We spent Easter in Kambalda with the Bovalinos and some fine hospitality at there friends home on the Saturday night and then with Tom, Maddy and Eky from Noosa Footy Club on Sunday before Adam and Chris took off on a (less than sober) ride to the local hotel who had Matt Gresham playing (they tell me he was on X Factor or one of them care factor shows. He’s a local Kambalda boy.

After a largish Sunday, Monday was spent as a rest day watching the Hawks loose it again and seeing one of the best sunsets we have seen over the last 12 months in WA.

02/04/2013

We packed up and departed Kambalda once again to hit the goldfeilds and the Golden Quest Discovery Trail a 900 km drive through the goldfields that takes you through many of the historical sites from the early 1900s. First up was Broad Arrow, not much about at Broad Arrow other than the pub with the writing all over that we had been to a week earlier. We then headed west on the red dirt road to Ora Banda, this town not only had a pub it had a real gold mine still active. I think without the miners who fly in and out for work the population would be around 10 people far less than the 2000 when a dude know as Cashman found gold back in 1893.

Being 50ks West of the main highway we continued North on the red dirt to another ghost town this one was once known as Siberia now its just a sign a few graves in a small cemetery and a few tumbleweeds. They seemed to have placed a lot in the number of hotels a town had because its listed on each sign how many pubs it had in its heyday, for the record Siberia had 2 just a small town.

More red dirt on our trek North through loads of nothing before we joined the highway and drove through Goongarrie another town thats now just a sign on the side of the road, this place was once home to 1000 people, a railway and yep… 2 pubs. We decided we would sleep out in the bush at Lake Ballard where the Inside Australia cultural display lives. To reach the salt lake we passed through Menzies a town that has a nice looking town hall, a pub and a servo with many, many vehicle licence plates covering its tin walls.

Menzies unlike most on this trail is still actually a town with 2 people wandering the streets (towards the pub) 50ks on the red dirt from Menzies and we came to a large salt lake known as Lake Ballard that had camp sites with a fireplace to keep us warm and fed for the night. Once we had set up camp only 5 meters from the lake we headed out to meet the locals… 51 steel statues I only had one question WHY?

Lake Ballard is 50ks x 20ks and the 51 statues are spread as far as the eye can see, the guy who did this is Anthony Gormley and they are actually scans of the locals… again I have to ask why? The place made for some ok pictures one in particular reminded us of Alfie Bovalino.

03/04/2013

The journey continued with a drive on the red dirt back to Menzies and then north to Niagara another place thats now nothing other than a sign and a dam with a comping area. Talking of pubs this place is up there with the best of them, it had 7 drinking holes in its day with a population of 2000. We spent an hour wandering around where the town once stood, its flat now with many things to remind us that it was a place that people lived, mostly old bottles including the ones in the pictures below, thick glass with the name Kalgoorlie across the bottom.

Next town was Kookynie a place that calls itself the “living ghost town” a place that is dead but people still live there unlike the others we had seen on the trail. The Grand Hotel still serves the locals and when we pulled up out the front an ute load of them pulled in beside us, we decided  to bypass the Grand and see if the National Hotel would serve us (the picture below answers that question). Still the best part of being out on the goldfields is the history and the sites that are now nothing but have plenty of info detailing what it once was.

We were still undecided on our direction, hang in this area and head back to Kambalda for round 1 in the footy or head to Cue in search of gold, Cue being the place that many of our fellow grey nomads saying was the place for gold so we head North to Leonora on the red dirt. Leonora was a place we wanted to be as its close to Gwalia and the former residence of 31st USA President Herbert Hover who once ran the mining operation at Gwalia but more importantly it was the site of the famous house on the edge of a largish hole in the ground. Leonora is still a real town 3 pubs still serving the locals a supermarket, 2 servos and a swimming pool. We pulled up out front of the supermarket for some supplies and on our return we noticed we had a flat courteously of the last 200ks on the red dirt.

He may have looked 98 years of age but this local veteran was full of help, he noticed our predicament and pulled out his tiny compressor and had the tyre inflated in not time. He told us he never leaves home without it, he spends most of his days prospecting (not fosicking) and has many flat tyres that he can’t change so the compressor allows him to drive home and have one of the two locals repair. He told us where to find the two local tyre repairers  so we headed in search of them before it went down. First stop nothing, second stop nothing this town is looking like the others that once had 7 pubs but is now nothing.

Shelly went into one of the local servos and publicly announced to the 10 locals inside “anyone know where I can get a tyre repaired” A girls dressed in mining type clothing responded with “my father inlaw is a tyre repairer but he’s out prospecting today” then another guy said “and the other one is out fishing” We get the prospecting, but fishing out here… all the lakes are salt lakes.

Whilst changing the flat a local law officer who had been in the servo when Shell asked told us that 130ks to the north was a town called Leinster and they had a tyre place we headed further north rather than head to Gwalia our intended destination, we didn’t want to drive on the red dirt without a spare tyre. Leinster as it turns out had nothing to offer our flat tyre so made the decision our best option was Geraldton, it may be 650ks to the west but it was on a sealed road and less chance of another flat.

Heading west we were soon in Sandstone a tiny town not to far north of our camp site at Lake Ballard last night and in need of fuel, the only servo in town was closed but had a number to call for 24hr fuel, Lynn arrived soon after our call and only charged us $1:80 per litre and commented that she and her husband set off on a trip like ours before buying the Sandstone servo not far into the trip. We stuck to our rule of no driving at night and pulled over 100ks past Sandstone on the side of the road and built a fire for our entertainment for the night.

Up early the next morning and we only had 400ks to our destination Geraldton and it wasnt long before we passed another part of the Rabbit Proof Fence the same part we think that was part of the movie that led the 3 girls home many years ago. Around 120ks from the coast the landscape changed dramatically and became more like that of the south west WA wheatbelt  and even had a couple of hills before we came down the hill to Geraldton, its great to be back at the beach.

Kambalda Sunset

Siberia

Red Dirt Road

Lake Ballard

Shell & Alfie

Living Australia Lake Ballard

Lake Ballard

Menzies Servo

National Hotel

Yalgoo

Yalgoo Bird

Rabbit Proof Fence

Fishing Geraldton

Fishing Geraldton

Geraldton Sunset

Easter with the Bovas

Kambalda Life

Easter with the Bovas

Skinner, Shell & Teeth

Kambalda Hotel Matt Gresham

Lake Ballard

Alfie Bovalino

Gary Lyon

Leonora Flat

Ant Hill Mount Magnet

Niagara Bottles from late 1800s