GWALIA to NULLABOUR

 Leaving Mount Magnet we took time out to have a look at the old ghost town of Gwalia.  Early days proved difficult for the workers and eventually in an effort to stamp out illegal trading of alcohol the Government opened this hotel for the townsfolk and miners.

 




An old home occupied by a family of 6



Below shows the origianl Sly Grog Shop before the hotel was opened, but it was believed that this shop continued to operate long after the hotel was opened and avoided all detection.

                       

The Sly Grog Shops dining room

Leaving the lower township we headed up the hill to the old Hoover Homestead, the original manager of the Hoover Mine.  Today the mine is still a current operation mining ore.  Below the photos show the floor of the pit, with entry to the mine being almost directly under where I was standing (at the bottom of the pit towards the right corner) and it continued around underground to the right for a distance of approximately 2.5 kilometres.

 

 Up at the homestead, we arrived at the office and registered for a cup of coffee and homemade cake which was a really nice morning tead today.


Sturt's Desert Pea trained to climb the wall!!!!



 Entry to the homestead and museum was through the Assay Office, which we duly paid entry to and had quite an interesting time looking about at all the original equipment, after enjoying the coffee & cake!!!1



A piece of the original load on display



This is one only a couple of original timber "heads" still in full original condition left in Australia.

How I could use these bellows with my fireplace in winter!   wow, can you imagine the smoke alarm *lol*



I had no idea we actually had so many.  I did know of the naval, individual states, the original and the aboriginal flags, but many of these I did not realise we had.  I must chase this up as I would like to have a copy of this at home (just for idle conversation material perhaps!!!!1)



Photo of th mine from the air.




















"A HUMAN YOKE"



                                        



*lol*  Man I really want one of these (would think it would look kinda cute on Greg!)

Not sure if you can read this, but Hoover had a very keen opinion of Gwalia, but he got the mine operating at a profit and eventually went on to become President of the United States of America!.........

........ amazing what you find out in some of the most out of the way places in the country.

The front entry to "Hoover Homestead" and the verandah where we had our morning tea.  The verandah overlooks the mine in the photo above.




This magnificent set of scales would be a treasure .



We also found this Warwick and Jennifer...... Know just how much you would love this in your back shed *lol*

And outside was this cutie!!

Heading out of Gwalia, we found this magnificent church in Mullewa, The Church of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and Saints Peter and Paul.

The church was built, along with a couple of others, by Mullewa's first priest and architech, Monsignor John C Hawes. 

Considered to be one of his finest architectural designs it is classifed by the National Trust and has a museum of his items attached.

Leaving Mullewa, we stopped for a look at "The Granites" after booking into our park for that night.

 



As we all know by now, Greg has this urgency to want to be on the highest spot available.



And he found it.....

 But then he had to get down (*snicker, snicker, snort, snort........ and I had the camera hey!)

 These cliffs are believed to be around 350 million years old and have been formed by wind and rain erosion with the soft white limestone being worn away leaving the tougher ironstone standing.


Hhhhmmm!  shouldn't ask Greg to hold the camera either ............



And we did get back down ok  :)



Lots of large animal tracks we found in the sandy bed below the cliffs.
Kangaroo, emu, dingo etc





*Ooops!  Greg's height thing must be catchy*





 As the sun set lower, (man I wish I really did have legs that long), we waited a little longer for some nice photos:-

True arid plants, these and many others seem to be thriving in these rocks.

 The setting sun really brought out the magic colours in both the rock formations and the beautiful bloodwood trees that grew here and there, with magnificent colour tones in their bark.

 London Bridge is a regular picnic spot for locals, but due to the weathering of the basalt they are asking people to no longer climb or walk over the natural bridge where once a horse and dray or motor vehicle could be driven over it as the thickness was much more dense.

 

 Later driving along the highway, what we thought to be crows initially feeding on a carcase turned out to be a pair of Wedge Tail Eagles.  While concentrating on taking a photo of one in a tree, I heard an unusually loud screach and turned to see this eagle being harrassed by a crowd of crows.  It calmly took what it wanted and then flew off without a ruffled feather *lol* 

Very wary and was only able to get about 50 mtrs from this one (oh! to only have the Nikon back)

 The carcass was a Red Kangaroo and this was his hind foot to give you a bit of an idea of his size (Definitely not one I would want to have to try and chase out my house yard anytime)



The next part of our trip is taking us back pretty much the way we came over, so unless there is something really out of the ordinary, the next posts will pick up after the Nullabour.

Take care all & see you soon..................