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Wheatbelt and Goldfields

May - June 2022
Granite rock stars around Merredin
Kalgoorlie
Sculptures at Lake Ballard
Historic Goldfields
Coastal route back to Perth via Dongara Read more
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  • TravelerWheatbelt and Goldfields
    Day 1

    Kwolyn Campsite and Kockerbin Rock

    May 21, 2022 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    It seems like the best way to start a road trip is to have breakfast with our dear daughter Kai. We were supposed to leave yesterday, but due to all sorts of commitments we left a day later, and being Saturday today, breakfast with Kai was possible.
    By
    It was a quick stop at York, which is now marked for a longer stay in the future. Then just over an hour's drive from there to Kwolyn campsite.
    Kwolyn was once a thriving town but now a ghost town. Only farmlands and this campsite is all that is left of of the town, with ruins left from a bygone era.
    As usual, we hit the ground running. No sooner had we set the tent up, before we were off on a hike to the nearest rock called Coarin Rock on the railway loop trail. This town even had rail once upon a time. There were also so many sticky flies, so much so that fly nets had to be deployed to put up the tent and stayed on for the duration of the hike too.
    As we still had an hour and the half of daylight left. Not to waste the good weather and the beautiful day, we quickly set off to check out another monolith called Kockerbin Rock. It is the third largest monolith in Australia.This time we did the circuit taking us to the summit and back. Beautiful views from the top but what was most fascinating was the gradual colour change of the rock to a pink hue as the sun was setting. The historic well was surprisingly large. Many concrete wells were built by large granite outcrops to catch the water runoffs.
    We were glad for pre cooked frozen meals as it was dark by the time we got back to our tent. It was chicken cacciatore, polenta and fresh lettuce from our garden before a spot of stargazing. This free campsite has flushing toilets, although we did not use their kitchen.    Read more

  • TravelerWheatbelt and Goldfields
    Day 2

    Elachbutting Rock Campsite

    May 22, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We had breakfast decamped and were on the road by 9am. I thought that was pretty quick and efficient. We headed towards Eaglestone Rock. On the way we stopped at Shackleton where there is the smallest bank in Australia, open only on Fridays from 3pm-430pm. Then we visited the lack luster Bruce Rock and onto Totadgin Rock, where Charles Hunt conducted expeditions in search of water. After a short but informative walk, we headed for Merriden.
    Found the only cafe open for some lunch. Everything was shut in Merriden. Super sleepy town. After Merriden we visited Eaglestone Rock. We had planned to camp therebut after a little wander around the rock, we decided to head to Elachbutting Rock because this campsite is closer to the other Rock attractions and if the weather turned bad we could camp here for 2 nights to wait out the bad weather.
    The only complaint we have is that there are so many flies, so much so that one of the campers remarked that we could potentially be carried away.    Read more

  • TravelerWheatbelt and Goldfields
    Day 3

    Beringbooding and Bonnie Rock

    May 23, 2022 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    Storms were forecasted for today and yesterday but it ony drizzled last night. When we woke up this morning it was beautiful. We had blue skies dotted with the Simpson's clouds. So we decided to venture to Beeringbooding Rock before the weather came in.
    On the way there was a sign to Bonnie Rock townsite so we thought we'd go there first.
    Bonnie Rock was an old town built for Sandlewood cutting. It had 3 streets and a hall that was used for church services, school and dances. The highlight was that Ruby found the toilets with....hot showers. Alas, the shower water heater wasn't working. Nonetheless, I was determined to have a shower, despite the freezing water. Refreshed and revived. Ruby then braved the cold and had a shower too. The use of the shower just required a gold coin donation. Bonnie Rock townsite will be placed on our campsite list for future reference especially during wildflower season.
    Beeringbooding Rock has Australia's largest rock water catchment with a tank that can hold 2 million gallons of water . It was built in 1937 by labour from the unemployed in Perth for the farmers who were struggling with a lack of water supply. By the time the project was finished in 1941, all the farmers but one had given up and left the area. The network of low stone walls to channel water from the large granite rock of Beeringbooding to the tank is extremely effective, and the tank is still servicing the farms around the area. There is a large gnamma water hole called Kangaroo Pool. We could not find the aboriginal rock painting in the area. Lunch of cheese, pickled gerkins and crackers was had at the picnic table there.
    On our way back into our campsite, we stopped at the sign marked Walk Trails for Elachbutting Rock. It was a very short trail to a wave rock feature, the fascinating Monty's Pass and a cave beyond that.    Read more

  • TravelerWheatbelt and Goldfields
    Day 4

    Elachbutting Peak

    May 24, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    After our explorations yesterday, we had a cup of tea with fellow campers, siblings Noel and Sue. They each have their own extremely well setup caravans, and are staying at this campsite for 10 days. They told us that we can get mobile phone reception at the peak, and at the top of the 4WD track. Noel showed us his special track to the peak, but the rain turned us back before we summited. It was incredible how a bit of rain made the rock so very slippery. We took refuge in our car to sit and watch the storm pass. A quick heat up of our pre cooked meal for dinner when there was a lull in the storm, and a fast hike up the 4WD track to check in with Kai. We were in our tent before 6pm, and the storm blew, galed, gusted and pelted down on us all night. Grace checked the tent pegs in the middle of the night and all was still secure. The rain stopped this morning, but the winds were still gusty.

    After breakfast, we met Noel and Sue when we walked towards the 4WD track again. They were so pleased to hear that we weathered the storm so well, and Sue told us that they are Christians, and had prayed for us last night. We wanted to explore further up the 4WD track, and managed to get to the summit from there. As the wind died down some when we got back to camp, the flies emerged. We decided to set up our shade tent to eat in peace without bothersome flies, and to have some shelter should it rain in the afternoon. Just in the time of writing this entry, the weather has changed from sunny to rain. Hoping the rain won't blow into our shade tent and we can sit here to wait it out.    Read more

  • TravelerWheatbelt and Goldfields
    Day 5

    Baladjie Rock and Westonia

    May 25, 2022 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    We woke early and set off straight after decamping as we had a long drive to Kalgoorlie. We wanted to fit in Baladjie Rock and Westonia town as well because we were told that Westonia had a quaint little Hood Penn museum, before Kalgoorlie.
    We were so early and organised, we even had cold coffee prepared the night before, to have before we left the campsite and instant noodles when we got to Baladjie Rock for brunch.
    Baladjie Rock was a beautiful rock formation with lots of caves but we didn't stay long.
    We were so blissfully away from everything, we even forgot about wearing a mask, Covid, or any related issues. When we got to Westonia, the visitor's centre lady had a mask on, and told us that Covid has arrived in town and they were taking precautions. They even provided mask for the visitors if we wanted one. To enter the Hood Penn museum, you went in from the visitors centre which was also the town library and the council office, all at the same counter served by the only staff. The lady explained that it saved having volunteers risk being exposed to Covid. The museum was very good. It started when Hood at eleven started picking bottles and signs from the bush and taking them home to his mother's horror. This together with donations of antiques pertinent to Westonia became the collection of the museum today.
    We made it to Kalgoorlie by 4.30pm. Had a yummy pub dinner and now back at the accomdation.    Read more

  • TravelerWheatbelt and Goldfields
    Day 7

    Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie

    May 27, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We are doing yesterday's and today's entry together.
    Yesterday, we had breakfast at DeBernales and a visit to Everett Butcher. An amazing butcher with about the best pies and sausage rolls we've ever had. Proper chunky pieces of steak in their pies. Then lots of mundane chores to catch up on in Kalgoorlie, like the washing, airing the wet tent, charging up devices and tool batteries and last but not least cleaning, vacuuming the car. Once we got all that done, we were just happy to sit and watch Netflix until dinner time. We had dinner at The Balcony Restaurant at the Palace Hotel where Herbert Hoover stayed before he was President of the United States of America. He was working as a manager of a gold mine in Kalgoorlie and became thoroughly smittened by a bar maid here. He infact was so besotted, he even wrote a poem about his tryst with her.

    Today was an easy going day where we decided to take a drive to Coolgardie which was once the third largest town in Western Australia during the Gold Rush years. Ruby and I were intrigued with the golden pipeline that delivers water from Mundaring in Perth all the way to Kalgoorlie, 650km of pipe. The project was commissioned in 1896 and completed in 1903, at a cost of almost $6million. It was much needed as water in the goldfields then costed more than whisky.

    There were churches, a mosque and a synagogue in Coolgardie. Coolgardie is also famed for the Coolgardie safe that was used to preserve food before the time of refrigeration. There was also a great museum in Coolgardie. Like Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie had very wide roads and beautiful architecture. After lunch we got a self guided audio walking tour of Kalgoorlie and Boulder from the visitors centre. We heard about the history, notoriety and fame of the buildings in the main street called Hannan Street, and tomorrow we will continue a few more buildings in Kalgoorlie and finish the Boulder part of the tour. We had Thai for dinner and are now turning in for the night.    Read more

  • TravelerWheatbelt and Goldfields
    Day 8

    Boulder

    May 28, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Today was the audio tour of Boulder and a visit to the Goldfields museum. Boulder was the town where the miners and their family lived during the Gold Rush whereas, Kalgoorlie was where the engineers and professionals lived and worked.

    The afternoon was spent in the museum.
    The museum had a gold vault. One nugget that was found in Boulder was 24kg. There was also the old British Arms pub and cottage decked out like in 1900s.    Read more

  • TravelerWheatbelt and Goldfields
    Day 9

    Lake Ballard

    May 29, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Departed from Airbnb cottage at about 9am.
    Got petrol and almost 100km out of Kalgoorlie towards Menzies and Lake Ballard, Grace exclaimed that we forgot to buy ice. It is Sunday morning, and we don't know if anything will be open in little Menzies. Fortunately, a little pocket size general store trading from the side door of the hotel was opened, and yes, it sold ice.

    Lake Ballard is a dry salt lake. When we arrived, all we could see was flat red earth with a little hillock in the middle foreground. and shadows of Anthony Gormley's sculptures shimmered in the distance.

    We were determined to walk to all the 51 sculptures and greet each one individually. After walking about 6km around the lake, quite a bit of that in mud, we only acquainted with 28 of them. The ones closer to the shore where us humans start from are closer together, about 70-100m apart. However, the further away, the further apart they are. You can barely make out another sculpture in the distance when get to one. Walking back, we were wondering how to describe the experience. These words came to our mind:
    Ethereal
    Spiritual
    Serene
    Extra terrestrial

    By the way, the sun is not even set, and it's already freezing.    Read more

  • TravelerWheatbelt and Goldfields
    Day 10

    Gwalia and The Terraces

    May 30, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We woke at the crack of dawn to climb up the hill and also hello to another 8 of our sculpture friends spanning 2.5 km between them. The dawn colours were amazing and viewing the sculptures at this time was quite different to the evening.
    Gwalia is an old mining town where Herbert Hoover was the mining engineer and manager of the Sons of Gwalia Mining Company. He designed and commissioned the building of Hoover House for his living quarters in 1936. It is now a restored ghost town by the Historical Society of Gwalia after the closure of the mine saw to the population walk out of the town leaving everything behind.
    The Terraces is a stretch of rock formation where the erosions have left a range of breakaways, that is caves, and beautiful rock formations. We are the only ones camped here. We are here for 2 nights. The drive in was long and not advisable after rains.    Read more

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