August 8th

The day has been clouded with rainfall becoming heavier. The Holland Track has also deteriorated which has caused progress to be slow as we slipped through water and mud holes. Despite all this we have had an
interesting day visiting various rock holes and rock formations. We considered it important that we visited
Thursday Rock on Thursday!!
The last rocky outcrop we actually drove over.Krackouer Rock was very rough but interesting to cross.
Again the trees have been a feature. Low bush undergrowth really highlights the beautiful trees.
Today's woodlands featured Salmon Gums and Ribbon Barked Mallees. The beautiful salmon colour of the
trunks of the Salmon Gums was spectacular. The contrast of the Ribbon Mallees with their long streamers
of bark ribbons was magnificant.

The Holland Track was designed as a short cut for miners walking from the coast to the Coolgardie and
Kalgoorlie gold fields. John Holland, a resourceful bushman, chose three other experienced bushmen and with five good horses and a light dray and they left Broomhill in April 1893. They arrived in Coolgardie in June 1893. They had blazed a track more than 500 kilometres in length. Much of the original track has now disappeared under clearing and cultivation. The track we are following is as close to the original one as possible.
The northern end is wide and makes for excellent travelling, but for most of today we have travelled much
more slowly on a two wheel track. We hope for a dry day tomorrow as we are camped in very wet conditions this evening.

EC has travelled the deeply rutted tracks with ease and we are warm and dry inside.

Spectatular tree trunks

Glowing Wattle

August 7th..Holland Track

A visit to see the 'Super Pit' where gold mining still continues within this massive hole.
The trucks and graders at the bottom of the pit look like 'match box' toys. Again the colours on the mullock
heaps impress me with their soft beauty.

The Holland track beckoned us to travel south west. We drove through Coolgardi which is an old mining area but has not produced gold since 1963. Gimlet trees have dominated the roads sides along with a few other eucalypt varieties. We stopped to explore Gnarlbine Rock which is huge. Further on we stopped for lunch at Victoria Rock which is even larger. Victoria Rock is named after Queen Victoria..both rocks are extensive with small 'tarns' or water holes on top.The water is amazingly clear.

 The road is much easier driving then we had imagined so we have been able to camp earlier than anticipated. We are in a bush spot with many small gimlet eucalypts about us. It is a very warm evening again.

'Super Pit' Kalgoorlie

Victoria Rocks

August 5th & 6th

The highlight of our 150 km. drive into Kalgoorlie was the beautiful trees..with trunks the colour of deep copper, copper/green, black, cream and some with black butts. There were those with single trunks and the
Mallee trees with multiple trunks.
Mining became obvious as we neared the town with the colours of the soil and gravel in the mullock heaps proving quite inspirational. Luckily we have found a camping park for two nights.
Kalgoorlie is quite a clean town with wide streets featuring many of the old buildings of the early 'Gold' days. Hotels feature on many of the street corners. Mining adds an obvious background to every day life. This week there are 2000 visitors in town to attend the 'Dealers and Diggers' conference.
Our main focus has been on shopping for food and other necessities, washing and drying clothes and some time out from driving. EC had to have some mechanical work done this morning.
Both nights we have walked a kilometer down Lane St to have dinner at the Albion Shamrock Hotel...quite a pleasant change from eating around a camp fire.

Paddy Hannan Statue
Patrick "Paddy" Hannan was a gold prospector whose discovery on 17 June 1893 near Kalgoorlie, set off a gold rush in the area.

August 4th

Quite a long day of travelling with warm weather and now an evening breeze. We are camped in the bush along side the Nippon Highway. The bush was similar all the way out of the Queen Victoria Spring Reserve.
The variety of trees is amazing, many are in bud or just beginning to flower.
We came out of the Reserve and onto the Nippon Highway at Argus Corner.There is mining happening in this area NE of Kalgoorlie. Presumably because of this, the road was much better and of a normal width.
We stopped at a water tank and windmill and chatted to a truck driver who had stopped to have a quick wash to rid his face of dust. He was the first person we had seen for 3.5 days. It is quite remote in this part of Australia. It was the first windmill we had seen for a similar time. The water was clean so a hot shower will be enjoyed this evening.
I still love windmills after seeing so many on outback stations.Many times I have used their familiar blades in my textile work.

Water collection camp near Nippon Highway

'Windmill'..tiny textile work inspired by outback windmills

August 3rd..

The days are warm although the mornings are quite cool with our coldest today at -04 deg.
We continued travel through the Queen Victoria Spring Conservation Park. Despite this park is so far west
it is still considered as part of the Great Victoria Desert. Much of it has been burnt by wild fire.
It is recovering well with plants and trees showing wonderful new growth, in fact the new Spinifex bushes
look so fresh and healthy, We enjoyed a walk to a Streich's memorial cairn across the sand dunes for 1.3 km.
Lunch was enjoyed among flowers and bushes. We continued for a short time and then set up camp early in the afternoon. Time spent relaxing at this flat sandy area surrounded by Marble Gums was much appreciated. Marble Gums are really beautiful eucalypts which have glaucos type leaves and an amazingly marbled trunk. Another very attractive eucalypt is the Boorabin Mallee which has brilliant orange coloured buds. I have collected a few leaves from the trees we have been able to identify. My plan is to dye fabric with them on my return to Milawa.

Marble Gum

Boorabin Mallee

August 2nd

We all enjoyed the wonderful drive through a spectacular bush of Gimlet Eucalypts and Goldfield Black Butt
Eucalypts. The bush varied as we went along but we saw a huge variety of bushes and flowers.
I will list some of them for my own record: Causerina, Cypress, Hakea Francisiana, Acacias, Grevilleas, Eucalypts including Gimlet, Youngiana, Goldfields Blackbutt, Wood Wardie, Flavida (Yellow Flowered Mallee) and Platycorys (Boorabin Mallee), Daisies, Upside down plants in bloom, Desert poplars and Grass trees.
Driving through the abandoned aboriginal settlement of Cundeelee left us all feeling disallusioned. Such places, where so much money has been spent and not used to advantage is really saddening. The relics of buildings, sports courts and old cars were in a really scenic spot on top of a hill. We believe that aboriginal families were relocated to this point in preparation for the tests at Maralinga. Evidently there was no readily available water and people, generally, were not happy.
The road did deteorate this afternoon and was very tiring for the driver, the passenger and  the vehicle, because it was so narrow. However the lovely bush continued.
 This evening we are camped near Queen Victoria Springs on a red sandy spot. To really top the day off
John Harrison is cooking roast beef for dinner.

Hakea Francisiana

Eucalyptus Flavida in bud

August 1st.

Sunrise at Rawlinna

What a wonderful sunrise over Rawlinna this morning!! We have not yet become accustomed to the dawn time in WA. Sun-up was about 6.30 am..we were up and about!
John has had contact with the Barbara Hogg, Secretary, of the 'Nullarbor Muster' which is held annually in April at Rawlinna. It is a big event which attracts 1000 visitors,,,horses and competitors. There are many aspects of entertainment including a Silent Auction. The proceeds from this auction go to the Flying Doctor Service. John brought a pack of wine over to donate to this cause. It will be interesting to see how much the box of five Patricia wines are sold for.

This morning our road had a contrastingly good gravel surface compared with the track of the previous few days. It ran adjacent to the Trans Continental Rail Line so it was fun to watch several trains quietly move by.

This evening we have camped amongst wonderful Gimlet Salubris Eucalypt trees at Zanthus near the Rail line. Their trunks are fluted with wonderful smooth copper/green bark. I find them remarkably attractive.
The weather is warm and sunny so we have stopped travelling mid afternoon to dry clothes, make bread,
have showers and generally relax in this very pretty place.

Patterns made by the Gimlet trees

Freight Train passing through Zanthus