CampingWA > trips > GoldField

Goldfields 29-Sept to 3^rd October 2006

A number of the CampingWA crew decided to head out to the eastern goldfields over an extended long weekend break. By extended, we made it a 5 day break instead of the traditional 3 days. Of course some people couldn’t get both days off work, so with a little bit of planning we were able to make it so people could join the group a day late, or leave a day early.

Along for the trip were:

· John [me]

· David and Fiona

· Dave Denise and the kids

· Dave

· Tony and Chris

· Jason and Colt

· Simon

With all these David/Daves, we had to come up with some way of differentiating them all. So to make things easier, we have; David (BentS), DforDave (Alchemist, but goes with his D4D plates on the new Lux), and Dave (friend of DforDave).

We started out with a nice easy run up the Great Eastern Hwy on Friday morning to a point about 130km beyond Southern Cross. The intention here was to follow a fairly disused and overgrown track towards Victoria Rock that afternoon. We hadn’t got to the overgrown bits when David and Dave each put a stake through a tyre. Some quick work with the jack and tyre plug kits had the vehicles ready to roll again in short order. Dave wasn’t very keen to go on once he’s staked a tyre, so to be nice, we decided to skip that particular track this trip, and camped out at a nice grassy bush camping spot instead.

The next morning (Saturday) had us heading into Kalgoorlie. A visit to the truck/tyre repairers had David told his tyre-plugs were holding fine best just leave em, and Dave with a patch on the inside of his tyre – all good again. At this point we split up into two groups for some exploring around Kalgoorlie. We visited the museum, the mining hall of fame, the end of the water pipeline on Mt Charlotte, and other sites around Kal. Some of us then caught up with those only arriving today for the trip. After a suitable pub was located we could have a beer and watch the AFL grand final. (As a non-eagles supporter I refuse to comment on the result <smile>).

Once all together it was a short drive up past Ora Banda and to a bush camp off the side of the track. One of the great benefits of this area is the ability to camp in the bush off the side of a track out here. No need for annoying Calm (DEC) campsites with marked out campsites and copper logs preventing vehicle based camping. After a few warm days, the 12v shower pumps were getting a workout that evening as well.

We dove through some of the station country on Sunday, noticing the abrupt changes between the saltbush covered sandplain, and the woodland areas. Once out of the stations, we followed an old woodline (the remains of a railroad once used to haul wood to Kalgoorlie for use as pit-props in the mines and to be burnt as firewood in the steam boilers). The line was quite clearly visible, showing embankments, and cuttings along the way. Sunday night we camped near Walleroo Rock which used to be a woodline supply / maintenance camp in the past. There are a number of dams on the rock that trap runoff, and were once used to supply water for the stream trains. Water is still trapped and caught today.

On Monday morning we said farewell to some of our fellow travellers who had to head back to town, whilst the remainder of us continued on. We followed many more tracks, past old dams, windmills, mines and woodline camps until we arrived at our final bush camp near the base of the Helena and Aurora Ranges. David managed to stake a trailer tyre turning into the campsite here. After dropping off the camper trailer, we headed up some of the side tracks into the ranges. Some magnificent views from the top, and a few interesting tracks for a drive. Pretty much the only time we had to lock in the hubs (actually use 4WD) on the entire trip. The staked tyre was plugged when we got back to camp.

Tuesday saw us leaving the bush, and heading back to the big bad city via Koolyanobing and Southern Cross. Of course the closer we got back to Perth, the worse the weather got as the rain came down. Up until this point all we’d had was warm to hot weather. It did help to wash some of that red dust off though.

Well that’s about it. I’d like to thank everybody for coming along, especially those of you who came for the entire 5 days.

A couple of points from me:

· If you don’t have one of the basic 12v showers and a bucket – get one, well worth it.

· Will David and Fiona ever come on another trip I’ve ended up leading. Two vehicle tyres and one trailer tyre staked in two trips.

· If you ever come on a trip to the goldfields, be prepared to get scratches on your vehicle, and have your tyre repair gear handy.

· Whilst it’s easy driving, camping out in the bush where there are no facilities, few restrictions and plenty of available firewood is something to be enjoyed.

· Days that aren’t too long, and leave time to setup camp with plenty of time to enjoy a beer or 3 suit me down to the ground.

It’s that time of year now where it’ll start getting a bit warm for anymore trips out to the goldfields before about Easter next year, when I’m sure we’ll be back to explore more of the region. How do some tracks to Victoria Rock, Cave Hill, Norseman and around Lake Johnston sound…………..

Thanks again everybody, and I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

John

(PS: Thanks Simon for the additional pictures in this article).