Fri, 5th Sept, 2025 Bush camp on pending lease, north of Kookynie to Bush camp on Yerilla Station, south-east of Kookynie, WA

10.3 degrees min and cloudy.

The wind picked up as we went wandering - a bit nippy. Only lead shot for me but Steve was rewarded for his big walk and got a little bit .

After a cuppa he went off with the 6000 while I did our baking as we were nearly out again. The sky has gotten greyer and windier.

No more for Steve so after lunch we packed up and went exploring. Found a track across to the fence line then up towards the little live lease but we couldn’t see anything worth detecting in the area so headed back out. Two black ‘big’ ponies darted across the track from behind a tree when we were nearly back to the highway. They were a different shape to a horse but bigger than a normal pony. They moved to quick for me to get a photo.

Onto the highway and back south a bit to the turn off to Niagara Dam and Kookynie. We haven’t been here for a few years so drove into the dam for a look - nothing has changed. Had a cuppa and read the info boards though they are harder to read now. They keep the water level down as the wall is weaker with age now. Photo shows it when it was full and under construction. There is nothing left of the old township now.

We are always in awe of how they managed to get all this big machinery around the states - this photos shows a big boiler being towed along by camels.

Walked across the dam wall. There are a few travellers parked up on the lower side.

Drove back out and continued on past the old townsite of Niagara. Ray and Carol rang so we pulled over for a chat. They are in Woodgate, parked up at the house. Ray used his fishing drone and caught a nice mackerel today so they have fish for dinner. He mowed the lawn too which was nice of him. Will catch up with them again when we get back to the east side.

Continued on into Kookynie.

The Grand Hotel has been for sale for many years - has a horse that likes to stand at the front door in the air conditioning when it is hot. I took photos of all the history info on our first visit here.

There are a few homes still lived in with more caravans and sheds built around them - probably have mining leases in the area.

We headed down the road to Yarri. Good smooth gravel road.

Turned off into the Yerilla Station homestead area. Lots of sheds about but we saw one that had a few cards near it so we headed that way. It is the Manager’s house. Steve met Graham and said we were here to detect on the pending leases. He said thanks for calling in and gave us pointers on where others have been finding gold. He used to detect before taking over the manager job a year ago. There was only 6 bores working then, now he has 36 flowing. We had seen some cattle as we drove in and they looked healthy.

Said thanks and headed back out onto the main road and continued past the main mine area and into the pending lease he suggested. Drove along towards the ‘creek’ and found a spot to park up.

Time for drinks and it is still windy outside so inside for a game of cards again.

The wind settled as the daylight disappeared.