Perth to Esperance

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Thursday 17^th September

We arrive at the camper van depot around 9.30 and have it is checked over before we swap it for our Hi Top van. We have driven over 8,500 Km. We get away soon after 10.15. A fairly easy change over.

Our first stop along the road is Northam. At Tourist Information we get given a Heritage walking trail with a booklet prepared by local school children. We soon see some wonderful looking buildings and the school children's booklet provides some excellent background to them.

On finishing we treat ourselves to a couple of beef pies and sit in the park to enjoy them. A nice warm sunny day.

On the road again and running alongside us all the way is a 750 diameter pipe taking water from Perth to Kalgoorlie.

We pull in at Meckering, the site of a 6.9 earthquake in 1968 which destroyed most of the buildings. We see photos of the rail lines which have been bent into a Z and the earth raised by 2m along the fault line. All in 40 seconds!

Continuing along the road our next stop is at a museum in Cunderdin. The place is a disused pumping station for the water line. They have a great display on the laying of the overground pipe line from the 1900's it was a huge project.

The museum also has a house in which you sit and experience the earthquake in Meckering. It's a great way of demonstrating the effect. There's also a film showing the devastation.

Finally we see a display of tractors through the ages. Impressive but not exciting!

Late afternoon we pull into the council run showground campsite in Kellerberrin. It doesn't look much until we go and see the amenities block and camp kitchen. They're all brand new and provide wonderful facilities. Some of the very best we've had.

In the evening we sit in the lounge and watch an old Stallone video, just for a change from an early night.

Friday 18^th September

A slow start to the day and as we go along we must have blinked because we miss our first stop at Merredin. We continue for at least an hour before pulling over at an interesting sign board. It's about the No1 Rabbit Proof fence built in 1901.

The board explains that due to extreme rabbit breeding on the east coast, they were spreading west and causing real problems. So a rabbit proof fence was built from Esperance in the south to Port Headland in the north, some 1139 miles!

Even then two more fences were required. Interesting stuff.

Nothing else comes along and after another hour or so we reach Southern Cross. A town which promises much but delivers very little. There are two interesting buildings and a museum, which is closed. A sign on the door says come back another time!

With nothing else to look at we drive on for another couple of hours before reaching Coolgardie. It's the place of the very last gold rush. They have a gold mining museum which is very good. Lots of information about the gold rush and a miner who was trapped underground for 10 days.

It also has a vast old bottle collection which must be of interest to somebody!

After that we cross the road and look at a park full of old junk. Rusty cars, farm implements and bits of iron welded together. A strange place.

We take a walk down the “high street” and see one other person and mostly closed down shops. The town has seen much better days. As had our camp site we later find out!

Saturday 19^th September

We're soon away in the morning and it's only a short drive until we reach Kalgoorlie. The largest town in the eastern goldfields.

We call into Tourist Information and book a tour for later and then take a walk down the main street. It's full of pioneer buildings from the 1890's and many are in really good condition. We pass the town square and the trees around the bandstand have crochet trunks.

We end up at the WA Gold Mine Museum. Here we read all about the finding of gold in 1893 by three Irishmen and the subsequent gold rush. This is the richest square mile of gold bearing earth in the world. We see the conditions the men worked under and the problems due to lack of water which was solved by the pipeline from Perth.

There's also a mine head frame which we go up and get a good look over the whole town.

After a quick lunch we go to the other end of town to have a tour of the oldest brothel in town. It has been here since about 1900. It's still operating and we meet the Madam who tells us the history of all the brothels that used to be in town. They were all in the one street and strictly controlled.

She explains about the many front doors that allow the men to choose a girl without being seen from the road and then shows us three of her current rooms. (There's no girls in them!) They're all a bit seedy, but perhaps that's the norm.

She tells us a number of anecdotes, some are amusing and then explains that there are only two brothels left in town now as the girls are allowed to offer their services anywhere. Consequently she can't make a living any longer without the tours. Times are tough!

We then go off and camp up for the night. The site's okay but not a blade of grass to be seen.

Sunday 20^th September

It's Coolgardie day we are told that there will be lots on in the area. We drive a few minutes to Boulder City to see the Sunday market which is every third Sunday. We arrive to find about 6 stalls and it's all a bit pathetic.

We call in at the Loopline Railway and get told that on the third Sunday of the month there are free trips to the KCGM Super pit, so we pop round and sign up.

At 10am we board the coach for the tour. It's the second largest producing gold mine in the world and the pit can be seen from outer space.

We get taken to the edge of the pit viewing area and yes it's a big hole! There are huge dumper trucks crawling along the roads out of it and they look like match box cars. Koolgardie and Boulder are big mining towns and everything depends upon the mine. The down side is that for every 275 tons of ore extracted they get a golf ball size of gold. There's a lot of waste produced and the spoil can be seen for miles.

Nevertheless it's a very good tour and we get lots of incredible facts, just like at the Tom Price iron ore mine.

Once back we call into the Loopline Railway Museum and read about the railway that used to go around in a circle to all of the small gold mines in the 1890's dropping off all the workers. It was superseded by an electric tram in the early 1900's. There's lots of facts to absorb!

Our next stop is at Hannans North Mine. The original gold mine in the area and we read that they still do visits to the mine. Having paid to get in we are then told that the mine tours stopped 4 years ago. Typical of the information in the leaflets ! Nevertheless the open air museum has some great 1890's mining buildings and artefacts. We also can climb aboard one of the modern dumper trucks. It's still a good visit.

It's early afternoon and because it's Coolgardie day there is the Boulder Cup horse racing meeting on in town. Although we don't like horse racing we think it might be interesting to go.

We arrive in time for the forth race and see that it's just like Royal Ascot, except without the crowds. Most of the women are in glamorous dresses, although some don't look very glamorous and there's a band between races.

As we sit and have a bite to eat a chap gives us tickets for free afternoon tea and cakes. At 3.30 we call in to the Royal Flying Doctor enclosure and partake.

We watch the races without much interest and then at 4.16 it's time for the big one. The Boulder Cup. A sort of Cheltenham Gold Cup but without the crowd. There's only about 1500 people about.

Christine decides that we should have a bet and goes off with our 5 dollars and puts it on “Ask me nicely” to win. The race starts and our horse immediately goes out in front and then gradually falls back as they go out around the back of the course. It's in third place going round the final bend and then suddenly goes out in front and wins by a head or something! We can't believe it as Christine goes off to collect our winnings. The princely sum of eleven pounds!

We've had a great day.

Monday 21^st September

On the road for about about two and a half hours and we pull into Norseman our intended stop for the night. However over half the shops are boarded up and the place looks like a ghost town.

Christine takes a photo of the statue of Norseman the horse who is attributed with finding gold in the town in the 1890's. There's also a set of tin camels in the roundabout to recognise the importance the camel trains.

We decide not to stop as there will be nothing to do for the rest of the day. We take a short drive out to a lookout and this gives us views over the countryside. There's just trees and shrubs in all directions for as far as we can see.

There's a mine still in town and a huge spoil heap which dominates the town and immediate vicinity. It looks awful!

So on we go for another two hours and eventually reach Esperance on the coast. It's been another long day driving of over 400Km.

After parking up we take a walk along part of the foreshore and down the town jetty to stretch our legs. It's fairly chilly and we'll be glad of the fan heater tonight!

Tuesday 22^nd September

No rush this morning as we're not driving off anywhere. First of all we drop into Tourist Information and get a couple of maps of things. We check out the cinema for later.

We decide to take the walk along the foreshore as suggested after about 20 mins it runs out and becomes just pavement alongside the road. Not very interesting! We turn around and stop for a coffee on the way back to the van.

The information we have suggests a drive along the coast of the Southern Ocean. We set off and soon see fantastic sandy beaches and a rugged coastline. Our first stop is at West Beach and then Blue Haven, Salmon Beach, Forth Beach and finally Twilight Beach.

We stop here and have a picnic on the bench overlooking the sandy beach with huge rocks just off shore. It's very attractive.

Afterwards we continue and stop off at Observatory Point and Nile Mile Beach before finally turning round and heading back into town.

After picking up a few supplies we drive past our campsite and along the shore in the opposite direction. We get to the viewing point and it's really blowing so we head back to site for the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening we treat ourselves to fish and chips and a night at the cinema. When we come out at 9.15 with the other twelve people the streets are empty and the place is like a ghost town. Where do people go in the evening.

Wednesday 23^rd September

We decide on a day out and drive out to Cape Le Grande NP about 40K away. On the way we pass a farm that has created its own tourist attraction. A full size concrete replica of Stonehenge! They've built a fence round it to stop people taking photos from the road. We can't see anyone there.

We enter the NP and drive down to Lucky Bay. It's stunning, with white sand and clear blue water. It was discovered by Mathew Flinders.

There are two small kangaroos feeding on the beach and they don't mind people feeding them sea weed and stroking them.

After spending some time with them we go off for a coastal walk over the headland until we get views of Thistle Bay. We can't go on as the flies are driving us mad!

We return to the van, change into shorts and go and sit on the beach just as the sun goes in and the wind picks up. We last about 20 mins before retreating back to the van.

Deciding we don't want to walk anymore we return to Esperance by early afternoon.

Christine goes off for a walk in to town and I go and try my luck at fishing off the town jetty. Probably my last fishing chance this trip.

An hour or so later I return to the van empty handed and find Christine fiddling with her photos on the PC.

It's time to go back to site for a cup of tea and a warm up. The wind's freezing!

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Comments

[Ed & Helen]

Racing
Glad to see you have found the joy in horse racing. See you soon

[Steve and Chris]

Not enough
Hi But we didn't win enough to keep us traveling.