Today we travelled north for 204 km from Esperance to Norseman and then another 191 km east to Balladonia Roadhouse.
Before leaving Esperance, we called into the supermarket to buy some fruit. After Norseman, the next supermarket is 1200 kilometres away in Ceduna. We have been careful not to buy too much as we will pass through a quarantine station in two days time in South Ausralia and any fruit that we still have will be confiscated.
Driving to Norseman took us through five tiny settlements – more locations than towns. In the old days, each of these had a school and they would have been very remote. There was only one that we saw along the way at a little town called Salmon Gums. These days, kids are taken to school by bus.
At the first town that we came to (Scadden) there was a little Pioneer Park with a mural on the public toilets, but not much else.
Next up was the town of Grass Patch, named after a sheep station that had been settled in 1886. The most recognisable building was the Post Office.
Along the way, we passed a number of salt pans. These were mostly dry although a few contained water from recent rains. They seem to be prevalent in the area south of Norseman where the soil is poor. Some even had a pink tinge.
Further north, at Salmon Gums we found a weatherboard building on the main road. It looks unique and some research told me that it is the historic Shire of Dundas Road Board Offices, which was later taken over by the famous Country Women’s Association (CWA). In 1938, a local branch of the Country Women’s Association was formed in Salmon Gums. The branch successfully petitioned to take over the empty building previously occupied by the Dundas Road Board. It served as the central hub for local CWA meetings and community gatherings for decades.
For much of the way north, our journey took us through extensive wheat (or grain) farms. About 70 kilometres south of Norseman we entered the Great Southern Woodlands which continued all the way to Balladonia. The vegetation there is much like Mallee scrub with multi-trunked trees.
At Norseman, we bought a sandwich in the same cafe that we visited about a month ago which we ate in a little green area of park land in the town.
I’ve been experimenting with different navigation apps along the way. This area is very remote and there are few cell phone towers other than in the biggest towns. I’ve found that the sat-nav system in my car gives up the ghost once the mobile phone signal is well out of range. The Waze app relies on a mobile phone connection so it is useless as is Apple Maps. Google Maps works well, providing that you have pre-downloaded maps of the areas through which you plan to travel. I think that the best app for long distance remote driving is Sygic which uses maps made by Tom Tom.
A few decades ago, we would have seen a number of windmills pumping water from underground sources. Today, these have been replaced with solar powered pumps.
There’s not much to report about the part of our drive from Norseman to Balladonia. There are long straight stretches of road through the woodlands and past the occasional salt pan.
Tomorrow, we will drive along the longest stretch of straight road in Australia but after today’s long straight roads, I doubt that we will notice much difference.
Balladonia Roadhouse gets its name from a nearby sheep station. It is basically a service station in the middle of nowhere with a few connected motel rooms. It has a caravan park which many people consider to be expensive as well as a two-bay EV charging station powered by solar and a large battery.
The restaurant here serves any one of a choice of ten basic meals and has a well stocked bar. It’s costing us $205 per night for a basic double motel room. Petrol is currently $3.04 per litre. For my American friends, that translates to around US$8.50 per gallon. (You thought that gas was expensive at a bit over US$4 in the USA)?
