Campfire Escapes Tag-Along-Tour to the Norseman Woodlines

By John Humphrey

After a visit to the goldfields last year, I’ve wanted to head back to the area and do some more exploring of the remnants of WA’s past that can still be found out there.  Over the Easter 2006 break I decided to head out on a tag-along-tour to the Norseman area to explore some of the remain of the woodlines.  I didn’t fancy heading out that way on my own, and the promo material made it sound very interesting (which it was).

For those of you who may not be aware, the woodlines, were temporary railway lines that radiated out for huge distances from Kalgoorlie. Their sole purpose was the supply of timber for the mines to use either as props underground, or more commonly as firewood for the steam boilers that powered the mining machinery.  The lines around Norseman were operational from the late 1930’s through to the 1960’s.  

The tag-along-tour was operated by “Campfire Escapes” (http://www.eureka4wd.com.au/campfire/Itinerary/tour_details.htm).  This is run by Ray Harris (of Eurkea 4WD training), and Nick Underwood (editor of Western 4WDer magazine).  This was a 5 day trip (Thursday – Monday).  Each person is to be self sufficient in food, water and camping gear (etc). Information was provided prior to the trip on the distances to be travelled to allow people to plan fuel stops.  As the intention was to open up a new track (by driving cross country), it was highly recommended that skinny cross-ply tyres were used, and spare tubes etc brought along. 

There were 11 customer vehicles along on the trip. Also along was Mark and his wife Jo. Mark is the Shire of Dundas President and is doing a lot to promote 4WD tourism in the area. (http://www.dundaspost.com.au/4WD.htm). Including Ray and Nick’s vehicles, there were 13 vehicles along in total.  Quite a mix, from Land Cruisers, Patrols and Prados, a couple of Discoveries and Hiluxes.  About half the vehicles had on the skinny cross-ply tyres, whilst the other half had decided to risk running their standard radial tyres.

I won’t bore you all with a blow-by-blow of each day, but I will include some of the memorable moments of the trip for me.

• Having pre-dinner drinks and nibbles with everybody each night.  Great for that “getting to know you all” and unwinding after the day.  Once everyone had then had their meals, we all gathered back around the campfire and gave the bottles/cans/casks a nudge before hitting the canvas for a good nights sleep.
• Fossicking around some of the old woodcutters camps.  Finding old bottles and machinery. Some clearly dated back to the early 1940’s.
• Following our progress on OziExplorer (Notebook PC and GPS navigation) using old scanned in maps of the woodline railroads, and satellite images (google earth style) provided to use all by Mark.
• Opening up a new track that follows an old woodline as close as possible.  This involved driving cross country, weaving around the salmon gums and over/through the small scrub.  In order to minimize the chance of punctures, those with the cross-ply tyres were up front, and those on radials followed behind.

Everyone was careful to try and stay in the wheel marks of the vehicle in front.  Not only does this reduce the chance of staking, but helps create a clearly defined track that can be used by others for years.

• Spending an entire day one day and getting no further than 15km.  A few days later, the same section took only a few hours, as there was now a well formed tracked created through the bush.
• Exploring a woodcutters camp that didn’t appear to have been visited by anyone in over 50 years.
• The willingness of everybody to lend a hand when problems did occur, and yes they did happen.

There were 5 punctures (1 cross ply – slow leak, and 4 staked radials).
A roof top tent decided it wanted to try staying up in a tree branch, rather than the vehicle it was attached to.  Bush mechanic repairs on the roof-rack cross members with fencing wire and gaffer tape saved the day.
A tree branch flicked up and dented the rear door on a hilux
A cruiser misjudged a turn and hit a small tree. This bent the bulbar back, breaking the headlight and twisting the front guard. It’s amazing how tough/hard the trees are out there. It was only quite a thin sapling and the vehicle was travelling quite slowly.
I should mention that none of these incidents were the fault of the tour organisers, but were just "one of those things" that can happen out bush.

Overall it was a very well organized tour, great fun, great people.  If you’re thinking of doing a tag-along-tour, definitely give Nick and Ray a call and see what they’ve got coming up.