Visitors Last Day

Carlin & Monique had their last day in Perth before flying back to New Zealand.  The flight was in the evening and we decided to take a tour in the 4x4 before heading for the airport.  The was no planned route or destination but eventually we ended in York some 100km from Perth.

Founded in 1831, York was the first European inland settlement in Western Australia.  It was named after Yorkshire, England because of the similarity in terrain.  Early settlers farmed sheep, but today it’s mostly grain. 

By 1885 the railway had arrived and for some time York was the starting point for prospectors making the long hot and dry walk to the goldfields at Kalgoorlie some 500km further east.

Today the town has more than 200 historically listed buildings.

Town Hall

Federation style Castle Hotel 1840

Main street with Federation and Victorian style buildings

Post Office (1893)

York Motor Museum

You know you’re getting old when things you remember are now in a museum!

I like these verandas found on many of the old hotels

And York seems to have a large number of hotels.  Thirsty gold prospectors?

I am so old I can remember when your local Shell garage had this type of signage

 

Holy Trinity Church (Anglican) was built in 1840.  It was made of mud brick and started to rapidly deteriorate.  Eventually it had to be demolished.  The existing church was built on the same site in 1861.

This guy isn’t all that old.

It’s a Bilby (more in this link) and native to Australia.

Carlin and Monique did make their return flight to NZ and their aircraft must have had a very strong tailwind as the flight only took 5.5 hours compared to the 8.5 hours on the way to Australia.