18/3/22 Boondi Rock & Dam

 

    After our morning walk , we headed off for a drive down the highway to the east , through little localities with interesting names - Walgoolan , Carrabin , Bodallin , Moorine Rock and Ghooli , then there was the larger town of Southern Cross . We didn't stop and do much because it was 38 degrees - not conducive to many outside activities . 

   When we did stop for the day , it was at Boondi Rock and Dam . This dam was constructed to provide water for the steam trains that ran out to Kalgoorlie back in the day . The dam has the typical square shape  and has one inlet and one outlet . This is looking from the outlet overflow to the inlet on the opposite side . The rock behind has had walls built around the base of the rock to divert all the rain water into the dam .

   This is the inlet channel , the one joining on the right connects the walls from the far side on the rock and funnels the weather into the dam - great engineering !!

  This is one photo that I really like , the Damsel Fly perched on the stick in the water , with its near perfect reflection in the water .

    These golden dragon flies were there in great numbers , and most of them were doing this - maybe explains why there were so many 😆😆🤣😉

   We left them to it and walked around to the van , got in our swimmers and went back and sat in the water to cool down - the water was a little green , but it did what we needed it to do - cool us down - another 38 degree day !!

  The drone came out to check it all out , we had this great little campsite to ourselves again - that's 3 night's in a row , we could get used to that !! The inlet is on the left hand side of the dam .

   This is the rock where all the water is captured from behind the dam .

   This shot shows the wall built around the base of the rock to capture the water .

   Plenty of Gnamma Holes on the rock , all holding water from a recent shower .

    We're still getting used to the different look of the roof from above .

   By the time sunset was due , we headed up onto the rock and got a few more great photo's utilising the reflections in the water .

    The full moon came up and was slightly blurred due to distant cloud , but still looked great !

    Next day on the way out to the highway we stopped beside the water pipeline that runs from Perth to Kalgoorlie .

    They are good at straight things over here , the pipeline is another prime example !!

   These salt lakes / clay pans all have a different look from above .

    Boondi Rock is the grey area , top centre to left , and the straight dirt road on the left is the access road , and used to be the railway track untill it was rebuilt at a later date .

  There's another day on our way to the goldfields , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1R2VFIclghbQ0jghvX0p1DkaBDWNrq6ms&usp=sharing

17/3/22 To & at Merredin

 

    Another quiet night in the country - what's not to like about that ? We headed off toward Merredin , coming into Kulin , stopping at the park opposite the Kulin Hotel . It's a well looked after old hotel . 

   The park has a mixture of flowers & natives , covered areas & Bbq's , as well as some decorative grasses.

   One of the outstanding features of todays drive are the trees - I know , I keep on prattling on about these trees , but the Salmon Gums are one of the best looking gums , with the canopy on top and the colour of the bark .

   The empty wheat fields glow in the sun , showing just how large these fields are .

  Yep I know , more of these trees forming a guard of honour beside the road .

   After reaching Merredin , refuelling , we headed around to the free camp at Merredin Rock , camped amongst - Yep - Salmon Gums , glowing in the late afternoon sun .

  How can you not like these trees ???

   They have a character all their own and turn on the colour in the sun .

    It was getting toward sunset , so we headed up the rock to get a good view of it .

   There were some photo bombers come through - Carnaby's Black Cockatoo's - only about 100 of them , coming through in dribs and drabs .

   The moon came up shortly after , giving me a chance to get a photo before it rose too high and got too bright .

   Next morning we had some visitors , this little red breasted fella .

   Not being in a rush , we went for a walk around the railway dam , next door is the local 9 hole golf course - here's the 3rd hole sand green and the 4th tee - the small patch of synthetic grass - not sure it gets a lot of use through summer though !

    Another of the locals , just out sunning itself - must have needed to warm up those back legs - they soon got moving when I got about a metre away from it .

    Back to the ute and away on another days drive , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1MPcp1RIHoeDk_UBq2VNY16dBzLsLzpM4&usp=sharing

16/3/22 Wogolin

 

  Packed up and away we go , time to kiss the coast goodbye for a while , we head cross country to get to Coalfields Rd & up the scarp to Collie . It was strange to say the least , we cant remember the last time we drove in rain , and here it was raining on our departure - it mustn't have got the email Haha! Stopping at Collie to empty the tanks and do some shopping , we ran into Alan & Kay Low - we met them about 4 years ago at a 5th wheeling get together at Jarradale . We all don't mind a chat , so an hour or so passed rapidly - and we'd realised that we'd only gone about 50 kms and it was nearly lunchtime . Carrying on toward Williams , we finally found an area we could pull over in and have some lunch - this was our view.

   After lunch Lyn had a drive , taking us through Williams , Narrogin and Wickepin , finally pulling up for the night at a free camp at Wogolin . Wogolin was Famous for the Rabbit Proof Fence No2 which went from Point Anne on the south coast , through Wogolin and north up to Yalgoo , then through to join the No 1 fence near Willuna that went all the way to Cape Keraudren - northeast of Port Hedland . There was  another fence starting at Kalbarri that also joined up north of Yalgoo making the worlds longest fence at 3237klms . The fence was started in 1901 and completed in 1907 .

   And this is our crowded site for the night - only 50m from the road , but very little to no traffic at night - perfect !!

  A lot of the trees here have died off - more than likely caused by salt rising in the water table below . The area around is primarily used for wheat , canola & lupin production , and there are enormously large fields used for cropping - probably assisting the salination of the ground .

  Some aerial shots will help , there are bare areas where the crops failed or just didn't grow due to the salt. Steps are being taken to remove the excess salty ground water , and there are attempts to revegetate some of the areas .

 This area is known as Wogolin Soak , so there's plenty of ground water here already .

 Here's some areas where the wheat didn't take .

  On the other side of the road , they have dug trenches to help remove the salty ground water , and further areas where the wheat didn't grow

   The moon started to rise just as the sun went down , ending another great day .

Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1tgwK5Q6QXyYW2hLKYpBSM4VFhNEMR629&usp=sharing

13/3/22 Binningup

 

   So after leaving the airstrip , we head down to Binningup to meet up with a couple that we met on the cruise last year - that sounds so long ago !! - anyway , Phillip & Judith come from Tasmania and are here to help commission an onion picker - yes an onion picker - that he designed and sells from their business DOBMAC Agricultural Machinery , that their son now owns . More of that later .

 Monday we headed into Bunbury to get a few things , then on the way back we checked out the Binningup Golf Course & Country Club - the club was still open for lawn bowls , but the golf course has been closed for quite some time . Driving back to the park , we came up to a roundabout - a white car flashed it's lights and an arm came out the window waving us down - it was Phillip on his way back to where they were staying - he recognised the ute , even though he'd only seen it in photos - so we had an impromptu catch up , organising our day out tomorrow .

     Here's some views of Binningup Beach

  And the obligatory sunset shot .

   In the caravan park there's an interesting shed with murals all round - here's the 3 sides of it .

   Another view of the beach , the lookout is on the left and this is the track down to the beach .

   Binningup is a small coastal town - this photo shows nearly all of it .

  Another beach shot , with Bunbury in the distance .

   We caught up with Judith & Phillip and had lunch at the Crooked Carrot Cafe , well after about 4 hours of chatting , Phillip took us down to the farm he was working at , to show us the onion picker in action . It is pulled by the tractor on the rhs of the photo , the tractor on the lhs is towing a trailer that I could park our ute in !! While we were there , the trailers were filled at least 5 or 6 times - That's an amazing amount of onions . The process starts with the onions slashed to get rid of the greenery , another machine digs then out of the ground and leaves them in rows , then the picker comes along lifting them into the machine , processes them and puts them into the trailers via a conveyor - the machine can pick up 2 rows at a time - quite a piece of engineering . The crop to the left is potatoes . 

  And this is the end result , all the waste is covering the ground , and the onions are in the shed ! The surrounding area is used for vegetable crops - carrots , onions , potatoes , broccoli , and there's a lot of ground being used for these around the district .

   What a great day catching up with Judith & Phillip , broadening our horizons learning about onion harvesting , not to mention solving the problems of the world . Fortunately for us , they were staying just up the road from us , so us coming down to Binningup made life that little bit easier for the catchup .

  That's it for now , time to head off in another direction . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1usMFw7kF4znCwvKOqpNGjeQybbnxjmam&usp=sharing