Wednesday 21st September
Having paid our respects to Queen Elizabeth II, we repacked the few things that we had removed from the caravan and set out again for wildflower country, our original destination. We know a couple of our friends are in the area and we plan to catch up with them at a place called Canna.
Avoiding the metropolis our first night stop is at one of our favourite spots, Lake Ninan and what a surprise – all the other times we’ve been here there’s been at least 100m of sand to the water but today the water is lapping at the parking area.
An indication of how much rain they have here recently.
Thursday is an easy run up to Canna, we arrive a short time before Barry and Carol and have decided on a camp site (for their approval). There is plenty of space here and very few other campers.
This old hut is situated on the camping area here at Canna. The board explains
The picture bottom left is of the graves of his two dogs.
This is wildflower country and usually the flowers would be drying out by this time. However, as this year has been wet and cold it’s resulted in a later season and they are still looking very good.
Wildflower country covers a significant area of the mid’ west, roughly 400ks northeast of Perth but the Morowa, Mullowa, Yalgoo triangle is the most popular and has one particular area where the leschenaultia, or ‘wreath flower’, is particularly numerous.
In the last few days we have been out and about in the area looking at the flowers but generally visiting places that we have not spent time in before. There are many old communities here and therefore quite a bit of local history.
As you look at these pictures it is worth reflecting that in 6-8 weeks this area will have returned to a sunburnt landscape.
So, here are some flower pictures and other local places of interest.
We also discovered three Quandong trees which were quite full of fruit. We tried the fruit but it was very dry and, probably due to the considerable amount of rain we’ve had this winter, the fruit was rotten inside which is unusual apparently.
The fruit was used as a part of the staple diet for the aboriginals in the area and the nuts were used for medicinal purposes.
The exploration and settlement of this area, which incidentally was all about finding gold, only lasted for a relatively brief spell in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Canna itself was active in that period and has several quite interesting old buildings, including the church and the ‘inevitable’ ironwork scultures that accompany or, include the information about them.
An interesting bit of building work
At another old mining town Gutha, the ‘village hall’ is still in use and its ironwork outside shows that dancing in full evening dress was often the order of the day.
At War Rock a board explains that the big fights between different aboriginal tribes weren’t wars, just squables between them! It has two ‘gnamma holes’ (natural water holes), which of course were used by the aboriginal people in the area.
As with many other ‘rocks’, stub walls were built round them to direct winter rains water to a dam.
This is the dam that was built in the early 20th century and a covered water tank that was added later, the combination supplying farmers in the area until the end of the century.
A bit further away is an oddity in this part of the world, i.e. a coal mine. It is now part of the Coalseam Conservation Park and is where coal deposits were first mined in WA. The exposed coal seams on the banks of the Irwin River were discovered by prospectors looking for gold who then changed from mining gold to coal. Unfortunately, the seams were in fact quite shallow and it was not a viable proposition to mine it and so it was abandoned.
However, the park is rich in history and geology and exposed bands of coal seams can still be seen, along with siltstones, claystones and sandstones that are exposed as stripes in the cliff faces and reveal 250 million years of ecological history.
Monday was a rest day and today Tuesday 27th September, Barry and Carol and ourselves are leaving Canna to go our separate ways, Barry and Carol towards home, via two visits to their daughters in Perth and us north…………………………….!
Alloveroz 