Busselton and Wildflowers

Dear Fam and Friends,

We left Ben, Victoria and boys at Benger after having had a fabulous time at their farm.  We were so sad to leave, and this made us realise that we were missing our own families more than we had realised.  The weather had turned very miserable with freezing winds and rain, all of which added to our feelings.

It was only a 100km south to Busselton, taking a pretty drive in from the main coast road (Highway 1), rather like Gippsland’s rolling green hills, although I’m sure it browns off in summer.  As mentioned previously, there had been extraordinary rainfall throughout the region and the paddocks were saturated; a mix of dairy and stud cattle farms predominantly, with plenty of lush pasture.

 

At Busselton I had booked through our time share a two-bedroom Sebel apartment south of the city, beautifully located on the beach, if only the weather had been more hospitable, we could have enjoyed the walks along the beach front, but the cold weather was lingering.   The staff were wonderful, as was the apartment and we were able to park the caravan at the resort, which was both handy and secure.

The first few days were spent catching up on washing and a thorough clean in the van, and once those chores were out of the way we started to enjoy the sights, Kmart and Bunnings.  The information Centre was very interesting with a great photographic display setting out development of the shipping and railway.  The centre was in a beautiful precinct of bayside parks, a terrific brewery/restaurant and the main feature, the Busselton Jetty, which is 1.8km km long and is the longest timber piled jetty in the southern hemisphere and subsequently, heritage listed.  It was first constructed in 1865, continuing sand drift in Geographe Bay meant that the jetty was extended several times to reach its current length.  Shipping use ceased in 1973 and a cyclone in 1978 brought about its decline until a community group saved it and now administer the jetty tourism and maintenance.  The jetty has a wee train that takes you out to the underwater observatory.   The sun broke through in patches as we took the train out and then enjoyed a walk back from the observatory.

Busselton Jetty

The current underwater observatory approximately three quarters of the way out on the jetty is a wonderful experience, especially for someone like me who tends to be a bit claustrophobic.  There is a new proposal currently with the State and Federal Governments for a $32M development of the jetty with an underwater restaurant and extended viewing facilities.  We will certainly be returning to see the future Australian Underwater Discovery Centre once completed.  We decided that the pizzas at the Brewery were unbeatable, so for the first three days we dined there for lunch and enjoyed a few sunnier cold days sitting alfresco, me with scarf and beanie.

Our fave lunch spot

We drove down through Dunsborough to the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse and enjoyed a tour of the precinct, the view back to Busselton and the maritime history.  The lighthouse was constructed in 1903 and stands 20m high.  The lantern was constructed in Birmingham, England.  Three families lived in the precinct and each manned the lighthouse in an 8 hourly shift, receiving supplies from Busselton fortnightly, they were very isolated and very much left to care for themselves and their families.  The three cottages remain on site and give a good depiction of the life of a lightkeeper.  The lighthouse was manned until 1996, the last in Australia, now mechanised, turning the original lens which sits on the original 12lt of mercury.  I did not know that every lighthouse has a unique flashing sequence - Cape Naturaliste flashes twice every 10 seconds, with a 2.5 and a 7.5 second interval and the beam is visible for 45km (25 nautical miles).

 I love lighthouses, I have no idea why, but I find them very exciting, adventurous and mysterious.  One of my bucketlist items - stay in a lighthouse……

Cape Naturaliste lighthouse

Thursday evening, Tony, a friend and colleague of Noel’s from his Readymix days came down from Perth to stay overnight with us.  I left the boys to it to catch up over old times and bottles of red.  The next day dawned quite lovely; sunny and a good offshore wind, which meant good surf at the beaches off the Margaret River coast.  Tony is a keen photographer, as am I, and he took us for the day to some beautiful beaches and we enjoyed lunch at a great seashore café, sitting almost on the beach.  We thoroughly enjoyed our day out and Tony and I were clicking our shutters non-stop.  Late in the afternoon we arrived back at Busselton and Tony headed back to Perth; we put our feet up and watched the AFL, as it was getting to the end of the season, so the competition was getting serious.

Margaret River surf's up

Surf's up

 

The next day, Saturday, we drove back down to the Margaret River coast and walked a small section of the Coast-to-Coast Trail to a waterfall which, due to all the rain, was flowing forcefully over the cliff face.

It took us quite a bit of time to pack up the van on Sunday.  Over the week, I had brought the coffee machine and other bits and pieces to the apartment, now they all needed to go into their allotted spot again!  If you have space, you will fill it, that I have learnt.

The weather had turned cold again, and we didn’t really want to travel further south, so we made the decision to travel back north to Mullewa and follow the wildflower trail.  We knew that the wildflowers were early this year because of the rains, and it was always one of the ‘must see and do’ when we initially planned our trip.

We left Busselton and called by Benger to see the Murphy family as it was Ben’s birthday and I had had some photos printed taken the week before whilst at the farm.  It was a short stop off and we said our goodbyes again with the asurety that we would see them again in the not to distant future as we were already planning to return in March 2022.

Speckled Park beauties

We travelled through to Bindoon, northeast of Perth, and camped the night at the local football ground where both water and power were provided for a few dollars a night.  The next morning, we walked to the wonderful local bakery, then to the equally wonderful greengrocer with beautiful local produce.  Heading back to the caravan, we stopped off at the local butcher shop and, chatting as you do, the owner of the shop discovered that we were from Mansfield and did we know a butcher, Dave Darby, and if so (which we did) remind him (Dave) that ‘he broke my nose at footy years ago’.  Bindoon presented as a lovely local country town and strong community.

Continuing north, we returned to Carnamah, which we had so enjoyed a month or so earlier.  The caravan park was quite busy with Western Australian travellers now that the wildflower season had begun.  The crops - canola, wheat and more were looking spectacular in green and gold stretching literally for thousands of miles.  The farmers were all in excellent spirits!

We enjoyed a day trip around the region, discovering a talc mine at Three Springs. This is the largest talc mine in Australia, discovered by a local farmer in the 1940’s whilst sinking a well.  Mining began in 1948 and continues today and anticipated to continue for another 40 years.

 Is there nothing in WA that they don’t dig up!?

Talc mine

We're on the right

We continued north staying overnight again at Enanty Barn.  The next morning we drove to Depot Hill out from Mingenew and went for an amazing walk spotting orchids - it was so exciting to see them - tiny, delicate, resilient, growing in the most inhospitable conditions.

At Depot Hill there were remnants of hand built diggings from 1942-1944 by Australian Armed Forced as a training ground prior to being shipped overseas.  The target trench of the gunnery remains, and shells are still being recovered at nearby farms.  Mingenew was a large army area after Darwin and Broome were bombed.

Wildflowers in WA.  A phenomonen that must be seen to be believed.  We are like greedy children just trying to get more every kilometre we travelled.  The blotches of colour - yellow, gold, white, pink and lilac, start small, scattered amongst scrubby wattles that offer up large pillows of yellow against a bed of red sand and a backdrop of bright blue skies.  The colours start to blend for kilometres, papery flowerheads some no bigger that your smallest fingernail.

On Friday 13^th August we drove into Coalseam Conservation Park for one night and had a full day walking through the wildflowers.  Noel is my lead ‘spotter’ and very good at the job.  Everlastings, various orchids and too many wattles to identify.  Yellow, white and pink blankets; other visitors explained to us that as the season continued the blues begin to appear.

Coalseam

Coalseam NP

Continuing north a short 50 odd kilometres, we arrived at Mullewa CP for two nights.  This town is renowned for its wildflowers and the start of the trail south if one wishes to follow the wildflower season.  Quite an outback town really, but as always, there are treasures.  The first one was a lovely walk opposite the caravan park to discover more wildflowers, the second was an awesome pop-up coffee shop/art gallery and lastly, as we had arrived on a weekend, we spectated at the local polocrosse tournament, which I had not seen played since living in Vanuatu, where I learnt this fabulous game.  I purchased some beautiful prints by Helen Ansell (https://helenansell.com/) at the gallery; one of the rare purchases made for ourselves on this trip as we have nowhere to store random retail items.

Young polocrosse players

A day trip to Canna gave us more wildflowers and a few interesting stops at ‘ghost’ towns that were along the rail line.

This journey really feels like we are in the ‘wild west’, the quest for gold and land, the history of pioneers and the railways, whaling fleets, pearls and gemstones, historical injustices to the aboriginal people and the pursuit of wealth.  It has given us plenty to think about and discuss as the miles slip under us.

More orchids

Canna

On Monday 16^th we headed west to Yalgoo with a planned stop at Pindar to see the wreath flowers (lechenaultia macrantha).  It was almost comical to see a dozen cars pulled up on the side of an outback road in the middle of nowhere with their occupants in various poses (contortions) taking photographs with every description of camera you could think of, including me. 

Out from Pindar, wreath flowers line roadside

Pinks and

Yellows

Yalgoo is a seriously remote outback town.  The caravan park was full of flower hunters, although we managed to squeeze into a spot for the night - the lady was very helpful.  Our little tour revealed a very swish police station (clearly a need), a great racetrack with the old railway station converted to the Club rooms and of course, an interesting background.  If you continue west, the road takes you to Mount Magnet, where we had passed through back in May.

Dusk at Yalgoo

    

Yalgoo Race track

From here we turned south, travelling through very hard country where saltbush predominates, except for the hundreds of acres of wildflowers that came to the very edge of the road and spread to the horizon as far as one could see.  Noel was getting very good at stopping as I went ‘STOP THE CAR!!  Turn around, backup, wait for me, I’ll just run back to get a photo, I won’t be long, DID YOU SEE THAT????, Isn’t it beautiful??, WOW’ or words to that effect.

Ruin south of Yalgoo

Tiny wildflowers by the road

Closeup, less than an inch acress (20mm)

We did almost 250km this day, which is more than we would normally do (around 150 - 200km).  We stopped for lunch and some shopping at Morawa.  I know I have only very briefly mentioned the legacy of Monsignor Hawes throughout this district.  He was a clergyman who was also very skilled at designing and building churches, being the creator of the significant cathedral in Geralton.  If you Google his name and read some further information, it is well worth the effort.  At Morawa, he had constructed the church, a lovely stone building resembling village churches of Italy.  In addition, he built for himself a priest’s hermitage - a tiny room in which to sleep, eat, rest and pray.

The Hermitage

Morawa church interior

Continuing south, we travelled through Perejori, one of the largest agricultural shires in WA.  To give you some idea of paddock sizes, in 2003 the first Perejori Header Muster was held, with the resultant entry into the Guinness Book of Records, having fifty-six combine harvesters working in the same paddock simultaneously.  The harvesters cut a width of 560 metres, stripped a 200ha (500 acres) wheat crop in twenty-four minutes actual harvesting time producing 495 tonnes of grain.

The towns we have been travelling though are situated in the region known as the Mid-West, which covers one fifth of the WA State, running east west from the coast south of Kalbarri to the west of Wiluna, twice the size of Victoria.  It is a huge area with very diverse geography, climate, mining and agriculture.

We reached a free camping spot at Buntine Rocks for the evening, the road in proving a bit challenging as our van is not designed for offroading.  Plenty of mozzies, all of whom I fed well!!

Buntine Rocks camping

We left Busselton on August 8, and in 10 days we had travelled 1,000km to visit the wildflower ‘hotspots’ with the added bonus of meeting interesting people and visiting fascinating places.  We were southbound again and looking forward to more adventures.