Tues 8th Apr, 2025 48hr RV Stop, Bruce Rock to 72hr RV at Centennial Park, Kalgoorlie, WA (exploring Westonia)

Min of 17.4 degrees, overcast with black clouds so might be some rain in them.

Packed up and headed to Merredin still through grain country. Another road to mark off in our map book.

Passed another ‘rock’ but didn’t go in - we have climbed lots of them already.

Into Merredin which we explored before - it has another big rock with WW2 history. When we did the drive along the Great Eastern Highway we were following the Golden Pipeline Trail - the water pipeline from Mundaring Dam near Perth to Kalgoorlie. Very interesting.

Continued eastward with the sky clearing ahead of us.

Passed the sign for the No. 1 Rabbit Proof Fence which we cross here - we have been to the top and bottom of it and seen lots of signs of it as we crisscrossed the state.

Turned off at Carrabin (only a roadhouse here now) and headed north for 9km up to Westonia. There is a gold mine here so it is where the goldfields meet the wheat belt. It is also part of the Golden Pipeline Trail but we missed driving up here previously.

Great entrance sign at the turn off, established in 1910. 4 shops, telegraph poles complete with birds.

Into town, van park, golf course and very neat and quiet. We parked on the main street and walked up and down as there was lots to check out.

Lovely orchids on the post office building. They have history photos on the bins too.

An old truck on display in the centre of the road.

Continued up the street.

Steve commented on the grader driver would have a warm bottom as his seat is above the radiator.

A winch thing representing the Edna May gold mine that is just out of town.

The Club Hotel. Didn't see an info board about it.

Unfortunately the Museum was all shut up even though the sign said it should be. Whilst writing this I read the smaller print on the sign and it said that entry was via the Shire Office - Dam. Shame they didn’t have that directly under the open hours. It sounds like it was a very interesting museum. Oh well will put it on my list if we come back along the highway again.

I think it is great they have kept the old world charm.

A gold ore crusher - ‘a stamper’.

These palms were planted in 1973 by the CWA. This was probably their building too.

More little shops.

We turned at the end and headed past noisy red-tailed black cockatoos.

The gums have very shiny bronze trunks - maybe the outer bark has just fallen off.

Another little shop then mini silos with photos and a truck in front.

Back to the main street - side view of the old Post Office.

Love these - Bird of Paradise.

Headed back up the main street. Lots of covered piles in the work yard - reading the sign, it is probably timber under the covers.

The 110 year old Edna May Tavern with a 'black cat on the hot tin roof'. We love the way they moved buildings in the old days - not build a new one. Note they 14 room lodging house was moved to Norseman - a very long distance from here especially when you think of the transport they had and the road conditions. Probably pulled apart, flat packed onto a wagon and then reassembled.

It even has a mine shaft with a man in it! (not the actual mine - that is just out of town)

Continued down the side of the building to check out the old truck.

Back to the main street - tribute to the local government here and an old steam engine.

A couple more little shops.

Back to the truck then along to the church which has a RV rest area and picnic table. Steve put the kettle on while I checked out the church. Another ‘relocated building’ story. I lifted the gate to go inside and it was made of plastic - a bit wobbly but serves the purpose I suppose.

Sat in the shelter shed to have our cuppas and read the info boards. We had visited some of the places before, like Elachbutting Rock - we reckon it was better than Wave Rock. Great photo of the mine.

I remember reading about Moondyne Joe when he was in Fremantle Gaol.

I looked back to 20 Dec, 2016 when we visited the gaol and found this:

A convict, Moondyne Joe, was crushing rocks in the corner and dug himself a tunnel through the perimeter wall, hidden by the rockpile. He escaped (7 March, 1857) in only his underwear and was at large for two years before being captured in the cellar of Houghton’s Winery in the Swan Valley on 25 February, 1869.

That’s why I like writing my diary/blog so I can look back at things we have seen.

Continued down the road - another little shop and truck.

Followed the Golden Pipeline sign and turned onto a dirt track to the mine lookout. Found the sign but it is so hard to read - they had done them all on the metal signs. This area is part of the trail because of its water/gold connection and shows the trials etc of the pioneering people. This one said: “Westonia owes existence to the discovery of gold. The highest grade of ore in the Yilgarn Field. Westonia’s riches lay hidden from the prospectors flocking to Coolgardie in the 1890s. Sandalwood collector and part-time prospector, Alfred Weston’s 1910 gold find started a rush to the area. Shafts were sunk and companies floated. But water flooding the underground mines meant men were laid off and shares dropped until it was extracted. By July 1915 more water was flowing into the Edna May mine than could be pumped out. The photo shows piles of timber, used by steam pumps to raise the water from the mine, stacked beside the Edna May. Today saline water is used in processing and to settle the dust.”

We walked up the slope to the first view of an open pit and the facilities on the other side.

Up the next slope to the lookout. Another ‘shiny’ sign but you can read this one.

View across to the facilities and the other open pit.

Looks like they are working behind that now.

Back to the truck and out to the highway. Pulled into the roadhouse and topped up as diesel is much cheaper here than in Kalgoorlie.

Continued along the Great Eastern Highway still going through grain country.

Stopped at Southern Cross for lunch.

The grain fields stopped at Ghooli, now it is low scrub then we enter the Goldfields Woodland Conservation Park.

Big white fluffy clouds appearing as we near Coolgardie where we stopped for a cuppa.

Continued on then got a text from Lee-Anne & Daniel. They had just passed us heading back to Coolgardie. They pulled off so we turned around and went back for a chat. Lee-Anne said they had a lot of rain early this morning so the ground has been very wet to go detecting on. We had noticed lots of puddles on the side of the road. They only have a couple more days but hopefully we can meet up further north later on when they can get away from the van park.

We continued eastward to Kalgoorlie and around to Centennial Park’s 72hr RV Stop. Lots of campers parked up but we found a spot and set up.

After drinks Steve chatted with our neighbours while I finished off my book.

A shower of rain came over at 6.30 but it was only light. This is the end of our sightseeing till Oct as we will be meandering through the goldfields bush but I will keep posting up our camps and interesting things we see every now and then.

Dinner and movie - fairly quiet here, not much traffic about.