Saturday 25th July
With our house sitters installed we were able to depart Karnup feeling relatively easy about leaving the house. Both of our neighbours have been turned over in the last twelve months and although we believe that there was inside information involved and specific articles were targeted, it is still a little worrying.
We are heading north of course, that’s where the sun is! At this point in time we only have one specific destination in mind, https://wooleen.com.au/ ,we have wanted to go there since we watched a documentary about ten years ago. In brief it’s about a young bloke who took over a station that he grew up on which had been run into the ground, something it has in common with vast tracts of Western Australia. He decided to try to rejuvenate it, an extremely ambitious project. He and his partner are making some progress; it is a fascinating story and we want to go and see what they have achieved and what all the surrounding lease-holders were scathing about.
So, today we have decided that we just need to get round Perth and then stop, we have been pretty flat out and we are now on holiday. We managed to get away in good time about 1000 and the traffic on the freeway and round Perth was not too bad with a short stop for lunch at Bindoon, on the Great North Road. Time to check the wheel temperatures because I had adjusted the brakes and tightened the bearings recently.
After lunch it was a relatively short run through wheat and grass to Moora, a sheep and wheat town, where there is a free RV park at the back of the Shire Hall. There was only one other van there on a very large area of tarmac AND the sun was shining. We got out the chairs and enjoyed the sunshine. A short walk revealed a typical wheatbelt town that they are trying to make look a bit more presentable.
The list on the pedestal are the names of some of the horses who played a pivotal role in the development of the area, a rather nice touch we thought.
Sunday 26th July
Another leisurely start this morning because we have a very easy run today through very similar countryside. Although it is a bit dull to start with we can see the edge of the cloud and are heading towards it!
Since we had started at about ten o’clock we did not bother with morning tea and continued on to preferred night stop, I say, preferred because sometimes you get to a place and it is full of travellers, then you have to move on to the second preference! Today is no problem as we are the only ones there at the moment. This site is by a Community Hall, there are a couple of houses nearby but that’s it. These places have historically been used by all the services to the area, from church services through the CWA (Country Women’s Association), to dances and parties.
Most of these halls have memorials to the settlers who came here to take-up leases which had been granted for services to the nation in WWI. Of course, they were not farmers and they struggled with the land and in many cases the land won, when it did it resulted in destitution, illness and death, often by suicide.
It was a very hard life.
These communities are still well-knit and they like to commemorate those early settlers.
This is also wildflower country and in August, September and early October, the countryside is ablaze with colour, this attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area and adds valuable currency to local businesses, who ‘do it tough’, a pretty normal state of affairs. In fact they seem to be a bit early this year as we are seeing large areas of white and purple blooms already.
They have replacing the sleepers on this section of track and not far from the caravan is a pile of sleepers which we could have made good use of at home! However, there is a small pile of broken bits of sleeper, these are Jarrah a very hard wood. I collected about 40kg of bits of it and put in bag on the front of the caravan. We need wood for the campfire because there is none available at Wooleen.
It was a fairly quiet evening, two or three more travellers arrived but were no trouble. We spotted five satellites but only three of those could be confirmed because only one person claimed to have seen them!
Monday 27th July
Got away slightly earlier today although again we don’t have very far to go. We’re travelling in farming country initially but the scenery begins to change and quite soon we are in mulga (short stumpy and very hard bushes) country, the beginnings of cattle country.
This country is called the ‘rangelands’, has been ‘worn out’ by overstocking and very poor husbandry and is nearing the end of their useful life, where soil erosion from wind and rain has reduced the area, roughly the size of France, to very poor land.
Quite soon we’re back on a dirt roads again, this one is better than the sealed one we’ve just come off!
We stop for a quick break at the Grenough R crossing, there is a little water but no where near enough to sustain stock through the summer months.
Our friends Brad and Denise are heading this way from Kalbarri and we agree to meet at Ballinyoo Bridge where we can camp for the night before heading for Wooleen Station in the morning. We found a ‘two van’ spot and settled in to wait for them. They arrived eventually having had the distressing experience of finding a cow stuck in a cattle grid with her week-old calf bleating in the bush nearby. They saw that there was nothing they could do so they retraced their steps to the station and found no-one there but an old man who could said he could nothing until the crew came back and they would probably go tomorrow morning! A sad tale as it is likely neither would survive the night.
Having got themselves set up we gathered for a glass of wine overlooking the creek and caught up. Only one satellite tonight, too much moonlight we agreed.
Tuesday 28th July
First thing this morning is to take some pictures of the creek as the sun comes up and by chance a cooperative Whistling Kite.
We have only about 80 ks to drive to day so it is a very gentle start leaving around ten and stopping for morning tea about half way at the gates for Twin Peaks station, with it’s distinctive letter box and back drop of what decided to call ‘anthills’ because the trees on top of the hills look like ants going along the ridge!
Arriving at the Wooleen Homestead you can see immediately the difference having just driven through a hundred plus kilometres of mulga scrub, the homestead is surrounded by grass and there are green vegetables growing.
The lady of the station Frances explains that they have had a cancellation and would we like a river campsite instead of the one we had been allocated – we accept with alacrity. Before we head off, we use the station WiFi to catch up with the mail and use the showers, saving the water in the caravan.
Our campsite is great, sitting on the top of the bank overlooking the Murchison River, there is some water, it is below flowing levels but is clear and clean.
After getting established and a late lunch its time for a bit of a rest a read with a cup of tea.
As the sun starts to sink its time to think about getting the fire set, this usually Roger’s job, one he always seems happy to do – a bit of a pyrhomaniac?
Only one verified satellite tonight I think we must be losing our touch, instead we blame the moon!
Wednesday 29th July
There is an Evening Tour here which we think would be interesting but it only goes if there are enough people interested, so after a very leisurely morning and then lunch we head up to the homestead to see if there will be a tour. Great stuff, there are enough people interested. In addition Francis says, if we don’t mind them coming to do some maintenance around our campsite in the morning we can stay for Thursday night as well, excellent.
We have an hour or so to have a look round the ‘museum’, essentially this is the station junk pile that has been more or less organised into some (but not much!) sort of order.The product of the brickmaking machine can be seen in many places around the homestead, whilst the livery is in a pretty parlous state generally.
It is an intriguing place to visit, the history of the station is encapsulated in this ‘museum’, we spent some time looking through the rooms.
The tour, led by David who is the leaseholder for Wooleen, takes us through a small part of this station which extends to 150,000 hectares (375,000 acres), the key topic is how he is slowly regenerating this vast area after over a 150 years of gradual deterioration. We’re looking at one part of Wooleen Lake, which has some water in it every 2/3 years , little more every 5/6 years and fills every 9/10 years. Whilst this doesn’t sound very much, if the the stocking levels are controlled to suit the availability of feed, then it is sustainable. Unfortunately, David is the first pastorialist to attempt to do this, sadly with virtually no help from government or his neighbours! After 16 years of very hard times, it clear, even to the uninitiated that things are changing.
Whilst the plants above may not look attractive to us, they ice cream’ to cattle. If you look carefully you can see young green shoots, this means it is perennial grass rather than annual and this is what David and Frances are trying to get Wooleen to grow again. Also it is difficult to see but the grass plants cause a build up of soil round their base which prevents it from being blown away into the next paddock. Incidentally, the tree in the picture is approximately 350 years old, things grow very slowly here but once established they tend to hang in there!
We learned a tremendous amount about the problems associated with this endeavour but David is so passionate and committed to the task, that together with his equally confident wife Frances, we think they will succeed.
Friday 310st July
This morning we leave Wooleen but I think, if at all possible, we will return, if only to see what David and Frances hav achieved. Eventually we
Our first stop is for morning tea, we arbitarily chose a place to pull off the road to find that we have a chosen a fairly popular spot where people have decided to make patterns with stones on the top of a rise in the land. Although the photos don’t show it that well, the Spiral and the circles have been done with significant care and thought, e.g. in the circle the stones have been sized from large to small in concentric circles.
Why here one wonders, Mullewa is 250 ks to the south, Gascoyne Junction is 200ks to the north and apart from a few stations well off the road, that’s about it?
Our next stop is Bilung Pool, where we think we will stay tonight.
Alloveroz 