It was a perfect day to take advantage of the Open Garden Organisation’s open day at Cruden Farm. This is a wonderful garden, set around a grand historic house, and owned by the equally wonderful Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.

This is perhaps one of the best known gardens in Australia. Its origins date back to the late 1920’s when Mr Keith Murdoch bought the farm for his new wife as a wedding present. Most of the garden design is a result of Dame Elisabeth’s influence and direct work. She has supervised its construction and care since she was 19 years of age.

One of the stand-out features is the grove of Lemon Scented Gums along the curved driveway. Another, at least at this time of the year, is the swathes of daffodils in the grass area around the lakes behind the house.

This garden is one that you would want to see at several times during the year. The bulbs are spectacular at this time in Spring. in Summer, the herbaceous borders would be striking and in Autumn, the colours of the deciduous trees would be stunning.

My Cruden Farm iPhone Video

We left Esperance a little later than expected as we had to get one of our headlight bulbs replaced. Thanks to the BMW call centre, we were able to locate a local place that would have the right part.

The first part of our trip to Norseman followed the railway line and passed through a number of small locations. At Grass Patch, we stopped to look at the memorial to the pioneers and the local hero who won a VC in WW2 at Borneo. We stopped at the little war memorial park in another town (Salmon Gums) for coffee and then we continued north to Norseman for a late lunch. This town is looking very ‘tired’ with lots of shops in the main street now closed but the roadhouses and travelers facilities are thriving. There is a cute display of camels made from corrugated iron in the roundabout in the middle of town.

After turning right at Norseman, we were clearly on the way home. The GPS on my car showed that Adelaide was over 1150 kilometers away. The Eyre Highway is a good road with two lanes with broad shoulders that are well graded to allow for water run-off. It travels virtually east-west and on top of the sand hills running north-south, you can see the straight road continuing for many kilometres ahead. Our destination for the first night was Balladonia, approximately 200 kilometres west of Norseman. Most of the environment was Mallee type scrub with multi-trunked trees, low scrub and saltbush in parts. There were very few roads running off the highway and this gave us the impression that there was very little human habitation in the area.

Just before we reached Balladonia, we turned left along a short dirt road to Newmann’s Rocks. This is a broad rocky area on the side of a hill and the run-off creates a small water hole. I walked about 100 metres down to the water hole to take a photo of se quite spectacular ducks, but was called back by Jill who was concerned about a low moaning sound that she could hear. It turned out that this noise was coming from a mob of six wild camels that were walking through the scrub.

We travelled our final fifty kilometres with the sun low the horizon behind us. I am glad that we have decided to travel towards the east as although it was a lovely warm light in the late afternoon, it would be almost impossible to see when travelling the other way.

It has been quite cool during these late June days. The overnight temperature in this area has been as low as zero degrees and the maximum today was thirteen degrees. The sun set just after 5.00 pm and I’m glad that we had reached our motel by then. I didn’t want to take too much of a risk of driving at sunset when the animals such as kangaroos would be a traffic hazard on the roads.

Balladonia consists of a road house with a small motel and a caravan park. Our motel room was simple, but more comfortable than we had expected. There is only one place to shop and eat and that’s exactly where we went for dinner. Tomorrow, we’ll have a look at the little museum here. This was the place where a chunk of the Skylab space craft crashed to earth in 1979. The local council then issued NASA with a fine for littering, causing President Carter to call the road house with an apology.

DAY TWO

It was very cold when we left Balladonia. The overnight temperature had dropped to minus five degrees (c) and when we walked over to the restaurant it was still one degree below zero. The water pipes had frozen and there was no water for a morning shower.

Our continuing trip across the Nullabor today was fairly straight forward – directly along the Eyre Highway to Eucla. There weren’t many opportunities for side trips as all the roads to places such as the Eyre Bird Observatory require a 4WD.

For the first two hours we drove through scrubland. While the road was very flat, we had a constant optical illusion that we were always traveling up hill on a slight incline. This was caused by the long straight road being bordered by trees and the continual mirage that there was water on the road on the horizon. Not long after leaving Balladonia, we began to cross the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. This extends for 147 kms although it is still known as the ’90 mile straight’. It seemed to go on forever and the straight stretch eventually concluded in a shallow 30 degree bend to the left.

We stopped for a coffee at the Caiguna roadhouse and our lunch stop was at Cocklebiddy. We ordered a pie and a hamburger and sat at a table outside under the veranda and listened to a couple of truckies talking about the ‘mongrel’ of a boss that they worked for. In the afternoon it was on to the settlement of Madura where we could look out over a pass to the plain below and get a view of the enormous flat plain that we would across for the rest the day.

We finally arrrived in Eucla at 4.30 in the afternoon and had time to travel down to the old telegraph station for a photo.

We were surprised during the day as to how little wildlife we saw. It had obviously been raining recently as the whole country was tinged with a strong touch of green. Our wildlife sightings during the day consisted of one measly kangaroo, a wedge tail eagle, four emus, two parrots and countless crows.

DAY THREE

We weren’t really sure where the Nullabor Plain ended, but now we know.

We left Ceduna at 8.30 am after a quick breakfast and a brief look at the memorial to John Eyre who first discovered this area in his epic trip from Adelaide to Albany. We travelled only 13 kilometres before we crossed the border into South Australia at Border Village. From there we travelled through low scrubland and along the coast to the road house at Nullabor. Along the way, there are a number of places where we could turn off for a few hundred metres to see the high coastline cliffs along the Great Australian Bight. These were very spectacular and well worth the short detour.

Just past the Nullabor roadhouse, we found the turn off to the ‘Head of the Bight’. If there is one place to stop along the way, this must be it. There is a really nice visitor centre and a boardwalk with coastal views. It is worth every cent of the $12 admission fee. We spent quite a while here and found about 8 Southern Right Whales swimming in the bay area. They come here in the winter months to calve. Some were only a few hundred metres off the shore. The scenery here is quite stunning. Not only for the whales, but to the east are an enormous set of sand dunes and to the west is the start of the 75 metre high cliffs that extend for over 200 kilometres to the West Australian border.

We chatted to the two ladies who ran the visitor’s centre for a while and stopped for lunch. This was just as well, as the next roadhouse at Yalata has been closed for some time for renovations. This area is right in the middle of the small section of the true section of the Nullabor Plain that exists this far south. Most of this tree-less plain is further north and you need to travel by train to see it. Further on towards the east, the country changes to undulating sand hills with Mallee type scrub.

We realised that we had completed our crossing of the Nullabor when we reached the tiny town of Nundroo. Here, the country opens out to broad pastoral country with wheat and sheep farming. This is the very western, and marginal area, of the South Australian wheat belt. Along the way, we passed a number of abandoned and ruined homesteads from the days when properties were of a much different size than they are today.

As we traveled further east, the newly planted wheat fields became larger and larger. Some stretched further than the eye could see and were easily more than a few square kilometers in size. By this stage were feeling a real sense of accomplishment. We had come out of nowhere to somewhere! At last we were in an area where people lived and had houses. We hadn’t seen this type of civilisation for over two days.

By the end of the day, we reached Ceduna, where we passed through the quarantine station with a check for any fruit and plants in our possession. We checked into our hotel by the foreshore. It seemed to be the centre of community life with a large crowd present for the Sunday night roast dinner. The food was good and plentiful. I don’t know whether there is a crime problem in this city, but these was an emphasis on security with parking behind a large heavy gate.

We reached Esperance in pouring rain – our first really wet day for the entire trip. We ended up having Pizza and a bottle of wine in our motel room for dinner.

Today, we drove along the shoreline to see some of the local coastline. This is the area of the Recherche Archipelago and there are dozens of islands of the coast. With the sun appearing between squalls and dark clouds in the background, we had spectacular views. At times these were complete with rainbows. I’m looking forward to seeing my photos on my computer to see if they are as good as I hope they are.

After lunch, we travelled in the other direction to the Cape LeGrand National Park. It’s a bit similar to the area around Wilsons Promontory in Victoria – granite outcrops, white sandy beaches and coastal heath. The beaches are lined with pure white sand and they provide wonderful scenery. We dodged some of the rain showers as we looked around and explored the area. Just like the Prom, we found lots of kangaroos and emus. There were a few interesting wild flowers that Jill managed to find.

It has been fairly cold today with the temperature only reaching about nine degrees. Tomorrow we begin the final stage of our trip as we head north to Norseman and then turn east to head across the Nullabor Plain.

It was difficult driving for the first hour or so as we were facing into the low sun, but one unintended benefit was that the sun highlighted lots of spider webs on the roadside fences and bushes. At one place, we stopped to photograph some of the webs that had been spun on a farm fence. I grabbed one of the wires to steady myself only to realize that it was an electrified. Not only did I get a real jolt, I ended up with very wet feet from the dew on the grass.

At Pemberton, we stopped to see the old tramway and the famous Gloucester Tree in the Karri (Eucalyptus Diversaflora) forest. This tree is over 50 metres high and can be climbed on a series of iron rods that have been plugged into the tree in the form of a giant circular staircase. We marvelled at a group of about ten Asian students who had climbed the tree to the very top and were posing for photos on the way down. The thing that was surprising to us, was that in Victoria this type of forest would be found in the mountains, yet here the landscape was relatively flat.

The remainder of the road to Albany took us though many kilometers of forest and tall trees. We passed through a series of small towns, including Walpole and Denmark, and then took a scenic road around the coast for the last thirty kilometres into Albany.

We began our second day in town with a visit to the Light Horse memorial on the top of Mt Clarence. This is a replica of an original memorial at Port Said that was destroyed by the Germans in WW2. Not many people know that the initial 30,000 troops of the 1st AIF assembled in Albany before heading off to Gallipoli. Not only that, but one of the three warships that escorted the fleet of about 30 troopships was a Japanese cruiser. I spent an journey, or so, looking around the old fort and it’s collection of guns, naval equipment and museums.

From there, we headed around to the wind farm and then on to the old whaling station. This pretty much looks like an old factory although one of the original whale chasers is now grounded there as a display piece. The whaling station closed relevantly recently in 1978 and had a long history of processing whale products in the days before any ecological thinking had come to the forefront and when whale products made a significant contribution to the economy.

We made our way back to our motel through some of the coastal locations that are part of this stunning and spectacular coastal area.

It was great to be able to catch up with my friend Dianne at night, and enjoy a lovely dinner together. Dianne was one of the party on my walk along the Kokoda Track. She is a writer of children’s books and is just as vibrant and interesting as when we last met. I really enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with her and hear all of her news about her life, family and work.

South through the new suburbs to Mandurah showed us just how much Perth is growing and how significant this southern corridor is in this growth. A wide freeway with a railway line in the centre took us south through an area that appeared open (as is the case with many major highways around Perth) but is really quite dense with commercial and residential activity.

Our first stop was at Bunburry at the northern end of Geographe Bay. The outstanding feature of this town is the black and white checker-board lighthouse. When we were last in WA, the lighthouse was isolated on a prominent headland. Now, it has become immersed in a housing estate and is virtually surrounded by new town houses. Further down the road is the town of Bussleton with it’s extensive jetty. We stopped here for a few photos and lunch in a little cafe in the main street.

We then drove on to Cape Naturaliste which is the start of the famous ‘Cape to Cape’ walk. It also has a lighthouse and a number of lookouts. From one of these, we watched a pod of Humpback whales traveling along the coastline. From here, it was a drive of about 90 minutes to our next stop at Margaret River. On the way, we passed Cape Lodge ( a luxury boutique hotel where we had stayed on a previous trip) along with a number of very well known wineries such as Vasse Felix and Cape Mentelle.

On our second day in Margaret River, we took it easy with breakfast in a local cafe and then along to the main surf beach. We had been told that whales had been seen at this location over the last few days, but there were none to be seen at the time at which we were there. The surf was probably 3 metres high and we watched the surfers for some time. Then we drove north checking some of the beaches as we went for whale sightings, but none were to be found. We had a pizza for lunch at a winery with the name of ‘Swings and Roundabouts’ It was a a very balmy Sunday and it was a pleasant lunch in the sun with a couple of glasses of nice wine. We finished the afternoon with a look around town.

We are clearly far too early for the magnificent rush of flowers that cover this entire area in a blaze of colour in spring, but we were able to see many isolated specimens of early examples of wild flowers. I don’t know why it has happened, but Western Australia just got lucky with hundreds of varieties of plants that flower extensively.

Among these is the ‘Grass Tree’ or Xanthorrhoea as it is known botanically. This plant was made famous in the stories about ‘Grug’ by Ted Prior which our kids loved when they were little. There are now over thirty titles in the series and our grand-daughter, Audrey, also loves them. Her favorite is the one in which Grug goes to sleep under a blanket which is too short to cover his toes, and he wakes up with cold feet. She makes sure that when she goes to sleep, that she doesn’t have ‘Grug Toes’.

Today, we spent some time looking around different parts of Perth – South Perth with it’s exceptional views across the Swan River, Fremantle with its maritime museum and Little Creatures Brewery and finally Cottleslowe with its surf beach fronting the Indian Ocean.

We headed north and stopped in at the town of New Norcia (Nausea) as Jill calls it. We had lunch in the very primitive roadhouse there and fortunately they had a hot pie in a sealed bag, otherwise it might have been. Case of Nausea. We stopped just log enough to take a photo of some of the buildings of this old Benedictine monastery and orphanage which were established in 1847. It’s old Spanish style buildings are quite incongruous In the Australian outback and it’s interesting to think about this place being at its peak between 1860 – 70 with farms, schools, and a complete religious settlement.

We travelled on to Geraldton and reached our motel by 5.00 pm. Dinner last night was at the very nice Beach House restaurant. It’s specialty is local rock lobster. Deleicious!

Today, we had look around town and a drive around the harbor. There is a very large port here from which iron ore, mineral sands and wheat are exported inn enormous ships. This activity is synonymous with are main reason for visiting here; to see the memorial to HMAS Sydney which was sunk off the WA coast in WW2.

It is indeed a beautiful memorial. There are four main features. Firstly a semi circular wall at the back of the memorial records the history of the ship and the names off the crew – every one of them perishing in it’s sinking. Secondly, there is a central memorial dome, supported by seven pillars, with the dome consisting of 640 seagulls – one For each member of the ships crew. Thirdly a large tower, symbolic of the prow of the ship forms a mast for the national flag, The most moving part of the memorial is the figure of a woman looking out to sea, waiting for the return of her man. Her bronze figure is dressed in a 1940′s style dress, she wears a wedding ring and a necklace on which hangs an anchor. She is clearly the wife of a sailor.

We spent a long time looking at the memorial and were very interested to read all the jobs of the individuals in the crew. As we left, we waved to the waiting woman who will still be there looking out to sea tomorrow and the next day.

We were wakened this morning by the train crew with a cup of tea in bed and then it was up for a quick shower and off to breakfast. By then, we were near the area of Woomera and traveling through a series of sand dunes with stunted mallee type scrub. The soil was bright red / orange and seemed very vivid as it was lit by the morning sun.

Not long after, we began travelling across the true Nullabor Plain at a steady speed of 100 km/h. The landscape is dead flat and without any sign of life other than the low salt bush that extends to the horizon. This is the longest straight stretch of railway line in the world; 477 kms without a bend. The only interruption to this featureless vista is an occasional Telstra phone tower. These are powered by an array of solar cells and have been built to enable communications for train operations. They are also handy for learning that Australia was over-run in its World Cup match with Germany 4 – 0.

At mid-morning, we stopped at the ghost town of Cook. Before the days of concrete sleepers, this town was a major service centre for the railways. It had its own school and hospital. Now it has a permanent population of five people. We stopped long enough to refuel the locomotive and re-water the carriages. This gave us half an hour to walk around the old town. It is certainly remote. It must have been interesting life in the past with people living so closely together and such a long way from anywhere else.

We had a nice lunch as we continued west. This landscape is devoid of anything at all, so it seems. The only signs of life were the eagles nests that had been constructed in the cross members of the old telegraph towers and occasional phone towers. It is a flat area with miles and miles of desolation. At a place called Forrest (no trees here), we stopped to drop off some food for the people that run a Bed and Breakfast establishment. Their house is adjacent to an airfield with two sealed runways that are still maintained by the government as an emergency airfield.

There is a road that follows the railway line near here, and it is called the Trans Link Road. By the time we reached the location of Haig, we found our first gentle bend. This is the western end of the very long straight stretch. At the tiny five-house town of Rawlinna, we saw a small herd of very dark cattle. Across the plain we could see a large mullock heap from a lime mine. By now, there are also one or two scrubby trees appearing on the flat plain. Along the way, we had stopped at a very long siding to let a freight train pass and we made another stop to drop off some mail.

It’s now after dinner and we are just pulling into Kalgoorlie. That’s the end of our third day.

The country side changed along the way from arid salt bush country near Broken Hill to green grass around the pastoral area of Peterborough and extensive market gardens just north of Adelaide.

Just before arriving in Adelaide, we stopped in a siding to let the north bound Ghan pass.

We all needed to get off the train while it was serviced in Adelaide, so Jill and I took one of the whistle stop bus tours around the city and this filled in an journey so. Back at the station, we found that the car carriers had been reconfigured and not only are there four of them now, but our car is on the bottom level. They are now at the back of the train.

After the train had been through the wash and shunted back into the station, we were allowed to re-board for the next stage of our trip across the Nullabor.

This turned out to be difficult to do as the train was too long to fit into the station. We stopped with the first half in the platform while they refreshed the water supplies in each carriage, and then the train moved forward so that they could service the rear of the train. So, what do you you do in this situation – simple, ask someone. The train manager told me that the train was 26 cars in length. Each carriage is 25 metres long. Add two locomotives and two car carriers to that and this makes the train 750 metres long. I’m glad that I’m not having to walk that length many times each day.

There were some enterprising ladies who had set up some stalls on the platform and were selling knitted articles. They reminded ma little of e old ladies selling food on the Russian platcorms. I couldn’t find any of the cuddly toys in pink, so I didn’t buy any for Audrey. She’s probably a bit old for that sort of thing now anyway.

Breakfast began just after leaving Broken Hill and we are now heading south across flat saltbush country with the occasional emu and kangaroo to be seem out the window. We are on our way On our way to Adelaide.