What a weekend for the Poms, or should I say those from the British Isles to spread the net a little further: rugby victory, a Brit in the Yellow Jersey albeit a ring-in and recently naturalised Kenyan, and now a Brit victory at Wimbledon, albeit a Scot. Tonight, a reprieve; a rest day in France and the tennis over. An early night, perhaps?
Temperatures this morning were even harsher than yesterday, -3 degrees with no river mist, but a superb day. We could have ended up spending its entirety caravan bound waiting for emails, half of which never arrived, however I was adamant that would not be allowed to happen.
Mid-morning we drove into town, called at the newsagent and then into the Information Centre. The small museum in the back room is excellent, with displays of equipment used in the horticultural industry of days gone by. Bridgetown preceded Donnybrook in the apple stakes, although it might be hard to see if you were simply passing through.
Beyond this modest heritage display lies the Brierly Jigsaw Gallery, referred to yesterday. Today we
took a little time to poke about. There are at least 167 puzzles displayed, sixty of them the originals from Mrs Brierly’s boarding house. It was she who donated the carpet and the wall linings to house her precious collection, and the carpet is an icon all on its own. Remember the crochet squares one would make with all the left over bits of wool? I have two rugs assembled from these treasures stored away back in New Zealand, moth proofed for future use. How Granny-like is that! This is a stripy zigzag patterned carpet that the factory must have made from all its wool ends and could only have been made in the middle of last century. It is in excellent order so should last another fifty years or more.
Did you know that the first jigsaw puzzle was produced around 1760 by a London engraver and mapmaker, when he mounted one of his maps on a sheet of hardwood and cut around the borders with a fine-bladed marquetry saw. Cardboard puzzles came into being in the 1880s and jigsaw puzzles were all the rage in the 1920s and 1930s, falling out of favour when television arrived after World War II filling the puzzlers evenings with alternative activity. There has apparently been a renewal of interest since the 1990s; our wee granddaughter has developed a passion for them in the last year or so. Now that’s all very interesting, isn’t it?
In the gallery, there are puzzles of 8,000 and 9,000 pieces, 3D puzzles and the smallest wooden puzzle in the world with 99 pieces. The larger impressive displays have been donated by other puzzle nuts from Perth. For the price of a gold coin donation, this is a must see, if only to cause the rolling of eyes in amazement.
We solved two of our own puzzles while chatting with yet another super friendly woman; the principal mining activity at Greenbushes sixteen kilometres up the road is lithium and the Bridge Banquet was on a bridge upstream to the south, up a side road away from the bustling traffic.
There had been another matter puzzling us, that of the number of place names that ended in: Boyup Brook, Nannup, Manjimup, Bellingup,Mayanup, Quinninup,Yallingup, Geegelup and so on. In the local indigenous language, “up” means “the place of”, just as “dale” and “ton” in English describes a location.
After lunch we drove about twenty kilometres back up the Brockman Highway toward Nannup, until we reached the Bridgetown Jarrah Park, where we took the 4.2 kilometres trail through jarrah, marri, karri and blackbutt forest in the Dalgarup National Park. The walk took us along fairly gentle slopes through trails that meandered around swampy creeks and dozens and dozens of fallen giants. We passed plants labelled as “Snotty Gobbles” and “Couch Honey Pots”, names that would cause great delight in some sectors.
The notice board at the beginning of the track had a tribute to a chap who gave much of his time to conservation matters particularly at this site who passed away in 2008. I would suggest that he was the last ranger type person through the track, making sure the tree labels were then straight and legible and the path clear of fallen debris. Since then, storms have come through and massive trees have given way to age and lurched into the forest, taking others with them, and the pathways have remained relatively natural. Below the karri trees lies a great mess of discarded stringy bark, all of which adds to the general impression of neglect.
On the same notice board and in the walking trail booklet we have, there is a long list of fauna to be seen. While we heard the off distant bird call, none was identifiable and none visible.
Our return route was to take us in a scooping loop to the south of the Brockman Highway, however Boundary Road, unmarked but little more than a power line service road for 4WD only, seemed an unlikely option. We turned back after a kilometre and took the sealed road south via Donnelly Mill. What an amazing place that turned out to be!
The Bibbulmum Track passes through this abandoned mill situated on the Donnelly River and it had already been suggested to us that we use this as a base for sampling more of this very long and famous trail, although had not been on the agenda for today.
The site was first used as a timber mill in 1909, when karri and jarrah were milled. The timber was used for telegraph poles and for the mines. In the late 1940s, Bunnings Brothers, those of Bunnings hardware store fame, took the mill over and developed the business further, as part of their expanding empire. The town grew up around the mill; workers housing, twenty cottages, thirty three single men’s quarters, a store cum post office, and primary school. The Donnelly River Mill closed in 1978, the mill upgraded in the 1950s having only operated for twenty nine years. Bunnings donated the land and the mill to the Crown.
In the early 1980s Donnelly commenced its new life as a holiday destination and has operated in this capacity ever since, having been given heritage listing in 2006.
As we pulled into the village, at first not understanding the nature of the settlement, we were immediately drawn to a small group of young people and a bigger group of grey kangaroos at the side of the road. We alighted and joined the entertainment, these fabulous creatures interacting with us as we offered them branches of leaves. Nearby, at the base of a verandah, were half a dozen emus and all about in the trees, green parrots and other birds.
 |
| New friends at Donnelly Mill |
We spent some time with the little roos who seemed as happy to see us as
we were to see them, finally heading away after checking out the entry to the
Bibbulum and agreeing that we would be back to see our new friends and to do
some walking.
And so we came on home, driving back through State Forest and then through sheep country where we saw the remnants of many apple orchards, seriously neglected and most likely producing nothing. The Bridgetown orchards were obviously of the old style when the trees looked like trees rather than the trained and pruned trellis style plantings we saw so much of up around Donnybrook.
Lambing is earlier here, as we have seen all over the country; I seem to remember the lambing season being through July and August rather than June and July the Australians adhere too. Poor wee lambs one these cold nights!
No comments:
Post a Comment