Kalgoorlie to Rowles Lagoon

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We headed off from Mieke’s on Monday morning loaded up with left over Mussaman and Navratan curries, Red rice pork and Samosa filling courtesy of Irene and Ritchie and Boeterkoke (Dutch butter cake) from Mieke. I wonder how long it will take GMan to forgive me for forgetting to pick up the home made Citrus tart from Mieke’s fridge?

We reciprocated with homemade Lime Butter which Chris whipped up on Saturday.

Less than 40 minutes later we headed out from Coolgardie on the next part of our adventure. We set off to rediscover some of the areas we used to frequent when we lived in the region. Much to our surprise we discovered that there is now a tourist trail nearly 1000 kms long which explores many of the areas we planned to visit. Because of time constraints we will only do the few we had planned on and will return in the future to cover the whole of the “Golden Quest Discovery Trail” http://www.goldenquesttrail.com/.

GMan was concentrating on his driving and checking for bad areas on the road so much he powered straight through the first significant historical area, Bonnivale. It was a small settlement not far from Coolgardie and the area now only consists of a sign and lots of small gold mines (shows). I pointed it out, but we kept going heading for our first planned overnight stop Kunanalling.

We were amazed at the number of small working open pits along the way and just as remarkable were the recently completed drilling sites. Most of the small open pits we were familiar with are now closed, their signs gone and the revegetation of the bund walls well established.

The bush is looking in good condition albeit very dusty because there hasn’t been a lot of rain recently. The shrubs around this area are just starting to bud and they should begin to flower in earnest in a few more weeks.

Having managed to negotiate all the bad bumps along the road as we turned in to the Kunanalling parking area we disappeared down a washaway about 15 inches deep and 24 inches wide. That was thrilling. The actual road was in very good condition. There are a large number of trucks and work vehicles negotiating the area daily and I imagine in warmer weather many more tourists.

We were set up for our overnight camp by 11 am. Nice.

Kunanalling is 25 miles from Coolgardie and in the late 1800’s was a thriving township housing the workers for the Premier mine. All that remains of the township now is the ruin of the Premier Hotel built in 1901. It must have been a substantial building from the description on the information signs and some of the outstanding features remaining in the ruins. The ruins are now fenced off but when we used to come here to explore and picnic they were still accessible. In fact a black and white photograph I took of an archway in the hotel won an honourable mention at the Kalgoorlie Show more years ago than I care to remember. Indicative of the times there is an abandoned show right on the edge of the car park poorly fenced and readily available to fall down at any time.

Across the road there is a historical marker erected by the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society in the 70's now so faded it can barely be read.

Two other sets of tourists stopped to check out the ruins but no other van stayed.

I took a photograph of a great lump of quartz, the rock the early prospectors looked for as it is indicative of gold. This quartz is why so many of the shows have small white rock scattered around them, the quartz.

We woke in the morning to red dirt, bush road, gum trees, open shows and the mournful cry of crows (awful sound) lets you know you are back in God’s country!

Borderline communications at Kunanalling, everything kept dropping out, so we gave up.

I must tell you we had a week of beautiful rain free weather in Kalgoorlie and the forecast for this week is rain of course. We watched the clouds come blowing in and overnight received only a few drops. The worst rain was predicted to happen on the Tuesday so we decided to spend the day just reading and vegging out. A rain free Tuesday of course, however we had quite a bit of rain overnight.

Wednesday morning we packed up and headed off to our next planned destination, Rowles Lagoon. Along the way the first thing to notice was that the rain had washed the trees and vegetation clean of all the dust and the sparkle of the remaining water on the leaves of varying greens was great to see. The trunks of the trees were also gleaming in the various shades of copper and of course the black butts types.

One thing we also noted was the trenches which were dug during the nickel exploration boom of the 70’s. These were done in areas of geological significance to do soil testing 2 metres down looking for nickel. If favourable results were obtained then drilling was undertaken. These trenches have now partially filled in and have gum trees growing in them, so once more the bush is winning.

After leaving Kunanalling we noticed the much improved fencing for Mt Barnett Station and all the recently erected warning signs about not entering their property. I guess this is a sign of the times with more tourist traffic about. Unlike most of the other stations in the area they do not offer camping on their property.

Rowles is only 36 kms further on from Kunanalling, so we did not exactly trek a long way and were set up by 9:30 am.

Rowles is a place where many young people and families used to come to swim and boat from Kalgoorlie when I was growing up. These days it has its own conservation park within the Clear and Muddy Lakes Nature Reserve and water skiing is forbidden.

It has been beautifully developed as part of the GQDT and the work has been done by prisoners. The camping area is very well laid out with toilet, seating, shaded areas, information and fireplaces. The toilet is one of the new erviro loo’s which is excellent and meets the no smell test.

When we arrived there was a camper van here but they moved on fairly quickly. Neither Kunanalling nor Rowles have rubbish bins and you are asked to take your rubbish with you. Both areas are spotlessly clean, so travellers are becoming much more conscious of "leave only footprints".

After setting up camp we had a look around and decided that the powers that be have done a great job here. The water level is so high at present the pump in the middle of the lagoon which used to supply water to stations is not visible. We had been warned that the lagoon had been empty for years, we struck it at exactly the right time. The lagoon is a fresh water lake but according to the information boards the salt water table in not very far below the bottom of the lagoon. We understand why it is part of the Clear and Muddy Lakes Nature Reserve, this must be the muddy bit.

The Ti trees for which the lagoon is famous are still here and if possible are thicker than ever. They grow right down to the water’s edge and all the way around the lagoon. When we used to come here years ago the area where we are camped (official camping grounds) had the ti-trees removed¸ now they are back.

Very few flies here at all and those that are do not appear to annoy us.

I remember many years ago, Alan and Sylvia and Graham and I came here for a picnic and explore one day. I had a fantastic idea, let’s walk all the way around the lake. Well, we did but I did notice it took a long time to achieve and I was banned from making suggestions on our bush trips for some time.

This whole area is part of the Greater Western Woodlands I mentioned in our blog from just outside Norseman. I did not realise just how extensive the designated GWW area is. I have included a map in the photographs. It covers a huge area.

Wednesday night was very cold and a full moon. On Thursday it took a long time for the day to warm up. I knew it was cold when I came back from a walk to find Graham stamping his feet, having changed into tracky daks, his hands hidden in his arm pits and wearing his Bluey Day beanie purchased from Neil the Brinkie policeman years ago. Must have something to do with the excellent hair cut he has. Clouds kept rolling past all day and everytime the sun went behind a cloud the temperature dropped several degrees. We finally hauled out the thermometer to make us feel less like wimps because we were feeling the cold so badly.

We warmed up internally by having good old Rosella tomato soup for lunch.

There is absolutely no signal here at Rowles, so we will have to break out the satellite phone to put in our footy tips this week unless we move on tomorrow.



Credo Station where these two reserves are has now been purchased by the WA Government to preserve the woodlands and especially this lake area. Apparently it is the only fresh water system in the region. It is possible to stay at the homestead area only minutes away, but the one thing we are seeking is water and they do not have that available for travellers there. We will move off to the Ora Banda Historic Inn tomorrow and on from there.

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Comments

[Mieke]

Forgotten tart
The 'left behind' tart was taken to work and gobbled up for afternoon tea! Teresa says thank you.