Turning back

Friday 28th was a s..t of a day, literally. The dunny broke down. Spent most of the day up to the armpits in that which you don’t want to know about.

It seems that the Dometic  dunny is a crapper. We have struck so many along the way that have had problems, but we thought we were not amongst them. Hah! This was the second of our dunny breakdowns in the space of a week. The first one I managed to fix relatively simply, at least such that it could be used perhaps until we got home, but I bought the part anyway. It was only $106.00, almost a steal by comparison to the shelf CLIP for the Dometic fridge @ $25.00. But then Fridays replacement part was $165.00. Now I figure at this rate if you add up all the costs of all the component parts that go to make up this crappy piece of equipment the amount would equal the cost of a new Winnebago (perhaps not a big one). The people we met at Augusta with a two year old Longreach had already ripped the dunny out in fit of rage and Winnebago are no longer fitting this style of toilet. When challenged, Dometic state that the problem is a lack of maintenance – you’re supposed to pull it apart and clean and grease all of the system at least every 6 months – this is pan, cistern, pipes, tanks, pumps, filter etc. Good system!!! I will investigate the fitment of a new system when we get home, presuming firstly that we get home without bursting.

Over the weeks in and out of Perth we have noticed (actually bloody hard to miss) a lot of heavy mining equipment stocked by a multitude of resellers. Over a 9 week period we’ve not seen any of this stock move…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is the mining industry falling behind the governments financial expectations? I’d love one of these – we could live in it and no-one would argue with us on the road.

Turned around on Sunday. For the first time in 5 months we have headed east with no objective but to ultimately return to Victoria. Called in to see Don & Myra Lee at Northam and enjoyed an afternoon of country hospitality so we didn’t get too far that day. Overnighted somewhere in the dark not far east of Northam  but found ourselves the next morning accompanied by lots of other fellow travellers. Followed the water pipe to Kalgoorlie. This is an incredible feat of engineering, a steel pipeline laid over 500 km in the late 1800’s. Look it up. You will be amazed at the story.

Inspected the station museum at Merridan and then the Military Museum. Merridan was the sight of a major military hospital under canvas during the latter part of the second world war because someone figured that Japanese bombers couldn’t carry enough fuel to head so far inland from Fremantle. It is now just a series of concrete floors and is very overgrown but there is a gravel roadway that circumnavigates the site. At the Military Museum we got a guided tour of the entire facility cos the volunteer needed someone to talk to. He was interesting though and it is a very eclectic collection of memorabilia……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is but a portion of the outside stuff. Inside were guns, radios, uniforms, historical photos and records spread over 10 or so rooms. The railway museum likewise featured material that we hadn’t seen before including some biographies on local people of years past. Fascinating insights to family life 100 or more years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The signal box features 91 levers. Don’t know for what!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memorial to 3 truck drivers who died in a bush fire back in 2007 set out in the woods is a sad acknowledgement of the dangers of bushfire somewhere near Merridan.

See also  the odd trunk formation of Gimlet trees that surround the memorial. We first saw these odd coloured and configured gum trees on the way over towards the end of the Eyre Highway before Norseman. They were so unusual we had to ask about them at the information centre back then. It would appear that there are not many areas of these trees left and they are indigenous to this part of Australia only.

Got to Kalgoorlie on Tuesday. Passed through  Coolgardie and resolved to come back and spend some time there. Had Eamonn Murphy over for dinner Tuesday and it was great to catch up. Eamonn is working for Hamptons Transport as an auto elec. here in Kalgoorlie. He loves the job but we get the impression that he is very lonely. We’ll do a few things together over the next few days.

Made our way back to Coolgardie on Wednesday.  A sad place really having lost some 15000 people since its heyday in the 1890’s. There is evidence of early opulence, now just dust. Some very elegant and beautiful buildings remaining attest to its past glory…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

but the visitor centre and museum sported the most interesting pile of rubbish that a couple of collectors found in tips all round the state…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is some amazing ‘junk’ in this lot.

 

Ah well! Off to the brothel.