallipoli, in France or the Middle East. Thus Albany's place in history is recognised at many sites around the town.
On the foreshore is ANZAC Peace Park along with The Desert Mounted Corps memorial which features an Australian mounted soldier assisting a NZ soldier whose horse has been wounded. It is from this vantage point at Mt Clarence that we are supposed to have breathtaking island and ocean views however on this day, Albany is shrouded in mist and low cloud and thus poor visability.
We visit an impressive ship on the foreshore which is a full-scale relic of the Brig Amity which brought the first settlers and then convicts to Albany in 1826. We climbed aboard and went below decks not just because it was pouring rain but to follow the ship's journey from Sydney to Albany. It also filled the void in learning about these ships along the WA coast and give Angus and Claire first hand experience of the life of a sailor in 1826.
We head out of Albany and even though it would be incredible to take in the jagged peaks of the Stirling Ranges, we figure it will be unlikely to have good visibility considering the weather.
We travel ongside the Fitzgerald River NP and the pristine Fitzgerald Biosphere Reserve which are areas of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems endorsed by the United Nations. This reserve contains an undisturbed core enclosed by the Fitzgerald NP surrounded by a buffer of uncleared bush, protected coastline and marine environment.
Interesting concept since on the other side of the road is overused and cleared pastoral land. 
Another "Pink Lake" in Esperance but only at a particular time of the year (not now). We stay in a cabin due to the weather again but are hoping to use the tents at our next stop as these cabins really bite into our budget. 

Gloucester Tree to Albany Saturday 3rd September

 
Once again it is a cold, misty and dreary morning. regardless, we head out to Gloucester National Park which has several walks however it is the boy's intention to scale the Gloucester Tree. This tree along with 2 others - The Bicentennial Tree and the Diamond Tree were originally constructed in the 1930's & 1940's as fire lookouts in the top of Karri trees. These lookouts in the treetops were an ingenious way of spotting fires in such tall forest. The Gloucester Tree towers 61m above the forest and has a series of reo bars that spiral upward and act as footpegs. The boys make it up halfway before it starts pouring rain and very slippery and thus disappointingly but safely descend to the forest floor.
We continue on through these forests to the township of Walpole an this area is famous for it's Red Tingle trees (Eucalyptus Jacksonii). The Giant Tingle Tree is over 450 years old & measures 24min girth at it's base. We move on to visit Valley of the Giants and the Wilderness Discovery Centre. We take the Tree Top Walk which is a 600m walkway rising 40m above the forest floor and provides a breathtaking experience a birds eye view of the forest. With the rain and winds picking up, it almost provided a little extra along the way also.... A meandering boardwalk also takes us through a grove of veteran Tingle trees called the Ancient Empire. This walk lets us experience at close hand some of the unique shapes of some of the giant trees. We walk through the hollowed out base of one. Along this path, we encounter the story of these ancient trees. We pass more wildflowers, this time native slipper orchids and tassel flowers interspersed with native grasses, moss, lichen and fungi.
We taste more samples of fudge, condiments and honey at Denmark before travelling once more through sweeping pastoral vistas and ocean scenery and into Albany.