There is a unique flowering Western Australian plant called the Wreath Flower. It only grows in a narrow band of country and its major hotspot is at Pindar to the west of Geraldton. We set out to see it today.
Distances are different here. I asked at the Information Centre about where to see these flowers and they said “The main area is at Pindar, near Mullowa. It’s about 125 kilometers from here – just an hours drive.” I wasn’t sure about driving 125 km to see a flower but we thought that we could drive up the Chapman Valley, view the sights and see how much time we had.
Most of the land in the valley is used for growing wheat. It’s a very scenic area and a pleasant drive.
The map that we were given at the information center showed locations along the way where we could see wild flowers. Perhaps we were too late in the season as we couldn’t see wildflowers in any of those locations. However, we could see them everywhere else.
Situated in the heart of the Chapman Valley, the Nabawa Valley Tavern doesn’t look like much but it combines the classic country pub atmosphere with a pumping events calendar, a nice all day menu and the best selff rated beer garden in the Mid West.
At the town cf Yuna, we found a whole field of Statice. The property owner was mowing them on a ride on mower but was kind enough to pause and let me take a photo. She came over to the fence and told me that this plant (which we pay a lot of money for in plant nurseries back home) grew here as a weed and she needed to remove it as part of her fire protection regime before siummer.
We drove in to a place called Tenindewa which had quite a bold name on the map. We assumed this meant it would be a town where we could eat lunch, but all that was there was an abandoned store and a railway crossing.
We could see large trucks moving actoss the road that we were getting to at a T intersection but then realised that they were not trucks, it was actually a long train on the tracks that paralleled the road.
The wagons were carrying a black rock that looked like coal. It soon dawned on me that the train was carrying magnetite, a form of iron ore, from the mine at Mt Magnet, 150 kilometres away. I remembered having seen a documentary on a TV program about how the dust from this ore was causing rust as it blew across properties nearby to the unloading point in Geraldton.. People were protesting in an attempt to have the mine cover these loads as they were transported.
The old general store had a fascinating story. I’ve transcribed as it will probably be illegible in the photo that I took. It’s an interesting descriptkion of a bush community.
The Old Tenindera Store
The Tenindera post office was first operated by Mrs. Eve in 1910 at this site, later being moved to Norman Fry’s residence where it was run by Miss Fry in 1918.
In 1919 it was shifted back to the “Old Hall’ and was run by Miss Kathleen Palmer and Miss Eileen Palmer for a short period followed by Mrs. Napier, a railway Fettler’s wife. The Miss Palmers again took over and a new post office and store was then built by Alex Rumble in 1921. This was eventually leased by a Bill Griffith until 1935 who then built the present building, transferring the post office there as well.
When the Griffiths family moved to Perth, it was leased to Eric Hamilton 1943 to 1944, Bill Kelce 1944 to 1945, Bill Griffiths again from December 1945 to February 1946 until being sold to Tom and Neal Foster.
The Foster family enjoyed many happy years at the Tenindera Store. Daughter Judith was born in 1948 and the son in 1951. The family were well supported in the business by Kitty Rowe, Patty Butler and Bim Desmond.
In 1962, 11 subscribers were connected to the manual telephone at the store. Judith left school to help out and Des joined the family business in 1966.
Tom Foster passed away in August 1969 and the business continued with Neal and Des. In 1974 Des married Annette Lynch and they had three sons, Andrew, Graham and Martin.
When Neal retired in 1977, Des and Annette continue to run the store and manual exchange until 1985 when the automatic exchange was installed. At this time, there were 24 subscribers. Tenindewa was the last manual exchange to close in Western Australia and Tlecom hosted a most amazing sendoff.
Des and Annette Foster moved to Geraldton shortly after closing the store which was brought by the progress association for the use of the community.
We continued on to the larger town of Mullewa, 18 kms onwards and found a nice picnic table in a green grassy park in front of the rather spiffy shire offices.
We bought a coffee at the information center and the lady there told us that we would defiantly see Wreath Flowers at Pindar. From Mullewa, it was only short drive to Pindar – around 18 kilometres. We decided that if were this close, we should continue. .
Pindar’s Main Street could have been used as set for that famous Australian movie, Wake in Fright. The only building with any life was the old pub.
About eight kilometres up the road, we finally found the point of our long drive.Hundreds of Wreath Flowers were growing along the edge of the roadside. This spot is actually marked in Google Maps – look up Wreath Flowers in Pindar
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The West Australian wreath flower is a variety of Lechenaultia. It is a rare native plant famous for growing in a striking, near-perfect circular ring that resembles a living floral wreath.
The plant hugs the ground, growing about 50 to 150 mm tall and spreading up to one metre wide. Its succulent branches radiate outward, with bright pink, red, cream, or yellow flowers forming a ring around the edges. It is a ‘ruderal’ species, meaning it prefers to sprout in disturbed soils—such as graded roadsides or burnt patches—where it does not have to fight woody plants for space.
These plants flower during the southern spring, generally from August to November, drawing visitors out into the outback. They are native to the arid and semi-arid inland areas of Western Australia’s Mid West, specifically through parts of the Geraldton Sandplains
We saw many other wildflower species in the area and enjoyed wandering through the bush near the road to see them.
On our drive back to Geraldton, about 125 kilometres, we encountered many road trains carrying minerals. We had to wait for long straight stetches of road in order to overtake them. These trucks have 90 wheels. I can’t imagnine how much ore they carried but my guess is that the truck and load probably weighed over 150 tonnes. They were some truck!
