Manjimup I hear you say

Found a little slice of heaven a long way from home and whilst I might have used this phrase before when referring to most of southern WA, “Fontys Pool” is as close as it gets. Look it up at www.fontyspool.com.au rather than me bore you with the historical details but it is very photogenic……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manjimup itself is not a ‘home’ choice being a small country town with few features but we’ve tried truffles and truffle derivatives, picked our own apples and even bought some local wine.

Bridgetown, going back a day or two, was a nicer small country town than Manjimup but the caravan park was quite low key by comparison to this one. Bridgetown did however have some quirky little things though including its winter festival (the locals call it fridgetown) – a full 3 month program of winter activities We also tried tea and scones at Horty Towers and if that seems reminiscent of a famous TV show it definitely fits the bill even down to the principal character (but without the silly walks)……

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bridgetown is the administrative centre for the area but Greenbushes nearby is the  work centre and the real history. Notable for tin mining back in the late 1800’s it has continued as a mine site both underground and open cut and today is notable for the continuing underground mining under the open cut . Tin, tantalum and lithium are the spoils of todays mining but the old open cut is impressive ……….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theses photos are actually of Greenbushes, nearby township to Bridgetown and the original mining centre of the area. Its history dates to the late 1800’s wherein it commenced as an underground tin mine (or 2 or 3) and developed over many years and ownerships to an opencut and now to an underground mine under the opencut. Current mining is tantalum and lithium as well as tin and is operated by “Sons of Gwalia”. If you look closely at one of the mine shots you’ll see a 90 tonne ore truck, four of which we saw travel up the stope and unload within the 20 minutes or so that we  were at the viewing platform, so it is obviously still a very busy mine. The pool is an old sluicing pool converted in the 50’s to a swimming pool.

I’m very pleased that we don’t run on gas (LPG for the overseas readers) as the price as we move further away from Perth ever rises – here in Manjimup it’s 99.9 c/l whereas diesel is “only” 1.52 c/l. Our economy has however improved a bit. We’re down to 22.2l/100km (12.786 mpg for the Americans[ but don’t forget that our English gallon is 8 pints]) for the entire 8000 km so far of the trip. I can say I’m also pleased that we drive the truck we do – each of the tyres for the aforementioned ore trucks costs $12600.00.

From here we’re back to Albany to pick up new orthotics so I can walk again thence slowly back to Perth for a couple of weeks while we catch up with visiting friends and new acquaintances then back down to Augusta for a Winnebago Club whale watch safari then back to Margaret River for a farm stay. Oh! life is so tedious.