Tuesday 14th June

A very leisurely start this morning heading north towards Northam, taking morning tea at Kulyaling old school site. At Northam we passed under the Great Eastern and stopped for lunch just south of Goomalling. Pat had found a spot that looked pretty good to the south and east of Wongon Hills on Lake Ninan. The site is a flat graded area about 500m long by 50m, today there is one other vehicle here but they are at the western end. The lake seems to be a clay pan but with a fair amount of salt in it.

We decided this was a good spot for the night and got ourselves settled. It was bit later than we usually stop for the night but the sun was still shining, the wind wasn’t too strong and it was pretty quiet, what more could you ask for? Even had time for a sit down in the sun with the crossword / sudoku!

The sunset was pretty special;

We slept well and the diesel heater came on at 0700 so it was nice and warm when we got up.

The sun was shining this morning but the wind was a bit stronger. We decided to go for a walk, head into wind outbound, so it was a bit easier on the way back. We noted that there were very few indications of birds or other wildlife which is unusual around water sources, even salt lakes. We enjoyed the hour or so walk.

If you read the board on the left you’ll see that less than 100 years ago this was a fresh water lake used for sailing, swimming and other water sports but it was also used for water supplies to the surrounding towns and communities. The right side shows what it’s like now!

So all you people in WA and elsewhere in Australia who want nice green lawns in the summer, this is what you are doing to an underground reservoir near you!

Another beautiful day, another walk, another sunset and another bright moonlight night. Actually, we had the full moon on Tuesday, a supermoon, I think.

We managed to break the shower slider last night, not irrevocably but will need to dig out the gaffer tape I suspect.

So the moon by day and the sun by night!

We’ve stayed here and enjoyed the rest but we’re leaving tomorrow, Friday, to see if we can find somewhere equally pleasant.

Friday 17th June

Unfortunately, no! We headed north after trying to replace the shower in Wongan Hills, they nearly had the right bit! We tried again in Dalwallinu, who had even less stock than the previous store! Made up for it by having morning tea here.

It was looking pretty dark all round and as we pulled up for lunch it started to rain and continued for the rest of the afternoon, even whilst refuelling at Paynes Find.

Most of the stopping places up here are beside the main drag and with continuous truck movements can be very noisy up to midnight and then early in the morning. For tonight, Pat has found us somewhere about 2 ks off the highway. It doesn’t look too bad but we’ll need make sure that a bit of rain won’t make things difficult.

Saturday 18th June

Well the the Friday night pitch was OK even though we had a fair amount of rain.  

Saturday 18th June

In fact we had picked the right part of the clearing because a Troopy came in later and when we got up we could see that had had a bit of a problem getting out!

We set off back to the GNH and had a reasonably easy run up to Cue. We have been through here a few times but never stopped to have a look round.

This place is, like most of these old goldfields towns, very interesting. Cue was founded by one Tom Cue who found gold near what is now the Fire Station. Gold was discovered in 1892 and two miners dug up 260 ounces! Tom Cue found his own gold close by and rode 80ks to register his claim.

Within days 400 men had headed for the area, the community became a municipality in 1894 and the population quickly grew to 10,000.

Just down the road another claim was pegged and the turn of the century became the largest gold mine in Western Australia. A town grew here just 5 ks from Cue and at one point had seven hotels.

Having got settled in and had some lunch we went for a walk round the town. Some lovely old buildings remain and a lot of work has been done to some.

Old Government buildings now occupied by the Police and Visitors Centre.

Sunday 19th June

Had to repair the shower this morning! It fell apart at Lake Ninan and it was only in Mt Magnet, at the Murchison Emporium, that were lucky enough to find one which could be modified ! Unfortunately, we couldn’t find an exact replacement but Roger was able to modify it.

So this morning armed with a hacksaw (borrowed from next door) the new shower was fitted and tested!

By this time it was lunch time but we did get out and about to grab some more photos for you!

Hope there’s enough photos for you! There are more to come!

Monday 20th June

We’ve had three days here in Cue and this morning we went out to Walga Rock, where there are aboriginal rock paintings. Unfortunately time and weather have not been kind but some are still quite easy to see.

Now this is very interesting. At first sight you might put this down to fairly modern graffiti. However, there is writing underneath it, which doesn’t look like English.

If you expand the screen, you will see that the writing includes lots of long up and down strokes which are pretty typical of 16th / 17th century text.

Our theory, for what it’s worth, is that some explorers, possibly the Dutch, got this far from the coast, found the aboriginal artworks and decided to add their own.

On the way back to Cue we dropped in at Big Bell, a goldmine which was working from 1935 until 1955. it shut down during the war but the returning soldiers and other previous workers and their families returned. There’s not much left now in the way of buildings as most of the materials have ‘salvaged’! All the streets are still obvious and you can see most of the concrete bases for the houses where the 5000 population lived. The one building that has survived is the Big Bell Hotel.

Monday 20th June

We decided on another day here in Cue going for a walk and generally taking it easy.

Tuesday 21st June

We’re heading north again and the next stop will be Meekatharra. It’s another old mining town that has seen better days but is kept alive by the bigger mines in the area and a fair amount of FIFO business. The airport is very good with 7000 and 5000′ runways, a result of wartime needs for the big bombers. The town has a well-stocked IGA and a bakery that actually makes it’s own bread and a centrally sited food van that makes ‘real’ coffee. All very tasty! What’s more we’ve been able to stock up on Times Crosswords because the newspapers come in every day, albeit the following day!