Graham and Chris on Tour 2014 – Update #16 – Kennedy Ranges to Kalgoorlie-Boulder

The Kennedy Ranges are due east of Carnarvon through the Gascoyne Junction, a total distance of about 230km. A nice comfortable days drive. About 40km out we dropped into Rocky Pool, a spot where the people from Carnarvon will often come for a swim and a picnic and where there is supposed to be some petrified wood which we were unfortunately unable to find. A little disappointed we pushed on to Gascoyne Junction.

Hand made road for wool carting by horse and cart – Gascoyne

Arriving at Gascoyne Junction we were gob smacked. Everything was new and pristine. Obvious millions of $’s had been spent on the place. Brand new caravan park and road house with new streets and intersections that would make any country town proud. The population of Gascoyne Junction could not be any more that a 100 or so.  Apparently much of the town had been wiped out by flooding of the Gascoyne River a few year back and the roadhouse and tourist facilities have been completely rebuilt by the local shire. Albeit positioned on higher ground. The need for the tourist dollars to flow into this small rural township was the obvious motivation.

We filled up with diesel then headed north to the Kennedy ranges, a distance of around 50km. We set up in the only camp ground in the ranges. There were about half a dozen campers and a camp host. Western Australia Parks and Wildlife use camp hosts extensively in their national parks. The camp hosts are an army of volunteers usually in their 60’s who spend a few months of the tourist season in their designated camp ground to collect the fees, allocate camping spots, clean the amenities and generally keep an eye on things. They are a fabulous bunch of people who go out of their way to make your stay as pleasant as possible. Their presence is also beneficial in keeping the use of generators within the defined hours of operation. Although WA Parks and Wildlife does not seem to have uniform hours for generators from park to park. The rules should be the same for all WA parks so at least you know what to expect before you arrive. Maybe they should take a leaf out of NSW Parks and ban the bloody things altogether.

Excellent Kennedy Range Camp site

Kennedy range geology is entirely different to anything else we have experienced. It is one huge plateau with a very dramatic escarpment.

We spent 3 nights at the range, and on the morning of the second day climbed to the top of the escarpment for an incredible view. Luckily we had set of fairly early and by the time we got back to camp the wind was steadily increasing until it finally reached a fever pitch around midday then blew and blew all afternoon, a hot dry dusty wind that caused dust to settle over everything in our camp. An absolutely horrid day.

A selection of Kennedy Range shots.

Next day we set off early, well at least early for us, about 8:30 with the famous WA wild flowers firmly set in our mind. We had contemplated heading to Mount Augustus but felt time was against us and it was an extra 350km to see a big rock. Although we were assured by others that it is well worth while. After filling up with fuel back at Gascoyne Junction we headed for Murchison. While heading out of Gascoyne we noted that there was some preparations happening for an event on the school oval. We were soon to find out that the Australian Off-road Rally Champion ships were arriving later that day. While the competing cars were travelling via station tracks all the support vehicles were a continual procession along the main road heading in the opposite way to us. More than once we were confronted by vehicles overtaking one another on a dusty roads with limited visibility while coming around corners towards us resulting in the need for us to take evasive action. Bloody fools. I think some of the support vehicle drivers thought they were in the rally.

We stopped at Murchison for a few hours, visited the museum which was very interesting in regards the history of the area and the relationship of the stations with the Aborigines over the decades and how things have changed, sometimes for the worst – a questionable legacy of the Whitlam era.

It was becoming more and more obvious as we were getting closer to the recognised wild-flower areas that the wild-flowers this season had been and gone due to early rains and then some warm weather. Undaunted, the following day we pushed on to Mullewa only to be advised by the tourist information ladies that we were a month late. “If you are going to see anything at all you should head south” was the main advise we received. Bugger!

While there was a lack of wild flowers there was still some fauna – one of our favourite magnificent birds – the Wedge Tail.

We at least found a few remaining “wreath flowers” and some other assorted blooms but not in any great numbers before we looked for somewhere to make camp.

We eventually found a spot well off the main drag with only one other camper some distance off.

Camped in Wildflower Country

The following day we headed for Morawa and decided to spend a night in the camp ground which, because of the scarcity of wild flowers was virtually empty. The tourists had deserted the area. We needed to get a few supplies and do the laundry. We chatted to a couple of young back packers at the camp kitchen, a Frenchman and a Belgian, who advised that they were off for a job interview with CBH first thing in the morning. CBH is huge. They dominate the grain transportation, marketing and export industry and have a mighty infrastructure of railway lines and lolling stock.

Well these to young blokes were very excited. Couldn’t believe how easy it was to get jobs in Australia and the fantastic pay rates of $27/hour week days and $44/hour on weekends. “Nothing like that available in Europe, same rate all week – no overtime available in any case.” they say. Hmmmm! Makes you wonder as Australia becomes less and less competitive. I think perhaps we are going to have to have a reality check in our economy at some stage in the near future.

The following day we set off expecting to camp somewhere along our route but in the end we were so close to Perth that we headed into a caravan park in the Swan Valley about 30min out of Perth. It was a fabulous drive and despite the fact that the wild flowers had virtually finished for the season, the scrub-land was very colourful with many Acacias and Banksias were out in bloom. The WA bush north west of Perth is certainly a lot different to what we have experienced in other parts of Australia.

One of our main reasons for visiting the Perth area was to catch up with our good mate Nicko and his two lovely daughters plus make contact with his ex wife. The Swan Valley markets itself as a wine and food destination with many, many wineries, restaurants, chocolate factories, cheese outlets, etc. etc. A very enjoyable few days we spent in and around Perth wining and dining and best of all getting some good coffee which is a little scarce in the outback. Quite a significant contrast to our last 4 months in the more remote parts of WA.

The typical Perth Shot from Kings Park

We had also asked our mail to be forwarded to Perth but once again we had under estimated the time it would take to get there, so after a few extra days of waiting and in frustration we asked for our mail to be sent onto Adelaide. We then set off  for Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

We arrived at Kalgoorlie on the 4^th October. We visited the “Super Pit” both during the day and at night and checked out the historic areas of Boulder and Kalgoorlie. The Super Pit is 3.5km long, 1.6km wide and over 600metres deep. It is the largest open pit mine in Australia. The dump trucks carry 250 tonne per load to the processing plant.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder

The group of many individual mines was once known as the Golden Mile, but with the foresight of Alan Bond it became the “Super Pit”. Originally it was made up of many individual miners on seperate leases that were all struggling. Bond realised what was needed was an open pit for the economic extraction of the gold and so set about buying up all the leases.

From KCGM Super Pit web site:

“Bond’s company failed to complete the takeover but, in 1989, the entire area was combined. Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd (KCGM) was formed to manage the assets and operations of joint venture partners, Normandy Australia and Homestake Gold of Australia Limited”.

After two days in Kalgoorlie we headed for Esperance and then the Nullarbor – Update #17