Gold or no Gold

By Kathy M

The school holidays were fast approaching, and deciding where to go was a task in its self.We were eager to air out the family tent, sleeping bags and all the equipment that goes with camping out under the stars. Our first thought was North, nice and sunny, but then what about down South? Having been south a few times and longing for a change, a very cool one at that we opted for East! Southern Cross in fact, had become our destination. Choosing this place was made easier, as a CampingWA family who had camped there before, invited us along to share the golden outback experience.

Let me tell you a little about Southern Cross…

Southern Cross is about 368km east of Perth on the very long, Great Eastern Highway.
The town itself is a mixture of wheat belt and gold mining. It became an important base as the frontiers of the eastern goldfields were developed. Their role was in the supply of provisions for many thousands of people and animals that came through the area. Southern Cross owes a lot to the discovery of gold and to Tom Riseley and Mick Toomey, who named the area after the Southern Cross, the constellation they used to help them navigate their way when travelling at night.  Today people are attracted to the gold mining ghost towns in the area and the wild flowers that bloom every spring.

Monday 17th of  July

 We packed the Surf with every piece of camping gear we owned the night before, so we were ready to leave by 9am. We decided upon taking one of our dogs, instead of two, as she is quite an old girl and always loves it at my folks with their pooches. Upon leaving my folks, Tony drives back to pick us up and pulls into our driveway when he notices a leak from under the Surf! ‘Great, why is this happening now!’ he says. Further inspection he notices a nail wedged in the 2 week old tyres on the front drivers side!!! Not happy Jan…he tried removing it but it started hissing. We all clambered into car and headed straight down to the tyre shop, which they kindly plugged up for free. Next stop was the auto place for some stop leak for the radiator and crossing fingers that it stopped the leak! It did…and we hit the road for Southern Cross.

Having the gps Navman set up in the car was an added bonus as our route from home (Mandurah) to Southern Cross was mapped out, and of course, the boys in back enjoyed watching it plot its course. The gps stated our approximate arrival time was 5 hours away! I looked down at the clock on the car console it read 12pm Noon…So much for the 3hr journey we had anticipated!
Having settled for the drive out of Perth, it was a nice change to be heading in a different direction to the norm of our usual getaways. ‘Peaches’ our Jack Russell x Foxie, made her place right in the middle between the driver’s and passenger seats, sitting up high on the centre console. She just loves the car trips and being able to look out ahead. I had our camera at the ready to take those landmark shots along the way, pity Tony took the ‘good’ camera batteries out and put them in the metal detector before we left. So taking a picture had to be quick as the other batteries were dying fast!

Arriving 130km’s out of Perth, Meckering was our first stop for a toilet break and do the touristy thing and have a squiz around of this small town. In October 1968, the town of Meckering was destroyed by a 6.7 magnitude earthquake. The quake was felt as far as the Perth metropolitan area. Looking around today, you can visually see the aftermath of its path in a display provided by the Meckering Historical Society from half standing buildings, warped train rails, and the damaged water pipeline. Take a drive 10km’s south of the town and its here you will see a section of the fault line in the scarp, which is fenced off  to protect from cultivation and stock, as it happened in 1968….Eerie stuff!

A bite to eat and a change of drivers, we headed onwards next stop… Cunderdin.

Two things that caught our eye when driving into this town of Cunderdin, one was the Tiger Moth perched high for everyone to view and the Ettamogah Pub, which excited me for two reasons as well!
First off, the Tiger Moth was mentioned in my Grandfathers book ‘There’s Asps in the Desert!’ here is an extraction from his book, it reads:

“Murray and I were assigned to Cunderdin to open the new flying school “9 EFTS”, a training school for pilots. We serviced Tiger Moths, a lovely little plane. I used to go on test flights in the Tiger Moths and do aerobatics. It was all good fun for me. You could see the squares of land below, then blue sky.
At Cunderdin we had some of the best boxers in the country. Paddy was an Australian Champion and the Clake brothers were renowned for their fighting skills, along with Tiny and Ron Featherby. It was great to go to the gym nights and mix with such class boxers. I enjoyed being stationed at Cunderdin, where we worked hard and we played hard.” (Used with Permission from the Author, James McFarlane)

Secondly, seeing the Ettamogah Pub was like something out of a cartoon with its leaning poles and cartoon like appearance (to me anyway!) by the time we got out and got the camera ready to take some shots, yep you guessed, flat battery! I decided the return trip home is when I’ll grab some pictures of this funny looking place. Located behind the Pub were 14 motel units with its Ettamogah Cafe/Restaurant.   With Southern Cross getting closer and the day getting longer, I fell into a little snooze, as did one of our three boys, with Tony driving on. It wasn’t long before he wakened me and said “Look dear! Here’s something else for you to happy snap” as he pulled off the road into a parking rest stop. Looking around I couldn’t see anything except a huge sign stating ‘Rabbit Proof Fence started here!’ ….. “Where’s the fence” I asked perplexed. “Here are bits of old fencing” he exclaimed! There was a small display at the rest stop explaining the start and the beginning of the Fence and lying around next to it were what looked like old fencing used previously and an old gate. “You woke me up to look at some old disused fencing!” We laughed as we took a photo (by this time the camera had time to recharge) of the sign and realized we better get a move on or we will be putting up the tent in darkness!

Dusk had set in by the time we drove into Southern Cross, the time was around 5.30pm and we were happy to see the caravan park up ahead. Checking in and settling on a grassy area right near a bbq, table & chairs and most importantly the toilets was an added bonus. We met up with our camping friends who had set up their camper trailer and were sitting around a warm fire made out of a cut out drum, which looked very inviting to what was turning out to be a chilly night. Our 6 person dome tent was underway and up in under an hour and we soon had some snaggers on the barbie for dinner!  Once the bedding and air mattresses were set up inside the tent, we all gathered around the fire to warm up and have a chat on the next day’s events. Bedtime was looming as the coldness was becoming unbearable to stay outside, not that the tent was any warmer! But we all rugged up from socks to beanies, jumpers the lot!

Tuesday 18th July

Morning dawned, and then some more! It took some motivation, but I had to get up just so peaches could to relieve herself. Slipping on my ugg boots and extra jumper I let her out. How cold was it?..you ask, it was so cold that when I called peaches over to have a drink from her water dish, the water in it had turned into a frozen lump of ice! The windows on the Surf were frosted over and I wasn’t staying outside any longer, calling peaches back into the tent and hopping back under the doona was the warmest place to be, for now…
With the kids up already and exploring the caravan park on their bikes, we cooked up a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, one of our camping pleasures for us. The day was warming up, so much so I spread a blanket on the lawn to catch up on some reading in the sun, while the men plotted out maps on their gps for our exploration run of some old ruins. Before heading out of town on Yellowdine Road, our first stop was at the Southern Cross court house to obtain my Miner’s Right Licence. Ten minutes later and $25 poorer I officially had my miner’s right piece of paper to search for GOLD!!!! Mind you it was a once off payment, so now I was set. After trying to get some information out of the (not very receptive) guy from the court house on where the best place to go metal detecting, we left feeling somewhat disheartened. Back on the road with our friends, we headed out of Southern Cross on Yellowdine Road, towards Mt Palmer in search of some town relics.

The ruins are situated along great Eastern Highway to Yellowdine, 33km’s turn right on the dirt track at the truck parking area Signpost- Yellowdine/Nevoria (This section is not all weather road) 12km’s along is the sign right to Marvel Loch, old Hotel ruins drive past for lone grave. Continue along dirt track at sign post for old mine site. (Taken from Shire of Yilgarn leaflet)
 When we reached the Mount Palmer goldmine and township area, what first caught my eye were the lone standing Arch ruins of what was once a two storey hotel. Famous for it’s very long bar. Walking around this area literarily took me back in time as you would stumble across deep pits, made from brick and concrete, and visible foundations of what once was a small thriving town for the miners and their families between the years 1935 to 1944.  We walked further on and came across some campers set up with camper trailers and a well established camp fire complete with a billy hanging over a still warm fire, no one was around so we headed back to our cars. By this time I was, as well as the kids eager to try out Scott’s metal detector, that he kindly let us use on this trip. (Thanks Scott!) I donned on the head phones listening for the high pitched beep, which happened a lot, as the boys found out too digging down only to find rusty nails and occasional shell casing. Gold or no gold, it was fun trying..

When we left there, I was eager to find the lone grave site, so we travelled about another 7km’s trying to find it. Yes, it was well hidden it took another couple drives past it, until we actually stopped and got out to see it set well in bush. We came across another lone grave, which looked like it could have been a pet grave. Happy in finding it, we headed back into Southern Cross for some well earned lunch.

Wednesday 19th July

Today was planned to head out to Marvel Loch (named after the 1908 winner of the Melbourne Cup) to visit some old mining sites, diggings and shacks. This was to be our last day here so we made the most of it. As we left Southern Cross from the Palace Hotel, the scenery was just breathtaking with the green fields mixed with the red ground. Even the trees lined along the road were just amazing to see, as their trunks looked blood red. After many stops, starts and remapping we came across a few sites, one of which was White Elephant Dam, so called as it was never a success to holding water back in that time. Looking at it now it was just beautiful and full of water! Further along we came across some old mine shafts and the perfect place to take some pictures and have a wander around. Keep in mind, being a mum how stressful it was keeping an eye on the boys at all times! I was glad when they were back in the car. The day was getting on by this time, so we headed back into town for a look around and some ice-cream treats for the boys, and us.

Thursday 20th July

Heading home today, so most of the morning was spent packing the tent up and re-positioning everything back into Surf! I left that up to Tony… with the boys bikes secured on the bike rack and them and peaches gathered into surf, it was time to say our goodbyes to our camping friends as they were staying on another day. It wasn’t so cold this morning as the sky was filling with clouds and looked like rain was on the way. This was our first trip out this way and to see what we explored in these short days was just amazing, how they lived and survived in the gold rush days. There is so much more out there to see and one day we will be back again to explore this region even more so.
Gold or no Gold!

Check out Trip Photos for more pictures!