5 June 2013 - Advent Park, Maida Vale, Perth, Western Australia

Little of the forecasted rain fell before dawn and by breakfast little but raindrops were left on the caravan windows.

This morning brought two events worth noting: the first a rotten night that announced Chris’s cold virus to now be mine; I now have licence to be a hypochondriacal curmudgeon, and the second, some very good news.

Communication over the past few days have been hinting this was to occur  however one should never counts one’s chickens before they hatch, but hatch they did this morning. The National Warranty Company has at last paid up the amount we were due on our claim for the fuel pump. It has taken four months, copious emails, correspondence and official lodgement of the dispute with the Financial Ombudsman, taxpayer dollars and then, just like that, they decided they did not have a chance in hell to win their argument. It is indeed satisfying for right to prevail, but what a business this has been. Anyway, the money is in the bank, and we have withdrawn our dispute. Our warranty still has a further eight months to run; I just hope we do not have occasion to make any further claim, although I suspect the NWC will not dare give us the runaround again.

Not fancying sitting in public transport or wandering through a public gallery, sniffing and snorting, I suggested we take a drive out to the edge of the wheat belt. My driver was happy with the idea so we set out soon after breakfast, lunch packed in the eski and headed eastwards along the Great Eastern Highway through Mundaring which we had explored several days ago, then on through the Perth Hills, north east on to Northam. The route ran almost the full length through the hills, covered in beautiful gum forest with an understory of balgas, and even as we came on into the Avon Valley, the farmland was discreetly tucked away in the trees.

The Avon River is simply the upper reach of the Swan, and runs down through a wide fertile valley discovered by Ensign Robert Dale on the instructions of Captain Stirling to go find some good farmland to solve the colony’s food shortages. This he did in 1830 and just three years later, this town, about ninety seven kilometres from the centre of Perth, was established. Today it is the largest agricultural township in the state with a population of about 7,000 although it’s heydays were over a hundred years ago.

Initially Northam was a good place to kick off further exploration into the interior of the colony, and later a provisioning station for those passing through to the goldfields to the east. Gold was discovered in Southern Cross in 1887 , Coolgardie in 1892 and Kalgoolie in 1893. The rail came through from Perth and Guildford in 1891 which further facilitated this role.

Northam is home to the introduced white swan, five state premiers, 185 heritage listed buildings and a very smart new Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre, opened in 2012. This latter addition will no doubt add prosperity to the area.

We parked near the Information Centre and walked across the Northam River Pool, a wide section of the Avon River, on the suspension bridge, the longest of its kind in Australia. With such a superlative description, we were expecting something far more impressive; the bridge was constructed only back in 1975, just yesterday by our standards. It has a 117 metre span and a capacity of 400 people spread uniformly along the structure, however I would prefer to be a spectator in such a test.

We walked along the bank of the rather sludgy looking water, crossed again near the old  flour mill built way back in 1867. Today it stands as it has through the centuries however the processes that go on behind the old facade have been upgraded to reflect modern technology. We wandered along the main street, tempted by the sugary wares in the bakery before wandering back along the river bank once more to the landcruiser.

The main road south to York is the Great Southern Highway, however we chose to drive the Spencer Brook – York Road which closely follows the Avon River upstream, and much more interesting.

The old flour mill at Northam

York is somewhat smaller with Northam, with a population of just 3,800. All part of the land discovered by Ensign Dale, settlement happened a couple of years before that at Northam. As such, it is Westertern Australia’s most historic inland town. 

Like Northam, being the last point to buy supplies, the town did well as the gold-diggers found their way through. Much of the infrastructure, such as the road through from Guildford was built with convict labour, as far back as 1851. The arrival of the telegraph line in York from Perth in 1872 and the rail in 1885 boosted the economy, however Northam became a more important rail centre. Grand buildings were built to reflect the wealth of the town, the last of these the town hall completed in 1911. Little more seems to have been done since or from the 1930’s onwards, although heritage status draws the tourists and it is indeed a charming spot to visit. The streetscape of Avon Terrace still largely reflects York as it was in 1911.

We were delighted to find the doors of the grand Town Hall open to the likes of us, offering a small museum tour with interpretative panels and a few well chosen items from the past. We climbed the stairs and stood in the balcony looking down into the auditorium where the community met to celebrate so many events throughout the years.

The Town Hall was erected at a cost of 9,027 pounds and in 1920 was advertised as “the Finest Municipal Hall in Western Australia”. It could accommodate 1,000 people, had electric lights throughout, a supper room, dressing rooms, reading rooms and a permanent cinematograph box”. It was very flash indeed!

I was amused to read a small item about one event that took place in 1933 and I repeat the piece, verbatum here: “a young man, Terrance Rowan plunged to his death from the upper balcony onto the dance floor during the St Patrick’s Day Ball, the highlight of York’s Social calendar between the wars”. I assume the highlight was the ball rather than the accident? I hope I don’t make such grammatical faux pas?

The York Town Hall

And here is a celebrity York lays claim to; the lovely pioneer silent screen actress Enid Bennett, born here in 1893. She starred in twenty three films, her most famous lead role being Lady Marian in 1922’s “Robin Hood” opposite the more famous Douglas Fairbanks. Now I am familiar with the dashing Mr Fairbanks but must confess to never having heard of Ms Bennett.

We picnicked down by the Avon River, near the sign that warned against swimming because of the danger of contacting amoebic meningitis. We presumed that the fish seen jumping and the many ducks about were off the menu.

The catchment of the Avon River covers a massive area, over twelve million hectares in total, an area larger than the state of Tasmania. Dry land agriculture is the major land use in the region with an average rainfall of just 350 mm. Unfortunately 9% of the land in the Avon River basin is currently affected by salinity with some predicting that this will eventually increase to 40%/ the major cause of dry land salinity is rising water tables. Dry land salinity also threatens the Avon River with salinity levels in the river steadily increasing. We came across similar issues down in South Australia and Victoria with such levels in the Murray River.

Post Office at York

On average 4.4 million litres of rain falls in the Swan / Avon catchment annually. Much of the rain is stored in the soil, used by vegetation and crops, or enters groundwater systems, yet most will end up in the Avon River and eventually the Swan River. The Avon River becomes the Swan River where it meets Moondyne Brook at Walyunga National Park.

After adequate exploration of this charming old town, we resumed our drive and headed back toward Perth, this time up through the hills along the Great Southern Highway, passing through extensive wheat growing country and sheep grazing, with much more visible in the distance.

Regaining the road we had travelled in the morning, now having completed a triangle, we headed for Chidlow, the home in Perth Hills to Lake Leschenaultia, the reservoir constructed in 1897 by the Western Australian Government to provide water for the steam engines travelling from Midland to Chidlows Well and areas further east. The rail line was closed in 1966 with the opening of the new line following the Avon River to Northam. The lake holds about 520 million litres of water, which is also prone to harbouring meningitis amoeba, and is up to nine metres deep.

These days the lake and the recreational area of 168 hectares it covers, is home to kangaroos, possums, bandicoots, echidna, native birds and wild flowers when they are in season. Today we saw the first of the pale yellow flowers of the wattle, a small flock of ring necked parrots, and of course the ever present and ever vocal crows. A couple of kookaburras were tuning up in the distance; it was still too early for their roosting song. The rest of the fauna were evidently away on holiday.

We enjoyed the three kilometre walk around the lake, noted the many picnic spots but could not envisage anyone wanting to swim or sail in the rather slimy looking water. Further rain was threatening and we were perhaps a little foolish, given our colds, to press on, but we are obstinate in most matters and did so. In fact we managed to complete our walk and the drive home before the first raindrops fell.

I popped over to see Glenn in the park office to pay for another two weeks while Chris started to prepare dinner. There is still plenty to occupy us here in Perth even without that trip to Rottnest Island.