THURSDAY 17TH JULY 2008 - LAVERTON

Next day, off to Laverton, pronounced Laver- ton after Dr Charles Laver. It’s a very friendly little town about 370kms north of Kalgoorlie with a population of about 260. It is one of the richest areas of gold bearing country in Western Australia and going by the people coming and going through the C/van park I would believe it, not to mention wherever you drive around the bush you bump into campers out prospecting. The town is all that big, a lot of places are closed down. There is a Supermarket (basic), post office, servo/hardware, police station, pub, caravan park, shire office and a hospital. There is a doctor here Mon-Fri. A dentist visits every couple of months.

Once we got settled in I had a few words to the Park owner Kevin who pointed us in the direction of Hawkes Nest about 20kms out of town. This area was the “go to” spot for newcommers and as Kevin put it, the best spot to learn how to differentiate ironstone from gold and other noises your Detector makes around here. For the next few days we wandered around Hawkes Nest picking up all sorts of crap, eventually deciding to look around for our own areas.

WEDNESDAY 16TH JULY 2008

Well it’s been a while so now to fill in the gaps. We left Coolgardie on the 16th July and headed North hopefully to warmer climes and a more user friendly area as the larger Gold centres are very over crowded. Our intention was to stop over in Leonora on our way to Laverton but on arrival the Entrance to their caravan park didn’t look to large so we decided to head to Malcolm Dam about 10k’s out of town. It’s a dam that was built for the railways in 1902. Well, that was a great decision because it was a beaut spot with Water, Birds, Kangaroos, Emus and very peaceful.

THURSDAY 10TH JULY TO TUESDAY 15TH JULY 2008

We arrived at Coolgardie and decided to stay in the Caravan Park. We thought we would stay here last night and then check out Kalgoorlie Caravan Parks today. Well, we were both pleased that we had found the Coolgardie one first. They were fairly laid back and said we could take up two sites if we wanted, and could pick whichever sites suited us best. Coolgardie is named the “Mother of the Goldfields” but is it more of a ghost town these days. It has a fantastic museum with a bottle collection that would be worth a fortune.

We ventured up to Kalgoorlie (38km) the next day and all the caravan parks were jam packed as it was also school holidays. We had spoken to some people that came to Coolgardie after staying at Kalgoorlie and they had confirmed what we thought, people everywhere, nowhere to move and shift workers in and out. So we were happy to stay put for a while. We used these few days to re-arrange a few things, fix a few things and kick back a bit. After the trip across the Nullarbor it was good to just sit still for a while.

We went up to Kalgoorlie a few times. Had a good look around, went to the
“Super Pit” that Alan Bond started. It is 350metres deep and plans are to go 500 metres. 1.3km wide and 2.2km long. The big dump trucks look like matchbox toys when they are down the bottom.

Visited the local Mines Dept office to get all the info on what we had to do legally. Thank goodness we got a lady in there that was really helpful. Steve had researched a lot of it before we left home and we had both had a play on the W.A. tengraph system which shows all the leases, current, pending and historical. The lady in the office gave us all the missing links and made it make sense. So we basically know now where we can and can’t go. We have written to all the contacts of the Pastoral Leases to advise them that we will be prospecting on there properties as they only lease the top of the ground, not what is underneath. Steve had already got his Miners Right a month or two ago, so now it is just a matter of getting out there and having a go.

WEDNESDAY 9TH JULY 2008

Today we were heading back in to civilisation (or so we thought). We arrive at Norseman mid morning. We had been looking forward to have a look around, etc, as it sounded nice. We pulled up at the Tourist Info to fill up our water and have a cuppa. When we had been in and got our maps and were about to boil the billy, Steve notice one of the tyres going flat. We asked the lady in the tourist info where we could get it fixed and she pointed us in the direction of a place a block away. I went down to the IGA and stocked up on a few supplies while Steve took the bus down to get fixed. This is the last time we are getting anything fixed without asking a price first. He charged us $120 to put in a tube. After ring Nth East. Jezza told us it should only have been about $40 at the max $60 out where we were. What a rip off – not impressed. Norseman has the potential to boom on tourism as everyone that has just travelled across the Nullarbor is looking forward to a refreshing stop in civilisation at the end. It’s a pity Norseman don’t realise it. The town is so run down and uninviting. Everyone we have spoken to feels the same. Needless to say we left there as soon as we could. We decided to head for Coolgardie.

TUESDAY 8 JULY 2008

We head off for Cocklebiddy and the Cocklebiddy Cave today. The cave is actually closed but you can still drive down to it and have a look.

We had a head wind all morning and were travelling at about 65km per hour. It was a slow, long straight bit of road which included the longest straight stretch in Australia (146km). It just goes on and on and on. We were approaching the end of the straight when a truckie called us on the radio to let us know that there was a car and caravan rolled over just down the road. Everyone was okay though. You wouldn’t believe it, they were only 2kms from the end of the straight!!

In the afternoon the wind changed to a tail wind and we travelled a lot quicker and easier. We made it to Fraser Range Station where we decided to stay our first paid night in their Caravan Park. The Station was first settled in 1872 making it the first sheep station to be establised on the Nullarbor Plain. It is about 160km long by 25km wide. They have used some of the original buildings to make the park store and office and some quarters. It is quite unique

MONDAY 7TH JULY 2008

Today I walked all the way from South Australia to Western Australia (sounds impressive but it was only approx 50 Metres when Steve parked the bus and I went to take photos). Quarantine is a joke. We could have had anything tucked away if we had have wanted to. She walked in, patted the dogs and said how lovely they were, asked to see the fridge. I handed the one onion I had left and a couple of mandarins out of the fridge and she took my word for the rest.

We were then off to Eucla to see the Telegraph Station. Parked the bus up near the Servo and unhitched the car as it was a 5km drive on a rough road but you could drive right down to the beach. Let the dogs out for a run on the dunes – they loved it. There was a hundred year old jetty (see picture) as well as the telegraph station.

We headed back to the bus and were about to hitch the car up again and Steve said “You’re F#!*!#*!# kidding me”. I turned around to see what he was talking about and he realised that he had taken the pin out of the tow hitch and done what he had told himself he would never do – he had left it on the front of the bullbar. So we had to retrace our drive all the way down to the beach and hoped that we would find it. Luck was on our side for once – it was lying on the middle of the road just as you turn into the sand dunes. Lesson No. ?? – always listen to your gut feelings and do as they say – they are usually right. We then decided that we would tie them to the actual hitch and then there is no way he could do it again.

We camped the night near the turnoff to the Eyre Bird Observatory just past Madura. When we stopped, we realised the other bracket on the car was bent. So Steve spent the next ½ hour straightening it.

SUNDAY 6TH JULY 2008

Today we headed for the Bight. You wouldn’t believe it – Diesel was $1.87 out here on the Nullarbor at Nundroo (same price as Alex was when we left – work that one out).

We got to the Head of the Bight. There is a big tourist complex built there now and you have to pay to get in. They have built big raised board walks down to the edge for you to view the whales. It was absolutely fantastic. They said there was about 25 Southern Wright Whales out there and we saw about 10 of them. One whale came right in close with her calf beside her. Just cruising along. The views of the cliffs were great too.

We then headed for the Nullarbor Roadhouse. We went in to have a look and to no surprise, the prices we saw on the board were expensive. $9.00 for baked beans on toast, $12.50 for bacon and eggs and $7.50 for soup with a piece of buttered bread.

Along the way we stopped at a place called Bunda Cliffs along the Great Australian Bight. The park was actually closed due to “erosion” but we decided to walk in anyway. What a sight. In Steve’s words “it was……….. AWESOME”. He compare it to Ayers Rock. The cliffs are just amazing - straight drops down.

We moved on and stayed at the last camp spot 10km before Border Village and WA quarantine.

SATURDAY 5TH JULY 2008

We headed into Ceduna this morning. Parked the bus and took the car off to have a look around. Couldn't see any Whales anywhere. Drove down to Thevenard. There were huge silos here and a warf. Steve reckons each silo would have held 1,000T or so – they were humungous. Major export cargoes handled through the port include gypsum, grains, seeds and salt exports, and fertiliser imports.
We then headed for Kidnippy Rest Area which was 19kms west of Nundroo roadhouse.

FRIDAY 4TH JULY 2008

Kimba is HALF WAY ACROSS AUSTRALIA and home to the big Galah (no not Steve). I asked the lady at the Gem shop where it was halfway from and to and she said from Brisbane to Perth. Kimba is the hub of what used to be primarly sheep farming and barley. They say that 90% of the farmers have got rid of all their stock due to the drought. They also claim faim to their quality of barley. Even the Scotts used to come and buy their barley from there as it was such good quality. We then headed for a camp site east of Ceduna at Mudamuckla. The countryside out here is amazing. I really thought it would be all salt bush and rocks from here on but there were fields of green for miles. Every town has huge silos for the grain. Steve and I couldn’t get over it, we both had visions of the whole trip across being like going up the centre and there being nothing for miles. There are farms everywhere and the traffic is unbelievable. There was a huge amount of trucks and caravans/campers and there was also a lot of small towns along the way also.

When we set up camp we met a retired lady travelling by herself. She was part of Earthwatch and she was busy picking up all the rubbish at the stop. She said she was happy to be sharing the stopover with someone else. She had had a couple of restless nights but told me that she solved this by drawing a circle in the dirt around her camper (must try this sometime!!!!). The Government could easily employ someone fulltime to travel along the Eyre Highway and pick up all the rubbish. People are just so careless. It is quite disgusting in some areas.

THURSDAY 3 JULY 2008

We went through Snowtown where the Bank murders were. When we stopped, I got out of the bus and this guy comes waltzing over with a bright HiVis Vest on and says "Welcome to Hell, - Not really, I'm harmless". He was a bit simple but he was happy to tell us everything. We moved on and headed for Port Augusta to get a few supplies and then head out. We were going to stop just out of Iron Knob. We pulled in there as we had forgotton the scotch. Went to the Pub – they offered that we could stay in the car park and use their power for nothing – but as we didn’t really like the look of the rest of the town (and who knows what lurks in there). So we headed out of town. Didn’t like the camp spots on the road, so we headed for Kimba as the Camps4 Book said there was a place in town with water and toilets. When we arrived it was dark and it took a while but we finally found the park.

WEDNESDAY 2 JULY 2008

Mallala is a nice little country town. Has the necessities, an IGA, Pub, Post Office, Petrol Station, Police Station and a Grain Store. It also has the V8 Supercars racetrack just out of town. Its not a very fancy track – very basic. This morning I thought you ripper, lets fit the bracket and get going, you wouldn’t believe it, the nice old fella had welded the gussets on the wrong side so it wouldn’t fit.
LESSON NO. 4- Nice old man that does job on spot and cheap not necessarily a good thing.







This meant another trip to another engineering joint out of Mallala. The lady at the IGA gave us his number and what a joint. It was huge. Must have had about 20 employees or more. It was Mike Sharman who make Silos, etc. They also had a little hardware store there that had everything and was priced well. Cause it was late afternoon by the time we got sorted, we decided to stay another night at Mallala and head off the next morning.

TUESDAY 1 JULY 2008

After moving on from Talem Bend we headed for Dublin, north west of Adelaide, but as we approached along the freeway coffee beckoned so we pulled over just before the Adelaide Hills. Just as well because after an inspection of a bent bracket on the ‘A’ frame link points it had bent some more so I decided to unhitch the car and have Dianne drive behind until we got to Gawler on the other side of town to have it repaired and if youv’e ever experienced the descent into Adelaide 6 km’s of steep, steep downhill, well I ‘m feeling pretty lucky. The mobile internet has been so useful since starting, we located an Engineering place in Gawler. When we arrived there he realised he couldn’t help us and redirected us to another place around the corner. I had to get Dianne to ring the office number as there was no one to be found. The lady that answered said she was in town at the moment and they were far too busy do anything for us. Just at the same time, I finally got the attention of someone, a fella looked up and pointed to an old fella down the back of this huge shed. The old bloke was more than happy to help. I walked out 10 minutes later with the job completed all for 10 bucks courtesy of this beautiful old man ( probably her father) who would have to have been 85+. Then we headed for Mallala.

Stopped at Mallala footy ground for the night so I could repair and refit modified bracket in the morning (as it was already scotch time). (picture is their beautiful oval - the dogs enjoyed running around there). We met some other travellers here. Bob and Heather were heading for Coober Pedy to meet some friends and travel the Ann Beadell Highway. They had a throw together set up as they just sold their other camper. They had a Landcruiser tray with a cub camper trailer attached on the body. It suit their purpose for this trip and it actually wasn’t a bad set up.

MONDAY 30TH JUNE 2008

I had had enough by about 5.30 am, and decided I was getting up and getting ready to move. When we were checking all the connections, etc, we noticed one of the brackets on the car that we use with the A Frame towing system was a bit bent. We decided we would see how it went and get it fixed down the road a bit further. We got back on the road and headed up the Coorong towards Talem Bend.

We were about 19kms from Salt Creek and Steve notice the bus was surging. The tank showed just under half full but we soon learnt this was not correct. LESSON NO. 3 – Don’t trust the reading on the fuel guage. We pulled into a roadside stop 14kms out and the bus died. So we unhitched the car and Steve took the Jerry Cans into town and filled them up. When he got back, we put the fuel in and of course, the bus didn’t want to start. We had to try and bleed the injectors. Steve made a couple of calls to Jock at Nth East to get some advice. After about half an hour of cursing and stress, the bus just would not fire. It was so close. So Steve went back into Salt Creek to see if someone there could help. They put us in touch with a guy called Dave and he said he would come out but it would take about an hour and, with the price of fuel these days, would have to cost at least $60.00. Steve told him to come, we weren’t worried about the cost, we just wanted to get back on the road. Dave finally turned up about 1-1/2 hours later with a few squirts of aero start and some more bleeding it only took him approx 15 mins and we got it firing. We paid him $100 and said buy yourself some beers“don’t worry about the receipt” we were just happy to get back on the road. We got to about 7kms east of Talem Bend and found a nice road side stop and stayed the night and had the best sleep so far.

SUNDAY 29TH JUNE 2008

We decided to stay there an extra day (Steve was hoping to get some surf fishing in but the weather didn’t agree). We spent the day organising a few things.
I took the dogs for a walk up the beach. On Sunday night a storm wipped up. The wind was howling across the ocean and rocking the bus.

SATURDAY 28TH JUNE 2008

Today we headed off to Mt Gambier. We had to do a load of laundry and wanted to get a spare battery for the video camera. Whilst in Mt Gambier we had a look at the Cave Gardens in the centre of town. There are caves and sink holes everywhere around there.


From here we headed for The Granites (a camping spot by the beach that had three big boulders sticking out of the sand that looked like beached whales). We had to go through Kingston SE which was a real one horse (hotel) town. We went into the pub to get some drinks and when we walked in the door, the three guys in the bar said “Look, visitors in town”. I don’t think they get to see them very often in the middle of winter.

We finally reached the Granites. It was a beautiful spot – shame about the weather. We had an ocean view from the front windscreen. It was just a bit windy and cold.

FRIDAY 27TH JUNE 2008

We headed into Portland to find a fibreglass repair kit together with a few other things we had to do including topping up the water. We found a VicRoads office so we handed in the plates off my old Commodore (that we had sold the day we left). You know the saying “you can’t go anywhere”, well Steve was standing in the queue to hand in the plates and the guy in front of him was Risky, a mate of Steve’s sister Christine and her hubby Bob. He had set off about 15 years ago and has just relocated from Alice to Portland.

We headed off from there and stopped for lunch and a shower in the pines along the way. We decided not to stay there overnight as there was a sign to say there was 1080 bait in the area and didn’t want to risk it with the dogs. We travelled through Nelson onto Port McDonnell and finally stopped at a rest area that was 1km off the main road at Little Blue Lake. Little Blue Lake is a water filled sink hole. It was once a cave but the top has collapsed to the bottom. The main Blue Lake is up in Mt Gambier.


It was a nice, quiet area until 4.15am the next morning when a few of the local hoons thought they would come in and yell and toot their horn. But they disappeared just as quick so there wasn’t any trouble.