Sun, 6th July, 2025 Bush camp near Sunset Well (pending lease), near Leonora to Peter Denny Lookout rest area, east of Sandstone, WA

6.7 degrees, clear sky and breeze this morning.

Packed up and headed into Leonora then around to the historic township of Gwalia. Lots of other travellers wandering around the old ‘homes’ of the miners. We have been here a few times so just took a few more photos as we wandered.

Drove up the hill to the free camp area near the Museum and parked. Free to visit this museum but donations appreciated. It is very good and definitely worth the visit if travelling through this area. Checked out the open gold mine pit first - they are underground mining now and are down 2km with more gold further down. Amazing.

We headed up to Hoover House for morning tea. Group photo in front of the big headframe.

Beautiful rose as we headed into the house which was the Mine Manager’s home - Herbert Hoover who went on to be come President of USA.

Found some comfortable chairs and ordered our morning tea, coffee and scones for us. Wandered around inside - beautifully presented. I took lots of photos last time. You can book one of the bedrooms too - very luxurious in old world style. Rick found a nice hunk of gold!

Very efficient service too considering the amount of people here. Perfect coffee and hot too and the scones were yummy.

Wandered through the other two buildings checking out all the displays. Can’t remember if I took photos of this info about the horses in the mine.

The mine shut in 1963 then reopened again in 1983.

In the Assay Office there is a great video presentation by St Barbaras showing the computer drawings of the gold beneath us and the drill holes and results shown so there is still plenty of gold down there. St Barbaras has now been taken over by Genesis in 2023. I got a couple of photos off it to show the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie and the mine here in comparison.

This is where the gold was melted into ingots.

Wandered through all the old machinery etc then the winch room. Passed the old train etc and back into the museum. Lots of read in here which we did previously. The others are enjoying all the history too. I love the artwork done on this old pianola.

Brains overloaded with history we headed back to the cars and headed back into Leonora. Topped up the diesel tanks then headed north into a strong head wind!!

Stopped for a cuppa near the Leinster turn off then continued westward onto the road towards Sandstone. At least we aren’t pushing into the head wind any more.

Pulled into the Peter Denny Lookout rest area and set up near the edge of the escarpment.

Sun starting to drop so we wandered about taking photos.

The boys got the fire going and we chatted over drinks. The wind has settled so it was comfortable by the fire. Spotted satellites and watched the stars come out. Had dinner by the fire too. I was looking west and saw a bright light which then disappeared. I realised I was looking left of the sunset halo like we saw at Nullagine. It was the ‘lights’ again. More appeared so I was able to show the others. Very bright lights here for a few seconds going in a few different directions. So it isn’t just a Pilbara thing. Just needed clear view from a bit of elevation to see them. We watched them for about half hour from 8pm.

Back into the camper, 15 degrees so on with the heater for our showers then a movie.