Southern Forests

We're currently staying at Manjimup, about 300km south east of Perth. We originally planned to stay a week here then a week at Wagin, but decided that there is so much to do in this area, and virtually nothing on offer at Wagin, so we have decided to stay 2 weeks here and scrap Wagin altogether. Besides, there is a nice golf course here and the one at Wagin has sand greens....

Manjimup is surrounded by the Southern Forests, vast tracts of forested land that have been logged for over 100 years. There are now many national parks, some with 'old growth' meaning never logged but many with regrowth after past logging. The 3 main timber trees here are Jarrah, Karri and Marri, with beautiful hard wood used extensively for building, and lately also for hand crafted furniture. Jarrah in particular was especially sought after, and many roads in London and Berlin were paved with Jarrah blocks before the era of bitumen. The forests provide a beautiful backdrop to the region, and the national parks have many lovely walking and driving trails. The drives in particular are very well set up, with FM radio transmitters set up at significant spots, so you can stop and listen to commentary on the car radio.

Karri is one of the tallest trees in the world, and from the 1940s on fire spotting platforms were built on the top of strategically sited extra tall trees. While these were decommissioned in the 1970s when planes were introduced for spotting fires, a few are back in use to cover the gaps when planes aren't in the air. Some of the old fire spotting platforms are now open to the public, you have to climb 50 to 60 metres almost vertically on spikes driven into the tree to form a sort of ladder. Wendy tried her hand at one, and found it much harder than she had imagined, she made it only about two thirds of the way up and her legs are still stiff and sore a day later. It certainly gave us respect for the fire spotters, who have to not only climb up the tree every day but then sit for up to 12 hours in a tiny hut built on the top of the tree in all sorts of weather. Pretty scary stuff in the middle of a thunderstorm! One of the stories we read about involved a spotter who radioed back to base that he was going to climb down as a massive thunderstorm was approaching. The controller requested he stay put, as the lightning could cause fires that would need to be spotted. To reassure the spotter, the controller said 'there are plenty of trees left in paddocks that have survived many thunderstorms'. The spotter apparently retorted 'there are more of the buggers lying on the ground!' and climbed down.

Manijimup itself is a bustling country town servicing a population of around 5,000. While it doesn't offer much in the way of tourist delights, there is a heritage park with information and displays on logging and timber. John was delighted with the old steam train engine on display, giving free rein to his inner three year old. The park also has pioneer buildings, including a heritage school house, forestry office and police lock-up, and an excellent timber history museum.

We also spent a full day at Pemberton, another logging town about 30km further south. This is a very pretty town with a much more tourist focus than Manjimup, although it is also much smaller. We were delighted to find local produce available at the information centre and stocked up on cheap, fresh avocados, lemons and peas, as well as smoked trout at a local trout farm. (We had bought some of the first of the new seasons cherries at a farm gate near Manjimup, they are likely to get some more business from us before we leave here). Pemberton has a tourist tram which runs on the old lines built for transporting timber before the age of tractors and trucks, we had a lovely couple of hours travelling through the lush forests of the region, with several stops to explore the rivers and trees.