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Published: July 22nd 2012
Halls Creek
25
th June
Leaving the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park we continued to head back down south towards Halls Creek, the site of Western Australia’s first payable gold discovery, Halls Creek sits on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert and is located between the towns of Fitzroy Crossing and Turkey Creek (Warnum) on the Great Northern Highway. It is the only sizeable town for 600 km on the Highway. Halls Creek was initially a gold mining town, named after prospector Charles Hall. In 1885, he and others in his prospecting party found the alluvial gold that led to the Kimberley gold rush, the first gold rush in Western Australia. Halls Creek became home to more than 15,000 prospectors from all over the world during this golden era. Halls Creek moved 12 km west from its original location in 1949 because the new Great Northern Highway did not follow the route of the old Duncan Road. The town would have ended had it not moved to its current location
Halls Creek is now home to successful pastoral and mining industries and is considered a great base for exploring the area’s natural and historical attractions. During a wander
Halls Creek
you would imagine from his signage that the local butcher would be a character....not so, but great sign.around town we were pleased to see that the local store had a big sandwich board sign outside the front of it announcing that they had a new shipment of blankets and heaters in, thank goodness, as the temps had dropped to the low 20s during the night and we were only getting day time temps of mid 30’s! The sign outside the local butcher also indicated that we would get a good laugh inside (see photo) so in we went expecting a ‘yarn’ to be met with a stern, non-talkative, most unhelpful butcher! His meat was not that good either!
After a wander around town and pies and coffee at the local bakery we, headed over to the Yarliyil Artists Centre. We were looking forward to this as we did with all the community art centres we have visited. It was obvious from the moment we walked in that this was going to be a different experience to Mowanjum (Derby), Waringarri (Kununurra), and Warman Art Centres. This was in an old shire hall not in a multi-million dollar facility purpose built to display art works. The art was pinned to walls, where they could, and scattered over the
Halls Creek
Check out the sky, it is mid 30's and the 'locals' think it is cold! floor and on trestle tables throughout the building, and we saw plenty of work that looked great. The art centres name originates from the miniature paperbark tree in the region. A number of ladies were busy painting inside, working on pieces destined for the upcoming NAIDOC week celebrations. NAIDOC stands for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Day of Observance Committee. The acronym for this Committee “NAIDOC” has now become a week in July each year to celebrate the culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. When we were looking at a painting a voice said ”that is one of mine”, and with that comment started a very interesting chat with a lovely lady. Bonnie Deegan was possibly our age, maybe a bit younger, and was one of the stolen generation. Taken from her mother and family as a young girl she was sent to Broome to an orphanage and educated in the ‘white man’s ways and language’. When she was 18 she was able to leave and came back to ‘her country’ to find her mother who ‘was a full blood and still lived in the old ways’. Bonnie could not speak to her as she did not
know the language, but it was obvious to her that they were worlds apart and would never be able to gain the relationship she had lost. Over the years she went back to language school to learn her language, Jaru and has been instrumental in helping keep the language and culture of her people ‘alive’ with the young children. Bonnie has 11 children and 60 grandchildren and her story was sad, real, and uplifting, and yes we purchased her painting.
Our plan from Halls Creek was to follow the old road, the Duncan Road back up north to join the Victoria Highway just east of Kununurra. So from Halls Creek we headed west along the Duncan Road (western end of the Buntine Highway) towards Old Halls Creek stopping at Caroline’s Pool on the way. This is a picnic, swimming and overnight camp spot set amongst shady trees and wide sandy creek banks. Caroline Pool was an important water source in the days of the early gold rush and also a place where families would go on the weekend to swim and play sport on the river sand. Caroline Pool is known as Wimirri in the Jaru language.
Close
Halls Creek
Caroline's Pool to Caroline’s Pool is the China Wall, a strange limestone formation which rises from a creek up over a small hill. It is a natural formation of white quartz which does look like a small version of the famous Great Wall of China.
Not much further along the road we came to Old Halls Creek. There is not much left here now but the streets are still visible and signs have been erected at many points detailing what building was once here that occupied the site.
We followed the road west for a further 160Klms, thereabouts, until we hit the junction with the Duncan Road heading north. The road, it is fair to say, in many sections was no different to the Gibb River Road, corrugated, rocky and dusty. We did pass a famous Station in Kimberley history along this stretch of the road, Flora Valley. Gordon Buchanan, a son of Nathaniel Buchanan an Australian pioneer pastoralist, drover and explorer, took up land at Flora valley in 1887 to establish the Station. Flora Valley is now part of the Heytesbury Cattle Company owned by the Holmes à Court family. As one of Australia's largest privately owned beef producers,
Heytesbury Cattle Company owns and manages six cattle stations, with approximately 150,000 head of Brahman/Brahman Cross cattle roaming freely over 24,000 square kilometres of prime grazing land. Funnily enough the part of the road that went through Flora Valley for around 60Klm was good driving!
It was not long before we came to the intersection where we had to head north, The Buntine went on east from here to Top Springs. Turning north over a cattle grid and onto Nicholson Station it was obvious that this station was an abandoned one and now an outstation of Flora Valley.
Nicholson Station also has a rich history, most notably for many years the station was part of the Vestey Empire which owned a string of properties in the north and the country's biggest abattoir in Rockhampton. The name Lord Sam Vestey is synonymous with the Wave Hill walk-off in the mid-1960s when Aboriginal stockmen left their jobs in protest of pay and conditions. Lord Vestey began a cattle-carting business with road trains and trucked stock from Nicholson to Rockhampton. Nicholson was a staging station for the cattle that used to come from his other stations and was the main station
Duncan Road
east of Halls Creek for Lord Vestey. Nicholson became an out-station of Flora Valley, owned by Heytesbury Beef In 2007.
Not long after passing the old Station buildings, if it had not been for a sign saying Kununurra 320 Klm, we would seriously have had to consult the map department. Remember this used to be called the Duncan Highway and only renamed the Duncan Road when the new Highway, (Great Northern Highway), was made west of here. The Duncan Road we were on consisted of two wheel ruts with scrub and cane grass growing to the edges and cane grass growing in the centre between the two wheel ruts, this was now officially a track in my book, certainly not a road! Not long after entering Nicholson Station we found a great camp site and pulled in for the night. After a great BBQ meal and watching a brilliant sunset we settled down for a free night courtesy of Janet and her family. Well how many of you can say you were put up for the night by the Holmes à Court family??
The following day we continued on past Mistake Creek Community and over the magnificent Negri River, (great camp sites
here). The Negri flows into the Ord river just west of here and then on into Lake Argyle which was coming up on our western side. We continued on through some magnificent countryside to the Behn River and our next campsite. Just before crossing the Behn there was a track that led off to the right (east) of the road and we followed this in to find a secluded and private camp site about 1klm off the road on a large billabong, just magic.
The next day we were within striking distance of the Victoria highway and our destination, Kununurra. The road became a ‘real road’ from here on, still gravel but in pretty good condition. We also passed our first vehicles since setting out on the Duncan over 24 hours ago. We passed Spring Creek, Argyle Downs and Waterloo Stations before turning west on the bitumen for 46klm to our destination Kununurra.
The Duncan road, track, whatever, was a great journey through some magnificent country, a fantastic part of the Kimberley . Now, there is nothing wrong with the highway between Kununurra and Halls Creek, in fact, it's a beautiful part of the Great Northern Highway. So
Elvire River Crossing
Trish checking for washouts in crossing why did we take the Duncan Road instead? Well we did come down the highway to Halls Creek, so why go back the same way! Some of us also prefer back tracks to main roads. The Duncan Road crosses several rivers and creeks and if you are in no big rush and like camping and nature then it's a no brainer... I personally consider the Duncan Road one of the most interesting roads we did in the whole Kimberley.
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Judy Law
non-member comment
just court up with your blog
hi trish and mike some great photo and stories enjoy reading and looking at the pictures hope you have a great day tomorrow when your up early love judy xxx