Chapter 5 Gunbarrel Highway Saturday 3 August Coolgardie To
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Chapter 5 Gunbarrel Highway Saturday 3rd August Coolgardie to Goanna Patch Approx 353kms The rooster woke us again this morning but then some other noisy birds started squawking. Dean went outside with the camera and was surprised to find a large cage outside Room 1 with a pair of Princess Parrots inside. That takes the cake, travelling with your parrots because they would pine for you! There was no room in the back of the 4WD for any luggage. We filled up our water tank with the revolting chlorinated water and got on the road again at 9.45am. The water was not considered revolting when it was piped up 557kms from Perth in 1903, in a very successful grand scheme initiated by C O’Connor. Now Dean was happy with the Oka we could continue our planned journey. We travelled back to Kalgoorlie where we refuelled noting the odometer was out by 10kms. Shopping for more jeans we found they had gone up by $12 in two days! Then we tried five different shops trying to get Dean a windcheater without a hood. No luck whatsoever. I wanted to put the one he was wearing fixing the Oka and covered in grease in the bin but I had to take it home and wash it. I washed it with ‘Richard’s Grease Stripper’ and I couldn’t believe it got all the grease out. He is still wearing it on the next car he is fixing, a Holden Commodore. Ughhh. Finally heading north at 11.30am we continued along the familiar tracks of the Goldfields Highway and stopped for lunch at the old site of Comet Vale. There was nothing much to see of course but a few drums of old railway spikes and a pile of fishplates. We continued on through Menzies and Leonora yet again. A large mob of motor bike riders passed us going north to who knows where. Another hour or so later we tried to find a camp for the night, the light was fading and Deano had had enough. There was nothing on our map south of Leinster but we suddenly came upon a familiar place, Goanna Patch/Thunderbox. This was another historic place where drovers discovered enough gold to fill a powdered milk tin and didn’t return to the station with the sheep. But apparently the gold rush didn’t last long. We had lunch at this spot in 2010 on our way to the Canning Stock Route. Dean cut some more wood and made a lovely campfire. Bringing back memories from the Caning Stock Route trip we then rang Sue and Phil Wild who had travelled with us. They were about to leave on a trip to Birdsville and Poeppel Corner and on to Emerald in Queensland and then to Cairns and Brisbane where they would meet up with relatives. We were surprised the mobile phone worked but we were fairly close to Leinster. Sue had been crook with a dreadful cold but was very excited to be getting away. Dean and Phil had a good long chat. Tea tonight was honey soy chicken stir fry followed by berry cheesecake. After a cuppa it was into bed. My book ‘Return to the High Country’ is a bit odd and quite different from the first, a bit too much overview and lovely dovey perfect, not normally the stuff written by blokes, and I can’t decide whether to finish it. (Actually I still haven’t). One of Kalgoorlie’s Historic Buildings A biker mob going somewhere Deano enjoying everything 2 Sunday 4th August Goanna Patch to Mingal Pool via Wiluna 272kms As we were about 45kms south of Leinster there was a fair bit of traffic along the road overnight mainly trucks and 4WDs but we slept okay. We got away just after 8am and travelled steadily along the bitumen to Wiluna. The only significant place was the Mt Keith Mining site which appeared huge. Near here was Wanjarri Nature Reserve, once Wanjarri Station taken up by John Currie in 1920. He left it to his son in law Tom Moriarty who was more interested in bird watching and prospecting than raising sheep. When he retired he suggested to the Government that it should be a nature reserve. It was purchased in 1971 as one of the first pastoral leases in WA to become a nature reserve. There were a few wedge tailed eagles seen flying off from their gourmet meals of road kill. Bright purple flowers as well as bright yellow senna were also lining the road making it look more interesting. We arrived at Wiluna at 1030am which boasts of being ‘The Gateway to the Canning Stock Route and the Gunbarrrel Highway’ and also the ‘Edge of the Desert’ and it is that. We checked out some of their notices boards and one of them was information on the Canning Stock Route and how Oka’s were not to travel on the sensitive area of the first five wells. This was what we were going to do but having lost a week or two in Coolgardie we decided to give it a miss this time. We met a young couple in a tray top camper who were travelling the Gunbarrel Highway too but we didn’t see them again until near the Warburton turnoff at the other end of it. Refuelling at the roadhouse we spoke to a fellow in a cattle truck who was going out to Wongawol Station on the Gunbarrel with a load of hay and supplies, and to take cattle mostly Red Angus, back somewhere south of Perth for fattening up before being sent to market. We left him filling his tanks so we could get ahead of him and keep out of his dust. We also found that our odometer was out about 8% which was not doing us any good with our daily mileage calculations. Welcome to Wiluna and Monument to the last of the desert aborigines 3 Wiluna Police Station and Club Hotel The road to the east of Wiluna, the beginning of the Gunbarrel Highway is actually the Wongawol Road or Wiluna Carnegie Road and is bitumen for about 10kms then a wide gravel road. It isn’t really the Gunbarrel Highway until Carnegie Station. We passed the turnoff to Granite Peak Station, Lorna Glen and Violet Station and Glen Ayle where we had to go in the Oka to Well 5 on our Canning Stock Route trip as we weren’t allowed on Cunya Station. A cattle truck was coming towards us with dust spewing out behind him decreasing visibility. Soon after, the road train driver we had just met at Wiluna came on the CB and said “Is that you Nigel, I can see your dust?” Nigel had come from Wongawol with a load of cattle and as the blokes stopped for a chat we didn’t have to worry about being too slow for the truck. A cattle truck spews dust reducing visibility 4 As we travelled along the good road with the drone of the engine and non-changing countryside I was almost in the land of nod when Dean asked, where would we stop for lunch? I had to get my mind into gear and read the maps. I came up with Yelma Stockyard for lunch and Mingal Pool for our overnight camp, and both were good choices. Yelma Sation was apparently started in 1900 but is now part of Wongawol Station. By the road were substantial yards and a working windmill with an overflowing water tank. We enjoyed our usual salad sandwiches and a cuppa as well as a good break before continuing on at 1.30pm. Yelma Station yards Banjo Creek Interesting wildflowers Cassia, and Dead Finish (wattle) that cattle eat as the last resort in times of drought 5 A little further along a salt pan was marked on the map but it now had water in it and it flowed into Banjo Creek. The scrub was the usual mulga and acacia scattered with a few eucalypts. Wongawol Creek was quite wide and sandy with pools to the left and right though the crossing was dry. Here there were more stock yards on the west side with a good looking camping spot on the east side. Several more dry water ways were crossed as we headed through the Princess Ranges. On the east side of the ranges we came upon Wongawol Station which is situated between a couple of major waterways flowing into Lake Carnegie to the south. Near the homestead there was evidence of the recent rainfall, perhaps the same as the deluge we had on the Anne Beadell Highway. The road narrowed a little after Wongawol Station but was still pretty good as we then travelled through Charles Wells Creek, Wonabooline Creek and passed Scholl Bore. We noted some interesting purple plants we had not seen before and stopped for some photos but couldn’t identify them. Further along, we came to Mobadoo Bore and yards near Scholl Creek. It was good to see there had been rain in the area. A Robinson Helicopter was flying rather low to the south so Dean gave him a big wave. I could see dust off in the distance and reckoned it was another cattle truck; Dean finally believed me when it came through the trees. Then at 3.15pm we arrived at Mingal Pool and stock camp. This is officially called Harry Johnson Water, a semi-permanent waterhole on Carnegie Station. We were not here to simply drive from one end to the other so we stopped at this very suitable campsite to enjoy the area.