Haslam Jetty

10th November, 2010

After driving longer than we thought to find a good camp for the night, we loved the serenity of Haslam Jetty and the oysters as big as a saucer for $5 a dozen were an extra special treat.

Heading into Cactus Beach the water on one side of the road was pink on the other side it was blue - amazing!

On the lookout all the time

More rugged, stunning coastline

A bit windy up here

Haslam Jetty

Kids will find anything to play with.

Kalgoorlie

7th November, 2010

We followed the Golden Pipeline through fields of wildflowers to Kalgoorlie. We spent the morning at pretty Hammond Park, where the kids played on the equipment and amongst the free roaming peacocks and avairies.

Next stop was the Superpit, a massivegold and nickel mine. Its 1.5km wide, over 3km long and currently 300m deep. the plan is to cut it further down to 500m over the years. The kids loved watching the oversized Tonka trucks load up 200 tonne of rock, drive up the windy hill to the dumping spot where the rocks are then dumped and sorted. At the moment, the value of gold they get out of each truckload is between $23,000 and $25,000. With 31 trucks working 24 hrs a day, the dollars quickly add up.

We headed into nearby Boulder to see the damage that the earthquake earlier in the year produced. Alot of heritage buildings were scaffolded up and alot of restoration work was going on.

The afternoon was spent at the National Trust Museum, where we stepped back in time to a very well maintained miner's cottage and got a taste of what life was like in the early 1900's. It looked a bit more comfortable than some of the situations we've been in this year! We visited the vault where we learnt alot about gold and headed up a mine shaft for a view over Kalgoorlie and Boulder.

We camped the night out at Lake Douglas and woke constantly to the sounds of a nearby mine operating 24hr hours. Gotta love the sounds of heavy machinery!

An old laundry set-up, where's the machine!

Peacock at Hammond Park

Worlds Tallest Bin at Kalgoorlie


The Golden Eagle, the biggest nugget ever found in WA.

The Superpit

The miniature castle at Hammond Park

The Nullarbor

8th to 10th November, 2010

Heading past a massive saltlake as we headed into Norseman was our last goodbye to the west, as we were absolutely and definately heading east - homeward bound! We had 3 very long days of driving, broken up with detours to each roadhouse, each lookout and spectacular scenery at the harrowing edges of the Great Australian Bight. We saw lots of emus, bobtails, roos, flocks of wild budgies. But what really broke up our trip was seeing random trees decorated in different themes. One was adorned with hats, another with soft toys and others with joggers and thongs - very unique.

The sign says it all

Spectacular coastline along the Bight

Kids were getting hungry

The SA/WA border Kangaroo

We made it across another one.

Playing hide and seek at the Old Telegraph Station at Eucla

Eamon's new pet whale

The long road ahead

Brookton to Karalee Rocks

6th October, 2010

We drove out of wheat, oats, barley and sheep country, past the dog cemetery at Corrogin and old homesteads to Hyden. The old tin replicas of past personalities of the town were incredible to look at, as was the experience of trying to surf Wave Rock. The water catchment area above the rock that led into a dam was massive and the granite retaining wall surrounding the area was a huge accomplishment for being built over a hundred years ago.

We visited Mulka's Cave, where a man with a few issues used to live, capture and eat small children because he was cross eyed, couldn't throw a spear straight and couldn't catch his own food.

We spent the night at Karalee Rocks, a great overnighter with a flushing toilet. This spot is part of the Golden Pipeline, a water pipe system that feeds water from Mundaring Dam in Perth to Kalgoorlie. A monumental engineering feat that brought water to the desert and made the settlement of the Goldfields possible.

The water catchment area that fills Karalee Dam, it looked like the surface of the moon.

Karalee Dam


Artwork in Mulka's Cave



Wave Rock

Catchment wall above Wave Rock

Pipe leading into Karalee Dam, forming part of the Golden Pipeline

Kids trying to surf the rock, but mainly using it as a slippery dip.

Tin Horse and sulky at Hyden

Brookton

3rd to 11th November, 2010

It was an emotional journey back out to Brookton after saying goodbye to family in Perth, knowing too that we would be saying more goodbyes in a few days. We enjoyed meals with family and neighbours that had shared their time and farms with us. A resident bobtail lizard came to visit and gave James a nip on the finger and Manda a kiss on the toe, no pain but a bit of shock and lots of giggles. Neighbours came with a litter of newborn kittens and tried very hard to offload one to us. It was 5 against 2 - sorry Amber and James, we think the car might be full enough!

Camping in the shed

The farm, what a playground!

Norm and Georgie's pet Kangaroo, Babe



The cheeky bobtail, Bob!



Finally, someone smaller than Eamon!

Port Kennedy

29th October to 2nd November, 2010

We spent a few days and nights catching up with family in Port Kennedy, where we checked out the local beaches and parks. The flying fox in Baldivis was amazing and the squeals of almost terror echoed through the trees and were followed with lots of laughter. We spent a day down at Mandurah enjoying fish and chips by the water, local markets and the black swans and pelicans on the foreshore.

Blake dressed up for Halloween

Fun with family

Mandurah


Mandurah

Perth

5th to 18th October, 2010

We were really excited to get to Perth and spent good chunks of quality time with family. We also enjoyed the rare comfort of being in different houses and using things called washing machines and hot water systems. We had a big clean up in Perth and washed half the fine pink dust of the Pilbara out of our gear. We replaced our kitchen stand that we lost at the quarantine station near Lake Argyle, replaced 4 car tyres with newies and sorted out a new regulator for our solar set up. We had lots of fun at Scitech, Fremantle, bike riding along the Swan River, park plays at Heathcote Park and the spectacular Kings Park and a day out at the Swan Valley.

Kids at Scitech


Read the writing above Eamon's head - it says it all!


Steve Irwin's boat docked at Fremantle


Darcy AKA Optimus Prime

Kings Park

Amber and Lillie, Aunty Natalie's pussycat

James at Fremantle