Today we managed to avoid the showers, evident on the horizon and by the deepening puddles and usually dry lakes we passed as we travelled south east to our destination.
We had initially thought to travel to Hyden via Lake Grace, however our alternative route has taken in other lakes; there are so many in the area. In fact there is an absolute chain of lakes all the way south along the highway to King Lake and beyond. I imagine that many of these lakes, some very large, are more often than not, just dry salt beds; today there was water in most, visible from the road.
While all the cropped land about us seemed to be on a relatively flat plain, we had in fact climbed over the past few days. At Kulin we had been at 309 metres ASL, at Hyden 285 metres ASL and on reaching Lake King, 344 metres ASL.
Lake King, like Hyden, was settled in the 1920s as part of a Settlement Scheme, as so much of this corner of the country seems to have been. Then there were 3,400 farms involved hereabout, but the Great Depression and the salinity of the land drove so many away, and now there are but a fraction of those landholders or their descendants left, although their holdings are so much larger. As we drove south we found very few entrances to homesteads which seemed to support that there are few actually living on these vast areas of canola and grain growing, although there must be some to keep an eye on the sheep, most at some stage of lambing.
At Lake King, Varley and Mt Madden, all sporting massive grain storage facilities, there is no rail. Presumably the grain is reloaded and trucked to the railheads or perhaps to the port at Albany or Esperance?
At Varley we passed the “Rabbit Cemetery” which caused much speculation, and then chuckled when we saw another road sign advising motorists to “wave safely”.
At Ravensthorpe, we reached the South Coast Highway and parked up in an information board bay; time for lunch. We were soon joined by a double-B train all the way from Deniliquin, NSW. The driver hopped out and let his two sheep dogs out from the empty crates. We watched as they ran around like mad things and then came and sat quietly listening to their master, rapt with his tone as he spoke quietly to them. They were all a very long way from home and we wondered what they were up to.
Ravensthorpe has a population of 400 with a further 1,140 living out in the adjacent countryside. There is still cropping and sheep farming going on, but most of the countryside, in fact, two thirds of it all about, is wilderness, protected by National Park or Reserve status. The location won mineral wealth status back in 1871 when gold was discovered by sheep farmers. Further discoveries followed in 1900 which resulted in a short boom, when the population of the place climbed to 1,000, and by 1901, the government gazetted the town of Ravensthorpe.
The government completed construction of a copper and gold smelter a couple of kilometres south of the town in 1906, used to cast copper and gold ingots. At the peak of production, there were over one hundred and twenty men employed, but now there are only ruins to show for their enterprise. The town’s population grew to 3,000 by 1909, but soon the First World War took away the labour and by 1918 the copper smelter was closed, along with most of the mines.
A couple of kilometres north of the town, we noticed a sign to a mine at Mt Cattlin. We learned that this is a spodumene project; tantalum and lithium oxide as we had seen up at Greensbushes, north of Bridgetown. Galaxy Resources exports the spudomene to China, presumably starting with a road trip to sea ports here on the south coast.
To the east of Ravensthorpe, we saw the Nickel Operations, a mine and hydrometallurgical processing plant, lying a couple of kilometres to the south of the highway. This was previously one of BHP Billiton’s operations, but is now under ownership of First Quantum Minerals subsidiary FQM Australia Nickel Pty Ltd, after controversial financial problems.
The road across from Ravensthorpe to Esperance, a total of 186 kilometres, is far more up and down than those travelled over the past few days, but does have a number of passing lanes so we were able to be passed or pass slower traffic. There was little traffic anyway; perhaps that had something to do with the fact it was Sunday.
We pulled into Esperance a little after 3 pm, hoping to catch the Information Centre before they closed. Alas, they close at midday on Sundays, but do have a comprehensive list of caravan parks and their tariffs on the window, and so we came on to this camp, prompted by the fact it was one of the two cheapest after our Family Parks loyalty discount.
We have booked for three nights, but
are open to extending. I have not mapped out our days here yet, but will attend
to that over breakfast tomorrow. It seems we have chosen well, however there
are notices in the amenities about keeping everything under lock and key. It
would seem there are thieves about; whether they dwell in the camp or the
greater area is uncertain. We shall take good care of our few valuables, such
as they are. Television reception is good although internet is less so. Still,
we did manage to converse with my parents on Skype before we sat down to dinner
and before they headed off to bed. It would seem that all is well in our world,
and theirs.
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