Sat, 13th August, 2016 Bush camp, near Marble Bar, WA (33rd Wedding Anniversary – sightseeing Marble Bar)

33 years married – how the years have flown and he still puts up with me!! Or is it I put up with him!! Must be something special to be out in the bush together and we are both loving it.

22 degrees at 7am, lovely clear sky with a light cool breeze. Decided to have a sightseeing day to celebrate our anniversary. I put my wedding rings back on as I have had to take off all the rings and bangles while I am detecting. Boy my hands are starting to look old!!

Into town to do the Heritage Trail. Marble Bar is named after a local deposit of mineral first thought to be marble but later turned out to be Jasper. An early explorer, Nathaniel Cook mistook the mineral. The bar crosses the Coongan River about 5 km west of town. The town sprang up as part of the gold rushes to the Pilbara in the late 1880s. Gold was discovered near here in1891 by Francis Jenkins and two years later the settlement was officially declared a town. A few years later the population grew to about 1000 but the goldrush was short-lived and miners soon headed south. Marble Bar is in the Guinness Book of Records for having 161 consecutive days leading up to 20 April, 1924 where the temperature never dropped below 37.8 degrees, and this records still stands today. Old records to 1950 show that Marble Bar’s average maximum daily temperature for the whole year was 36.4 degrees. The average daily maximum for the 5 summer months was 40.8 degrees. Don’t think we will be here in early part of the year then.

First stop was the site of the Post Office. We think it was on the land in front and this building was the quarters.

Across the road was a time capsule buried under a Jasper Rock. Doesn’t show the colours well though.

The Civic Centre.

The site of the General Store.

Hunks of Jasper are in the front wall.

Lots to read on the Pioneer Wall.

Interesting deaths for some people.

A Time Line for Marble Bar.

Further down the street is the Iron Clad Hotel – I thought the name was because it was clad in iron but it is from the mine the owner had.

More Jasper used in the retaining wall.

Stopped at the park to check out the information board.

War Memorial area in the park is very nice.

The current temperature, 28.4 degrees – should get to 35 today.

Behind the park is vacant ground which was the site of two halls.

Across the road next to Sandy Creek are the town well site and the bore that now provides the town’s water.

Steve spotted this notice on the service station wall – I wonder if they ever catch anyone.

All very quiet in town on a Saturday morning!! Drove up the road towards the Lookout and found the school.

The oldest dwelling in town – the Poinciana House, built 1909.

Down the road a bit we found all these units, abandoned – nothing explaining what they were for and why they are derelict now.

Up to the one of the lookouts with information about the solar-diesel power system here.

View from the top, starting near the school then over the town and back around to the power plant.

Followed the track down past some old house ruins then walked up to the old Catholic Church.

Over the creek to the Government Buildings – lovely stone buildings.

A small museum was inside beside the coffee shop. Checked out the displays then ordered a coffee and muffin.

The Comet Mine further out of town.

Walked up the street for a better photo of the buildings.

Some more information was under a shed. Don’t think we will go down to the Air Base as there is not much left there now.

There is even a gym, Jon.

Onto the dirt Woodstock Road and out of town 4kms to the Jasper deposit where you are allowed to collect Jasper samples. Collected a few – more weight for the van!!

Another kilometre down but to the right we drove down to the Coongan River and the Flying Fox. Great view. We thought it was to ferry stuff across but it is a water measuring station when the river is in flood. That would be fantastic to see.

The sign was on the main road and we commented that there was no info here. Steve thought they might be putting one here between the seats so he lifted the cone to see what was under it and someone left a note!! 

Continued down the road to the Comet Mine Tourist Centre. Only $3 each so we headed in for a look with another couple. Lots of minerals and photos and bits and pieces to check out. The oldest known Lead Ore in the world is from the Pilbara (3,700 million years old). Even some Uranium. Will have to keep an eye out for some agates.

Pilbara Jade is beautiful and can be sliced thinly that it looks like green glass. You can see the spoon through this cup. I thought this was a lovely gold-prospecting memento but didn’t ask how much!

Photos of the Comet Mine which was built in 1936. The company that owns it now also has Bamboo Creek Mine further north and they plan to just reprocess the tailings.

Back in the day there were no safety harnesses or scaffolding as they built the huge smoke stack. This is a photo taken from the top of the stack looking straight down – you can see the chap’s boot. Later on they had to repair part of the stack and then they put stays on it to keep the stack secure.

They even had one of my cocoons we found in on the Eyre Peninsula.

Now that’s the size nugget I want to find.

Some more rocks to look out for around here. Asbestos creates the lovely golden stripes in Tiger Iron.

Corunna Downs was the site of a secret air base during WW2 which the Japanese reconnaissance missions tried and failed to find. It comprised of two sealed runways, one 2,300 metres long and the other 1,650 metres long. Both were 50 metres wide and linked by taxiways to bunkers capable of housing 20 aircraft. There were 2000 men and women stationed at the base. Over the years 39 live bombs and Thompson sub machine guns were found buried after the war. There was a prisoner of war camp six miles north of the Corunna Downs Station.

More info about Marble Bar.

Some photos of a wet Marble Bar.

Bit of interesting information about Sir Charles Kingsford Smith – he was married in Marble Bar.

The Spinifex Express.

The chap caretaking it was asked to help out for 3 weeks in May and is still here!! After we checked out the displays we went outside where he gave us the history of the mine. The original chap who found the gold would walk 2 miles to get some water so he could pan the dirt to find the gold. He would walk up the hillside panning as he went not finding too much. One day he had some extra water and walked further up the hill and found a rich deposit. He and two others started digging into the hillside (where the hole is) and dug tunnels following the veins. He paid the other two by allowing them to take 90 tons of dirt to be processed and they got whatever gold was in it. They had to take it back into town to be crushed at the Government Battery. Apparently it was a very rich deposit. He eventually sold the lease for 40,000 pounds to the mining company. It is said ‘in excess’ of 100,000 ounces of gold was taken out of that hill. The company drilled in at a lower level and there are tunnels going in every direction. The big stack was because of the poisonous gases in the rock and because the mine and all the houses were in the valley the stack had to go up high enough so the gas didn’t settle over the houses. It is 75 metres high and was the highest in the Southern Hemisphere for a long time till the one in Mt Isa was built.

The ore was brought out in these wagons.

Lots of other old bits and pieces are around the house and on the verandah. Even a bomb.

We continued down the road – looking at the other side of the mine as we pass.

Crossed the Coongan River which is very wide.

Turned off at the Glen Herring Gorge sign and followed the track till a fork. No more signs but luckily the Hema showed us the way. Crossed the creek and parked under a gum. Getting a bit warm today. Had our lunch.

Headed up the gorge to try and find the water.

Up and down the rocks till we found some water then crossed over and continued on around the bend. Looking back.

Fascinating rocks.

Around the bend and we found the main body of water.

Selfie time to mark our wedding anniversary.

Checking the rocks for gems – Steve found this lovely one.

Looking up then back along the water hole. Doesn’t look too inviting for a swim!!

Back down the creek but we continued down the creek this time instead of climbing over the rocky bank. Some pretty flowers.

Headed back along the track to where we saw another track and drove down to check it out. It came out on the high ridge near the top end of the gorge but it was a hard trek down to the water.

Back onto the main road and heading back to Marble Bar where we spotted black smoke. The spinifex gives off a very black smoke when burning which we think it due to the oil in it. We have noticed the detector’s skid plates are all sticky from brushing over the new spinifex green shoots.

Further along we found the fire in full blaze – felt like we were at home watching a sugarcane fire.

Amazing how it misses some bits. Not a detecting area so either a thrown cigarette or just started by one of the many smashed glass bottles on the side of the road.

Nearly back to the Comet Mine and we spotted another shaft going into a hill. Below it was concrete slabs for the processing plant we suppose.

Nearly back to town we turned off to Chinaman Pool on the way to the Marble Bar Pool. Nice green area but the water is green too.

Further along the track the corellas have taken over all the trees. They are all have dirty heads.

A bit more water down near the bar but the rest is dry sand.

Further down the road to the site of the colourful Marble Bar. Some locals were enjoying a dip in the water and trying to fish too.

The bar crosses the river here and this is where all the colourful Jasper is. Steve brought down a bucket and splashed water over the rocks to enhance the colour.

We climbed up over the rocks - looking downstream to the Flying Fox.

A memorial to Don – must have been a prospector.

Back into town for a cool drink at the Iron Clad Hotel. We chose a high stool as the dog had the couch!!

Heading home we turned off to check out a gold battery. Past a working mine that we think might be tin and then we meandered through the little hills passed so much rubbish. All old timer bottles and tins just before we reached the battery. They must have had a camp here where the prospectors waited for their ore to be crushed.

Poor old steam engine has lost his shovel.

Back home for drinks with Ray and Carol. Ray had found a lovely 8 gram nugget today – there are still nice pieces out there, you just have to wave your coil over it!! Jeff came back with a few nice little nuggets too.