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Published: June 11th 2012
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Heading toward Barn Hill Station ..
...and the road is still straight ahead. Barn Hill
26
th May 2012
Leaving Pardoo Station we turned North East onto the Great Northern Highway with our first scheduled stop to be the Sandfire Roadhouse. We put in a top up of $50 worth of diesel to ensure our journey was uneventful despite the fact the sub tank and two jerry cans were full but with 325 Klm to the next fuel and a few side trips planned at Barn hill Station we wanted to make sure, doubly sure, and this was to prove a godsend as 100klm north of Sandfire we were waved down by a guy who was in dire need of some fuel. Funnily enough we saw this same person at Sandfire and despite the fact there were plenty of big signs saying next fuel 325Klm away he chose not to purchase any thinking he would be ok, well after he parted with $50 for 20Ltr from one of our jerry cans we were happy and he was delighted, (and relieved), a profit of $13 on 20ltr was reasonable! Mind you we were not sure what we would have to pay to replace it so maybe no profit, we shall see….
About 180klm
north of Sandfire we came to the gate into Barn Hill Station, a property and campsite that many people had recommended to us, in particular the “Collie Mob” (families from Collie), that we had met at Busselton in the Kookaburra Caravan Park over January and February. It was a 9klm trip in up the red sand drive to our campsite and pulling up next to the bowling green, yes, that is right, a bowling green, to go over to the kiosk to book our site we saw a familiar car and van and we knew instantly that this would be a great stay.
Barn Hill is situated on Thangoo Station, a working cattle station of approximately 430,000 acres and stretches for 85klm along the coast between Broome and Port Hedland. The property runs 8000 head of Brahman Cattle which are marketed to the live export trade through the port of Broome. On top of Barn Hill there is a cairn which is an historical landmark left by Alexander Forrest during his expedition to the Kimberleys in 1879. (I wonder if he is a relation to Twiggy Forrest, the billionaire mining magnate??). On Sunday nights everyone is welcome to the
Barn Hill Station
9klm of red sandy drive on, but in good nick. Isn't the colour fantastic ! ‘entertainment centre’ for Sunday roast cooked by Janet (the Pocket Rocket that runs Barn Hill Station), live entertainment is provided by a local indigenous band and all this for $15 pp and that is donated at the end of the season by Janet to the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service), fantastic !
The campsite is 50 mtrs from the most magnificent beach you could wish for with a backdrop that varies between red sand cliffs, sand dunes and the most colourful sandstone rock formations. The tide here is about an 8 meter tide so low tide produces a ‘huge’ beach.
As mentioned earlier we recognised a vehicle on arrival and it was in fact Jimmy and Emma from Collie and they were with a group of other friends from Collie. Quickly we were taken in by the Collie mob of Barn Hill and enjoyed happy hour with them each night and were invited to their fish and chip night (Fridays) which was fantastic. We were able to watch live the Friday night AFL game with everyone having a $1 bet on the winning margin and guess who was playing….it was Geelong V Bulldogs ! the winning margin was
Barn Hill Station
office/shop on left, camping ground to the right and the beach is behind me. 20points. Trish had 19 points and I had 21 points… guess what we were the equal closest and scooped the pool. We then played another game called Left, right or centre, (which I am not going to try and describe here, way too complicated)! It involved each player having $1 worth of 20c coins in front of them and at the end of the game the last person with a coin left wins the lot, Emma won that game so Jimmy and Emma who were leaving the next day to go to Broome to their daughters unit and their friends, us, who were leaving the following day had cleaned them out with no chance for them all to win any of the money back!! Wonderful people, welcoming and lots of fun. It is interesting to look back at our time in Collie where we felt it was a ‘typical coal town’ and since then we have met what seems like half of the town and some brilliant, fantastic and welcoming people.
Barn Hill is a must do stopover for anyone on this road, it was a pretty campground with lots of shade and situated on a beautiful part of
Barn Hill Station
camp ground, we are third vehicle on the right the coast, and if you can coincide with a meal get together to raise funds for the RFDS it would be a bonus.
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Matty
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People you meet along the way
Really does sound like a great place to stay, and even better when you bump into people that you have already met! Looking forward to the photos when you get some signal!