kathndes: December 2010

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Happy Christmas

#Our time at the Dryandra woodlands was very enjoyable. There are some ruins of old milling times and we were able to watch for the wildlife on dusk at one of the remaining dams. The story of Vincent Serventy, one of the original and “true” greenies, was heart-wrenching. He loved the Australian bush and did lots of studies and work to help preserve it and the animals. We have included a copy of his dream in the photos. The bush here is really suffering and has had no rain during the winter. Summer will bring all sorts of problems. After leaving Dryandra we headed towards the coast. Stopped in a small town called Dwellingup. Lots of interesting things to see and do, so we camped 4kl out of town. A bush fire in 1961 levelled the town (with the exception of 6 buildings) and surrounding villages. We camped where one of the villages once stood. There is the remains of an old POW camp here. We found it very interesting and haunting. They held prisoners from Italy and Germany here. The Italians were transported out to help with the farming and the Germans were held because they were seen as a risk and they cut firewood. There’s several of this type of camp in the SW corner apparently. This area is very heavily timbered and with no winter rains, all the parks have been on full bushfire alert since Dec 1^st. This usually starts on Dec 15^th each year. We stayed here a week while waiting to go to Des’s son near Perth. We did a trip to the coastal town of Mandurah one day. It is just another Surfers Paradise really. Very nice, but very commercial. Our first real touch with heavy civilization since we started out. We are in the ranges just east of Mandurah but the days are getting quite hot. Evenings are very cool however. We did a walk to the local falls, but there’s absolutely NO water running there. The bush is starting to struggle. We also took a “forest drive” and saw the local area Dam. It is incredibly low and unless a cyclonic influence comes through during summer, it will be bad news by the beginning of winter next year. It’s strange to us to realise all the rains come in winter. How horrible must that be. Along part of the drive, we came across two very large pipes (we couldn’t quite work out if it was a covered conveyor belt or a pipe) running for miles through the bush, transporting bauxite to the treatment works. There is some areas around here mining the bauxite deposits under the jarrah forests. We even saw one wheat farmer who has apparently sold his land to be mined. We hope to do the Alcoa mines tour when I come back in January. Yesterday we did a 6.5km walk to see the ruins of another town devastated by the 1961 fires. The walk goes to the local cemetery where you can still see the effects of that dreadful January day. Many headstones blackened by the intense heat. Very heart wrenching. They are still trying to catalogue who is buried there as all records were destroyed. Des has enquired about doing some volunteer work with Dept of Conservation in Dwellingup when he comes back here about Jan 4^th. He would like to help tidy up the POW campsite we went through. We have found a local orchard selling at the gate, new season stone fruit etc. We think we are in heaven. The prices are ridiculous compared with what the supermarkets charge in Qld for stone fruit. Peaches, nectarines and plums at $4 per kilo. We will take lots to Perth with us. Lots of vans in this spot now. 6 campers in total. We had the place to ourselves for 3 days. Headed off to Aaron’s on 14^th. A nice trip about 1 1/2hrs towards Perth. It has been a wonderful few days here. We went to dinner a couple of nights ago and saw a fabulous sunset. (Photo included). I couldn’t believe the colour. Well, friends, as this will probably be our last posting before Christmas, may we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Take care and we’ll be in contact in the new year.

Vincent Serventy's dream vision for Australia

Part of the story of an incredible man. We found his story very moving.

Entrance to the POW campsite near Dwellingup

ruins at the POW campsite

POW campsite ruins

bauxite conveyor belt running through the forest

our campsite near Dwellingup

burnt headstones at Hollyoake cemetry

evening sunset in Perth

Monday, December 6, 2010

wheat belt travels

From Esperance we travelled to Munglinup and had 4 nights at the beach. One good day and then the gale force winds found us again. We’d had enough of the beaches at this stage so headed inland. We travelled through Ravensthorpe to Hyden (Wave Rock country). The country has a lot of area effected by saline and we passed several large salt lakes. One of these was Lake King and it is one of the smaller ones. There's a lot of salt in creek beds and in the fields also. This is part of the southern wheat belt, very dry this season, and many crops failed. Wave Rock was quite impressive and some photos show the wall built on top to direct water into the local dam. Met some people from Nambour in Hyden who told us about “The Tin Horse Highway”, where farmers have made statues of horses out of old farm machinery and drums. We took 34 photos, but will show you only a couple. They were hilarious and very clever. This took us to Kulin where we stayed overnight. Had to go to Corrigin to get car tyres rotated under warranty and saw the local DOG CEMETRY. This was started by a local burying his dog in a grave and has gone on from there. People travel for miles to bury their dogs here. They have to get permission off the local council, so has turned out to be bigger than Ben Hur (see photo). Travelled north through more wheat stubble to Kokerbin Rock (the third largest monolith in Australia, after Mt. Augustus then Ayres Rock). The photos don’t really do it justice, as it is very large. We camped 3 nights here, with great facilities. We climbed to the top to look at more wheat fields. It’s hard to imagine how large the wheat belt is out here. We have just touched on a small part of it, and we have travelled about 600klm through it. Travelled NE and got to Northam. A very pretty town on the Avon River. Here we saw the rare white swans. This part of the country is very dry as they missed all the winter rains and the river level is quite low. Camped at Noble Falls (no water, mind you) 5kl NE of Gidgegannup (find this on your map!!!) A nice spot where Des may spend his “free time” while I’m in Qld. Left here and travelled out of the Perth hills and almost reached Midland before we headed east again up the escarpment to Mundaring. A very pretty, well established town on the way to York. This town has a lot of heritage listed buildings. Wandered around in 40 degree heat and were going to stay at the van park until we discovered they wanted $32 per night. Went on to the small town of Beverley where we stayed for $22 per night and had free use of the washing machine. All these small towns are very clean and tidy and some residents are very yard proud as well. Considering the lack of water and the surrounding country looking as thought it has no life at all, the townspeople really make an effort. The photo of the restored railway station and the mural on an adjoining wall are examples of this. On through the wheat to Brookton where there are a couple of displays of old drays and wagons. From there we travelled to Narrogin (a much cooler day today) and got some good info at the visitor’s centre and camped at a nice campground in the Dryandra woodlands just north of Narrogin. We did a night excursion at the local animal sanctuary for endangered species. Following an introductory talk we did a spotlight tour of the compound where we was some rufous hare-wallaby, bilbies, burrowing bettongs and others. They run breeding programs to re-introduce these to the wild. Very interesting.