Leonora - Mt Magnet

From Kalgoorlie we headed north into the northern goldfields, staying at Leonora one night. Just south of Leonora is the old gold mining town of Gwalia, home of the well known Sons of Gwalia mining company. In case, like us, you ever wondered about that name, apparently Gwalia was a poetical name for Wales, and the original gold mine was discovered by a group of Welsh prospectors. One of Gwalia's claims to fame is that after the original owners sold the claim, the mine manager who actually developed the mine was Herbert Hoover, who later went on to become the 31st president of the United States. The mine closed down suddenly a week before Christmas 1963, within 3 weeks the population went from 1500 to about 40. Most people just walked out with at most a bag, all their possessions were just left behind. The mine is once again operating today, but most of Gwalia is a ghost town. The only substantial building left is the old State Hotel, which is now the office of the reopened mine. It was interesting to wander around the tumble-down miners' shacks and think about what it would have been like to be told you'd lost your job, and had to leave within a week with only what you could carry.

From Leonora we headed back to Mt Magnet for another couple of days, 5 weeks after being here last time. We spent most of a day looking around Cue, another gold mining town that has seen better days. The picture at left here is of the original Cue masonic lodge, a very impressive corrugated iron building. Apparently corrugated iron was a very popular building material on the goldfields, as it was light and could be easily transported by camel train. We also went to have a look at Walga Rock, which has some interesting aboriginal rock art, including a graphic picture of what is quite obviously a sailing ship, 500km from the coast! Apparently scientists believe it was painted up to 300 years ago, and represents one of the Dutch sailing ships that visited Australia's west coast before Captain Cook decided he liked the look of the place. There was a very energetic goanna at Walga Rock, determinedly trying to push his way through the rabbit proof fence, but having no luck with his big belly. Also in the area is a small crater made by a meteorite several thousand years ago, but to the untrained eye it was pretty indistinguishable from any other hole in the ground.

Mt Magnet represents the end of the current stage of our around Australia trip. It is the last place we will be in the outback until we cross back east across the Nullarbor Plain early next year. For the next few months we will be making a much more leisurely pace through the cooler, more civilised south west of WA, getting back to playing some golf and, hopefully, getting away from some of the flies.