DAY 139 – HEADING FOR THE NULLABOR…

Feeling a little sad this morning as we head off for our journey across the Nullabor.  We are not in any hurry to get across and plan on taking 4 to 5 days to complete the journey.  

We decided to head back to Norseman via Coolgardie, another gold mining town in the region.  It was only an extra 26kms to go this way.  For what ever reason, we didn’t actually get into Coolgardie as the highway now diverts away from the town.  Ian was leading on the journey today, so am not sure whether he missed the turn into town, or just decided to skip it, but we never quite got to drive down the main street.

We arrived in Norseman around mid morning, in time for a cuppa back in the same park we had visited on our way through Norseman when we were heading to Kalgoorlie. 

Hardy Norseman the nag - after whom the town was named...

This time though, I wanted to take a little more time here as we had a couple of things I wanted to photograph. First on our list was a photo of Hardy Norseman, the nag that started it all back in 1894.  The story is that the prospecting party out in the field from Dundas had given up.  Obviously there was nothing here.  One of the blokes was Lawrence Sinclair, who was from the Shetland Island and known as the 'Norseman'. Well, anyway they are ready to pack it in when his horse kicks the ground or something and bingo, right there was a nugget as big as your fist. They started the mine that became the town and the town was known as Norseman after the horse. Or so they say.

 The other thing I wanted to photograph were the Tin Camels which are the centre piece in one of the main roundabouts in town….

These Tin Camels are a tribute to the early camel trains that carried freight to and from the town.

Camel teams were a common sight in and around Norseman at the turn of the century. Not only were they favoured by prospectors, but they were also much involved with the installation and upkeep of the East-West telegraph line, undertaking maintenance patrols well into the 1920s. Camels also transported household goods and mining equipment, and played a major role in the fledgling wool industry on the Nullarbor Plain hauling wagonloads from inland stations to the coast of Israelite Bay or to the railhead in Norseman.

From Norseman, we had just over 100kms to Fraser Range Station which was to be our first nights destination for our trip across the Nullabor.

Fraser Range bears very little resemblance to the rest of the Nullarbor Plain.  The area is covered by dense hardwood eucalyptus forest composed of blackbutts, salmon gums and gimlets. The trees are substantial, some towering 20 to 30 metres tall with dense undergrowth making vehicle access off cleared tracks impenetrable.
 

Coming into Fraser Range Station

 A range of granite hills the highest of which is Mt Pleasant 579m rear up out of the forest gums presenting a spectacular monolithic feature. Along the range of hills that run south west to the north east, is Fraser Range Station.

Originally founded by John and Alexander Forrest on their expedition to Adelaide in 1870, the property Fraser Range Station was first settled by the Dempster brothers in 1872 making Fraser Range the first station to be founded on the Nullarbor Plain.

At the time of settlement, Perth was a penal colony and men with a ‘ticket of leave’ were employed to assist the Dempster brothers in developing the station and building a number of impressive structures out of stone.

Several of these dams and buildings still exist today, bearing testimony to the engineering skills and the building ability of these amazing pioneers.

Our camp for the night

View from our van

 We enjoyed our overnight stay.  Steve even went for a late afternoon walk up onto the range to watch the sunset.   We were a little surprised to see so much storm activity later in the afternoon and into the evening.  The lightning seemed to be happening all around us.  Steve and I did sit outside for a little while before heading to bed, to watch the incredible lightning display as it repeatedly lit up the skies all around. 

 

By the time we crawled into bed it was raining and we had several storms during the night.    We had heard that Esperance through to Kalgoorlie had experienced some pretty severe storms during the night and were surprised to find out a day or so later the extend of the damage that Kalgoorlie suffered from one of the storms.  Feeling very thankful and blessed that we got out before the hail, winds and all the damage.