May 2012

Up early this morning to a clear blue sky and a temperature of 9 degrees. We packed up, emtied the holding tanks and were on our way by 9:45 am. Our track today was almost due south and for a change we had a tail wind. Our trip today was 384 kms to Esperance via Norseman.

384 Kms to Esperance

There was not a great deal of traffic and our trip was generally uneventful, although just before we got to Norseman we came on a truck on fire on the side of the road. The truck had been towing a wide load with a large tracked excavator on the trailer. We could see black smoke billowing into the air as we approached. By the time we got there the excavator had been unloaded and reversed back up the road, while the prime mover had been uncoupled and moved down the road. The tyres on the trailer were on fire and there seemed little that the driver could do other than control the traffic. As we drove on Police and fire service vehicles from Norseman went past to deal with the fire.

We stopped for fuel in Norseman, called at the IGA for some bread for lunch, and stopped at the newsagent for papers. We stopped for lunch at the Brockway Rest Area about 15 kms south of Norseman.

We have been facinated by the Salmon Gums that are very common in the areas to the south and south-east of Kalgoorlie. Apparently the colour of the bark is a very deep salmon pink in summer and it gradually fades to grey by the winter.

A large Salmon Gum

Still More Salmon Gums

For the rest of our trip the road was generally straight, we still had our tail wind, and the traffic was still light. We eventually arrived at the Esperance Seafront Caravan Park at about 3:30 pm, and were given a site at the front of the park with a view of the water. We had covered 387 kms today and with a tail wind the fuel economy should be good. Turned out to be 18.2 l/100k from Kalgoorlie to Norseman, and 16.3 l/100km from Norseman to Esperance. What a difference a tail wind makes!

Esperance Seafront Caravan Park

All set up at Esperance

Esperance Bay from our site

Temperatures today ranged from 11 to 22 degrees - we are still in shorts. Today was to be a tourist day with visits planned to the Super Pit Lookout, the Mt Charlotte Lookout, the Miner's Hall of Fame and downtown Kalgoorlie. Ever since we arrived in Kalgoorlie we have been a bit confused about the relationship of Kalgoorlie and Boulder. Our caravan park, the Kalgoorlie caravan park is located closer to Boulder than Kalgoorlie, while the Boulder caravan park is located on the outskirts of Boulder, and they are only a few kms apart. It seems that Kalgoorlie and Boulder started as adjacent small towns, but Kalgoorlie grew so quickly in the early 1900s that it swamped Boulder. The City is now known as the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

We started the day with a visit to our local shops in Boulder for papers and some sandwiches and drinks to keep us going for the day. The main street of Boulder is undergoing restoration of their old buildings including the Court House, the Telegraph Office, the Albion Hotel and the the Boulder Town Hall. The Miner's Monument is located in the centre of Boulder to commemorate the 1,300 miners who died in the mines since the start of the gold rush in the 1890s.

Boulder Miner's Monument

Boulder main street

Boulder's Albion Shamrock Hotel

Boulder Town Hall

Next stop was the Super Pit Lookout. The Super Pit is the result of Alan Bond's vision in 1989 to buy up all the small mining leases so that a large open cut mine could be established. He did not succeed in his ambition and it was left to others to establish the joint venture Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines.

The scale of operations is just enormous - the pit is 3.6 kms long, 1.6 kms wide and 550 metres deep. They have 4 face shovels on site at $10 million each and weighing 685 tonnes with a shovel that holds 60 tonnes, and 31 mine trucks at $4 million each and weighing in at 166 tonnes and able to carry 225 tonnes. Surface mining is due to cease in 2017, and the pit will be left to fill with ground water - a process that will take 50 years.

The Super Pit from the lookout

Mine truck dwarfed by the Face Shovel Loader

Ants near the bottom of the Super Pit

Mine truck at the big bend

Water truck controlling the dust

The ute is dwarfed by a mine truck

Two mine trucks on their way to the top of the Super Pit

Kalgoorlie Mine face loader scoop

After leaving the Super Pit we moved on to the Mt Charlotte Reservoir Lookout. Before looking at the reservoir and the surrounding views of Kalgoorlie we had a break for lunch. The sandwiches that we bought in Boulder were excellent.

The reservoir marks the Kalgoorlie end of a 560 km fresh water pipeline from the Mundaring Weir near Perth. The pipeline was built between 1889 and 1903 with eight steam powered pump stations to bring fresh water to the arid gold fields. For those complaining about the cost of water in Hobart it costs $3.55 per kilolitre to bring fresh water to Kalgoorlie. The lookout provides good views of Kalgoorlie and adjacent mining operations.

Mine operations from Mt Charlotte Lookout

WA Museum at Kalgoorlie-Boulder

Kalgoorlie from the Mt Charlotte Lookout

The slopes of the lookout had a number of yellow flowering gums.

Yellow flowering gum at the Mt Charlotte Lookout

Close-up of yellow flowering gum

Back in the ute we continued on to the Miner's Hall of Fame, however it had closed until further notice in November 2011. We later found that the mining industry does not have enough money to fund the operation of the Hall of Fame. Perhaps someone should tell Wayne Swan!

Kalgoorlie Miner's Hall of Fame - Closed until further notice

Chinese Archway at the Kalgoorlie Miner's Hall of Fame

We finished our tourist day with a wander around Hannan Street in Kalgoorlie. Di bought a pendant with 24 carat leaf gold embedded in a glass case with a round gold frame. David bought a Kalgoorlie stubby holder. We also picked up some DVDs for any long nights without TV - 4 series of the Tudors, Les Miserables in Concert - the 25th anniversary (Sandie please note) and the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. Some of the more impressive buildings are the hotels and the government buildings.

Hannan Street buildings in Kalgoorlie

The Exchange Hotel, Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie Post Office

Saint Barbara - Patron Saint of Miners

York Hotel, Kalgoorlie

Water fountain disguised as a miner

Kalgoorlie City Markets

We finished the day with a one hour visit to the Museum (could have spent more time but our parking time had run out) which has a mine headframe or winding tower as a feature. Gold was discovered in 1893, and the poulation of Kalgoorlie grew to about 2,000 in 1898, but by 1903 had exploded to 30,000.

Entrance to the Museum

Sandalwood Collector's Humpy

Tomorrow we will be on the move again as we head back to the coast with 4 nights booked at Esperance.

We still have not adjusted our body clocks to WA time and woke fairly early to a temperature of 5 degrees. We had a quick breakfast and packed up the van ready to move onto site 41 - the best site in the park. While we waited for the previous occupants to depart, we went to the local newsagent for papers including the weekend australian and Financial Review so that we could catch up on the news. We have had no papers since Ceduna.

Before we left Ceduna we bought a couple of 10 litre water containers as water is not available on the Nullarbor. However we found on arriving in Kalgoorlie that one of the containers had leaked about 6 litres of water into the carpet. We had to pull everything out of the back of the ute and leave the doors open to allow the carpet to dry - thankfully the temperature got to 22 degrees today.

David spent most of the morning doing a full set up of the awning and all our chairs and tables, while Di did several loads of washing. In the afternoon we visited Bunnings and Woolies Supermarket and Liquor Shop for essential supplies.

The workers had us up bright and early as they continued unloading equipment to erect new toilets at the rest area.

Baxter rest area - new toilets

Our first stop for the day was the Balladonia Roadhouse, which is just past the western end of the 90 Mile Straight. After filling up with fuel again we had a coffee and a muffin before checking out the Roadhouse Museum. The Roadhouse is named after the local Balladonia Station where the wreckage of Skylab landed in 1979. Several large pieces of wreckage are featured in the museum.

Balladonia Roadhouse

Skylab wreckage at Balladonia

We had originally planned to have a night at the Fraser Range Station, between Balladonia and Norseman, however as we were a little ahead of our planned itinerary we continued on to the next stop at Kalgoorlie.

Are we there yet?

We stopped again for fuel at Norseman before turning north to Kalgoorlie. Being a Sunday Norseman was closed apart from its fuel outlets.

The main street features a bronze statue of the racehorse Norseman, but it was not clear which came first - the horse or the town.

Norseman

It ended up as another big day of 487 kms - so having now done over 1,350 kms in 3 days we will stay in Kalgoorlie for 3 nights and rest up before moving on.

We checked into the Kalgoorlie Discovery Caravan Park for 3 nights, but will have to spend the first night on a narrow drive through site, before moving to a larger site tomorrow. After setting up we headed to the supermarket to restock our fruit and vegetable supplies.

Fuel supplies while expensive on the Nullabor, could have been worse:

Ceduna - 155.9 cents per litre, Nundroo RH - 199.9 cpl, Eucla RH - 189.0 cpl, Madura RH - 179.9 cpl, Caiguna RH - 194.0 cpl, Balladonia RH - 192.0 cpl, and finally Norsman 158.0 cpl.

We have now covered 3,500 kms towing the van, and our average fuel consuption has been 22.4 litres per 100 kms - not helped by pushing into a headwind across the Nullarbor where our fuel consumption got as high as 26.5 l/100kms. We have also covered another 725 kms without the van doing a bit of sightseeing.

We awoke at Bunda Cliffs to find the rig marooned in a large pool of water as it had rained heavily during the night. While loading up ready to move on I managed to drop my camera in the water, but was able to pluck it out of the water before it got too wet - I dried it off quickly and it seems to have survived. We had another big day of 459 kms as we headed for the Baxter Rest area in Western Australia.

First stop was a Scenic Lookout just short Border Village. The weather remained bleak with heavy overcast and freqent showers.

Looking East from the scenic lookout near Border Village

Looking West from a scenic lookout near Border Village

At the Border Village we were relieved of our honey supplies, having already disposed of our fresh fruit and vegetables. The Border Village Quarantine Station is located at the WA border and caravans are given particular attention with all cupboards being opened and inspected. By the way Border Village consists of a BP Roadhouse and the Quarantine Station and not much else.

Stopped at Border Village Quarantine Station

First stop after the border was the Mundrabilla Roadhouse for fuel and a coffee. Mundrabilla has a pet cemetery, but also a telling message for dog owners.

A delivery van at Mundrabilla

Mundrabilla Pet Cemetery

Friday the Show Dog

Dino the Merino

A message for dog owners

When we left Mundrabilla Di took the wheel of rig for the first time and drove the rig for more than 100 kilometres.

Di in charge

A sign at the Border had reminded us that the only Doctor between Ceduna and Norseman is the Flying Doctor and we saw several emergency landing strips marked on the roadway for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Royal Flying Doctor Service emergency airstrip

After stopping again for fuel at Caiguna we headed across the 90 Mile Straight - the longest stretch of straight raod in the world.

Eastern end of the 90 Mile Straight

About 60 kilometres into the 90 Mile Staight we stopped at the Baxter Rest Area for our second night of free camping. There were about 10 vans at the rest area for the night.

Camped at Baxter rest area

Just after dark 2 road trains arrived and began unloading a fork lift and an excavator, in preparation for unloading the equipment to replace the toilet facilities. Thankfully OH&S issues finally got the better and they gave up for the night.

We shared a campfire with 2 Victorian couples that were at Port Lincoln, and the Bunda Cliffs Lookout. They are doing much the same trip as us but expect to be moving a little faster than us.