Around Wooleen

Wooleen has been here for a hundred years and never thrown things away. There is nowhere to throw it! There are sheds full of abandoned vehicles and machinery, as well as old kitchen equipment gone rusty. Some of this has ended up in the "Bowerbird Museum", so-called because that is what bowerbirds do.

The museum is housed in the original kitchen of the homestead:

Medical Shelf!

Page from the homestead diary, describing the comings and goings.

This is very arid country. The landscape is dotted with windmills.

Remains of a carriage.

Frances's veggie patch.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Murchison Settlement

We went for a drive off the property to Murchison where there is a road house, shore office and small museum. We drove for about 35 kms through a landscape of not very much:


At the road house we had a coffee and watched the TV news about the Thai Cave rescue and then looked at the small museum of life in the stations in the old days:



Ladies sidesaddle made for Wooleen.

Toilet malfunction

In the middle of the night the toilet stopped working. When C lifted up the lid of the cistern, this is what she discovered:

There's a frog in my toilet......
JL fished out 5 and threw them outside into the red soil. They won't like it, miles from any water. There are 2 or 3 still in there which he couldn't catch!
~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~
Not many wildflowers out yet, but a few flowering shrubs:




C met an emu with 2 chicks whilst out on her early morning run. She got hissed at!

Life in the Outback

C filling the kettle from the rainwater tank; (taps inside only have bore water, not nice for a cup of tea).

Table mats with design of wild flowers

JL relaxing on the terrace

Display of old farm implements

Guinea fowl going past

Fly net worn over JL's cap

View from our front door

Dinner was smoked trout quiche, baked potatoes, salad and Aldi's champagne.

Geraldton to Wooleen

It was a four hour drive from Geraldton to Wooleen Station, where we had booked a cottage for 4 nights. The straight roads Geraldton to Mullowa, then Mullowa north towards Murchison were long and boring, but it was a lovely sunny day with clear blue skies. Our lunch spot was at Ballinyoo Bridge, built recently with Royalties for Regions Funding, to replace an older dangerous bridge across the Murchison River.

The gravel road into Wooleen was very well maintained and appeared to have been graded after recent rains. It was the best gravel road I've ever been on and I've seen some shockers up North! One in the Kimberley gave us 2 flat tyres and then we were in a pickle!

Wooleen Station is owned by a young couple, David and Frances, who are trying to regenerate the land which has been badly degraded in the past. They have de-stocked it of cattle and sheep and shot all the wild goats, kangaroos, foxes and feral cats. All of these graze the grass in competition with cattle. To make a cattle station more sustainable, their theory is to allow dingoes to roam the property as they keep the other wild animals at bay. There is a lot more about this on the Wooleen website.

Our cottage is one of two, recently constructed near the main homestead which was built in 1922. The walls are of mud brick and all the doors and some windows have been recycled from elsewhere, as has the kitchen. There is no phone service, no TV and only limited wi fi. The best thing is a roaring log fire and there is plenty of dead wood around to feed it. JL likes to forage for wood at every opportunity, as the nights are very cold. The starry skies are beautiful as there is no light pollution at Wooleen. Flies are a big pest during the day, but disappear when the sun goes down.

View from our balcony at 8.00 am

Lunch spot

Entrance to Wooleen Station 

Our cottage

Better than watching TV

Up North

Driving north to find some warmer weather, we set off with C's car loaded up with supplies for 6 days. Every inch of space was required, including a consignment of Aldi's grog under the front seats. We stopped at a strawberry farm and bought a punnet of luscious berries and a head of garlic.

We spent the first night in Geraldton, with a harbour view 2-bedroom apartment at the Mantra Hotel. The view of the sunset from our balcony was terrific. After a stroll along the boardwalk we came back to cook some trout and watch Poldark.

Paintings in our room inspired by the Batavia Wreck:

School hols

School hols and I managed to prize E away from her electronic devices for half a day. We made pea and broccoli soup and then walked across to have a look at the new bridge. The Premier walked across it yesterday (on TV) but the hoi poloi must wait another week.

We are not football fans but we stopped to admire this gigantic score chart inside Crown: