Karalee to Boulder

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Late one afternoon as the sun was going down we managed to get a photograph of the sun on gum trees, very pretty but the photo does not do it justice. Reluctantly we left Karalee to move on to Boulder. We had threats of rain for days and finally it came down in torrents on Sunday, right in the middle of the important football match. Thank heavens the satellite system readjusts and re-tunes unless the dish has been moved out of position otherwise GMan would have gotten very wet indeed.

Highly recommend Karalee as a place to free camp. There was one night when 12 vans were parked but mostly it was about 5. The area is so big no one gets too close. By the time we left we were running on empty for food. We ran out of bread three days earlier, so we ate crackers and I made scones in the ecopot. Vegetables were down to cabbage and pumpkin and we had only 1 lot of meat left. Really the main reason was no wine and only 5 cans of beer!

We stopped at the first lay-by we found to dispose of the 5 bags of rubbish we brought out with us. As is normal these days there are no bins at the free camping site and the place is spotless. People have become very good at ensuring they take their rubbish with them. There were lots of new wildflowers around the lay-by, but the wind was enormous. GMan was happy about the wind because it was behind us and pushing us along.

We had a good run through to Boulder and parked the van on the sidewalk in front of Mary's house then headed off to get ourselves some lunch. Returned to the house, unpacked the things we needed and waited for her to get home from work. When she got home we sat down and nattered for ages. Rang Mieke who was still working and arranged for her to come for dinner the next night. Mary made us a lovely beef strogonof for dinner.

This week has been about catching up with our close friends. On the way over we stayed at Mieke's house and this week with Mary. The weather has been lovely and we have managed to get out and about doing the sightseeing we missed last time.

The superpit looked smaller. That sounds strange really but it was because it is now very deep with multiple levels where ore is being removed which changes the eyes perception. When we were there initially there were 4 shovels loading trucks and the movement of trucks coming and going was not in the normal sync. The dance they do moving into position with precision and perfect timing was missing. Finally we worked out that they had completed loading from one site and the traffic was being rerouted to the other three shovels. They were just getting it together when we moved off after about 25 minutes watching. It is an impressive sight no matter how many times you have seen it previously.

We then headed off to Mt Charlotte. Mt Charlotte is the hill where the water reservoir tank is where the water is stored when it arrives from Perth via the pipeline. For the overseas readers. In the mid 1890's an engineer, C Y O'Connor, devised a scheme to pump water to the Goldfields to ensure a permanent supply and help eliminate disease like cholera. It took about 5 years to build and was the first time something of this scale was built in the world. As is usual, even such a long time ago, the media denigrated O'Connor and his scheme in a series of vicious and nasty reports and he committed suicide on 10 March 1902. Two days later on 12 March 1902 the scheme was turned on and continues to provide water to the region and has been expanded to cover the agricultural areas and even further east. A man of vision and great skill. Has the media improved, no as is obvious by the trial by media we see every day.

Next we headed off to the Goldfields Museum. The area is sited around a tiny and lovely old hotel building - the British Arms. I never knew this building existed when I lived here in Kalgoorlie as a child. The museum has a collection of materials relating to the history of gold discovery and the early days in Kalgoorlie/Boulder. They have buildings which have been moved onto site including a miners cottage, a bank, the woodlines office, a mobile jail and a full sized poppet head. In one large shed they have rebuilt the offices from Kalgoorlie and Perth of the early mining entrepreneur Claude de Bernales. A colourful character he built a vast empire of mining interests in the area and eventually was accused of fraud and mismanagement and his empire crumbled in the 1920's. One interesting fact I discovered was the Claude de Bernales was the person who built London Arcade the mock-Tudor arcade in Perth.

In the British Arms one room has been set up as an early dentist's office. It contains the equipment of Mr Rout. I remember attending his surgery when I was a child and it is exactly the same. I still have some fillings he put in when I was in my teens and believe me that is a long time ago!

In the main building they have an exhibition about the regions contribution to various wars, history of the indigenous people and in the basement all sorts of nuggets (real and reproduced), jewellery made locally from gold found in the region and information about the amount produced and the processes. Well worth a visit.

Mieke came round for dinner on Tuesday evening and we had a good night nattering all together.

On Wednesday we put the vehicle in for servicing and then proceeded to the BP truck stop outside of Boulder on the Kambalda Road for breakfast. We both ordered the "Big Breakfast". Bad move. $14.95 got us 3 full slices of bacon, two eggs, 1 big breakfast sausage, a huge slab of rump steak, 1 hash brown, a full grilled tomato, a small bowl of baked beans and two slices of toast. We ate the toast, beans, eggs, some bacon and GMan ate his sausage. We had the rest packed up to take back to Mary's and ended up having two more meals from the left overs.

I can see Richard lining up to go in for breakfast when he a Gill come through soon.

We had planned to go out to the Recreation Hotel for Paella, but when Chris rang to book despite having set up their paella dish they are not serving it as a regular item on the menu so we headed to the Albion Hotel with Mary, Mieke and Irene and Richie. We walked in and straight into another couple we used to work with previously Phil and Sue Virgin. Another nice night.

Our friend is out of hospital and home in Bathurst. He was upset that the dog was more interested in breakfast than greeting him when he got home - Sam however is a Labrador so normal behaviour. We had a chat and he sound well on the way to recovery.

Saturday was the crucial footy game of the week. Our two teams playing each other in Perth. We figured we couldn't lose no matter who won, but were really going for Port Adelaide. I was providing a meal for the 4 of us to nibble on and promised to not be anti-social and yell about the football happening in the background.

Nimmo's bakery near the Piccadilly Hotel is long closed however we managed to get the famous pasty slice of the area from Trahair's bakery which is still operational as the basis of the nibbles and added cold meat, Turkish bread, cheese, lettuce, antipasto and stuffed red peppers. Yummy.

Chris tried very hard not to yell, but did a couple of air pumps and small screeches in the first quarter then went very quite for the rest of the first half. PA was losing big time.

Mieke went home at half time and Mary very tolerantly let us watch the rest of the game and what a good second half it was. Both teams deserved to win but thank heaven PA got over the line running away to win well in the last 10 minutes. Smiles and happiness.

Sunday we are off to Mieke's for lunch and to inspect the vegetable garden, in fact the whole garden. She served us an Indonesian meal of Black chook, hot eggs as well as salad, toasted peanuts and coconut and her home made cucumber pickles from an enormous cauliflower she grew and names Snow White. It is now yellow with Tumeric.

Discussion with Mieke managed to isolate the name of the shop at the top of Hannan Street which was the grocer/station supplier. Sheedy's and further west down the same city block was the butcher shop Sheed's. No wonder I was confused.

Today, Monday we hit the road to cross the Nullabor again to arrive home on Saturday 20th September. In time for the footy game on Saturday evening.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Great perspective
Glad to see someone going off the beaten path. Sounds like a great place. Thanks for sharing.

[Shirley]

De Bernales
De Bernales also built the Cottesloe Civic Centre building - it used to be his home. My grandad was the electrician who installed the big chandeliers imported from Venice - numbered pieces of crystal with assembly plans. The building was (of course) mucked around with when it became the Civic Centre, but the gardens remained intact for many years. I have no idea what it's like now.