Leaving Western Australia

The decision has been made, we are driving back home from Western Australia. So after spending a few days with our friends in Binningup, shopping, eating, washing clothes and the vehicle and van and just relaxing, we head off for the 3500 kilometre trip back across the bottom of Australia, heading home. We are sad to be leaving Western Australia but glad to be heading home. We had a list of places and things we wanted to do while we were here and we have ticked many of those things off but we have also put many more places back on the list and we haven’t touched the south west yet. Looks like another trip here sometime in the future.

Philip and Peter had time to fit in a short flight while we were staying with them. Everything is looking pretty good from the air.

Our first stop on this leg of the trip was at Meckering. What an interesting little town. Very non- descript until we go for a walk and find that this town was hit by magnitude 6.5 earthquake at 11am on October 14, 1968. It was one of Australia’s strongest recorded earthquakes and tore through the wheat growing community destroying most of the town. Of the 75 buildings in the town, 60 were damaged by the quake. The surrounding roads were cracked and impassable, water pipes burst and the railway line was twisted and buckled. There is a great little walk around the town with photos showing before and after photos.

Another stop on the road was Balladonia Telegraph Station. This is not a designated tourist stop but Philip pulled onto the verge and then backed up the highway 500 metres so we could walk in the driveway. It’s set back off the road a bit and is fenced off with a small ( climb through a fence) access. It was quite a big residence but has unfortunately been damaged by vandals. The fences are amazing, built of limestone rocks stacked a metre high. When it was being used it would have been a lonely place to reside. Overnight somewhere down a track in amongst the beautiful Desert Oaks.

After a slightly misty dawn, we depart as usual around 7am. Eucla Telegraph Station was also a stop on our way east. This one is almost on the coastline and is slowly being swallowed by the sand dunes. There is a beautiful stand of gums behind the building which would have been a lovely oasis when the station was operating. We continued walking past the station towards the coast, over some small dunes, reaching the beach and walking along the sand towards the remains of the old jetty. The original Eucla town was established in 1877 as a manual repeater station for the overland telegraph. The remainder of the town is now under sand as a plague of rabbits ate most of the dune vegetation which then caused the large sand drifts to creep over the town site.

The Eucla jetty was built in 1887 and was used by sail and steam ships to bring supplies from Albany and Esperance. It was also used to export Sandalwood from the Eucla region. The jetty was another reminder of the remarkable engineering achievement of the Overland Telegraph. The original length of the jetty was 151 metres.