7am
26 degrees, clear sky and no breeze.
Packed
up and said our farewells to Chris and Mickey. They would love us to come and
housesit for them again which is lovely and they were very generous in gifts to
us which was nice but unnecessary. As Chris works at Sons of Qwalia Mine near
Leonora they might come and see us at the station where we are heading.
Headed
west to Leinster. The purple and yellow flowers are still on show along the
road.
Stopped
for some fruit and vegies in the shop there. Rang Mum and Dad while we had a
cuppa in the shade of a big tree. Already 36 degrees – should be a top of 39
today.
South
on the Goldfields Highway to Leonora where we topped up the fuel and water and
had lunch. Up to 38.2 degrees with a gusty breeze. Clouds are coming across
from the west.
Back
up the bitumen for 10km then we turned onto the Old Agnew Road which is dirt
for 16 km up to Tarmoola Station homestead. As we drove through the gate we
spotted a light aircraft upside down with the nose cone broken off – hope no
one got hurt. Rob has been delayed in Perth so Kym and Glen, who have been
caretaking here since July, greeted us. We parked the van under a big shady
tree and joined the others for a cuppa. The thermometer reached 40degrees in
the van. Found out the plane had already been damaged and yesterday a big gust
of wind just picked it up and turned it over!
The
old kitchen and quarters are still standing with lovely green grass and
bougainvillea (growing lovely after Kym’s attention) beside it. The old
homestead was deemed as full of white ants and was pulled down so now it is a
demountable building for the ‘house’.
We
chatted about the station which is 427,000 acres and has cattle on it now. A
lease was taken up in 1923 by Reuben McBride and he formed Tarmoola Pastoral
Company with W.G. Hawkes in 1924 (info from Wikipedia). It was stocked with
sheep then with 3,300 of them being delivered here from South Australia. In
2014 the property was owned by St Barbara Mining Company as there is gold here
(of course). The property was destocked in 2014 and was suffering from an
infestation of coral cactus. New Horizon Group purchased the property this year
hence we are here to help as Rob by checking the bores and troughs and general
helping out.
Big
map on the wall showing all the bores and the property’s boundaries. We will be
staying at 10 Mile Outcamp which is back up the highway and then on the east of
the highway. It is about 50km north of Leonora.
Met
‘Splash’ (one month old) who was orphaned after the muster so Glen and Kym have
been caring for him. He comes in for a feed then wanders around the homestead
area mixing with the other cattle.
Wandered
out to the chicken pen where Kym has got some vegies growing on one side – the
chickens aren’t allowed in there. Met their baby donkey, Jazz, that was wandering by
itself near one of the bores to they adopted it. Kym was up during the night
feeding it through the cold months. They are considered a pest of course but
she has found someone who wants to take her.
Kym
had cooked us dinner which was lovely and we chatted the evening away. Glen is
interested in detecting too.
9pm
still 35 degrees in the van and no breeze. The stars are all out again. The
donkey likes our van and is keeping guard.
Lots
of sparks from the static electricity when I pulled the bedspread off the bed
was amazing – thought it was going to start a fire.
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