During Easter I participated in a 4WD Club outback trip through the western and northern goldfields regions of Western Australia. We travelled 2000km over eight days.
Prior to departing I made two significant decisions. The first was to depart a day early leaving on the Thursday before Good Friday. My thought process was the Great Eastern Highway would be very busy on Friday and I didn’t want to slow other traffic by travelling at a fuel efficient 90kmh. The second decision was to fill the 4WD and five 20 litre jerrycans with “cheap” diesel four days prior to departure. The further you travel from Perth the more likely the price per litre will increase.
My first and second nights were spent in a bush camp at Yellowdine some 400km east of Perth.
It wasn’t until after midday on the second day that other club members started to arrive.
The last member of the group arrived after dark having left Perth after work.
The next day we headed further east to Kalgoorlie where we could refuel and resupply if necessary. The price of diesel had risen by $0.40/litre compared to Perth.
Our midday RV was the lookout at the Superpit.
I’m always reminded what a massive manmade hole it is!
Up close those tiny tippers are HUGE.
We continued north to Broad Arrow Tavern for a late lunch break.
The tavern is famous/notorious for its graffiti. Over the years patrons have been encouraged to scribble with felt tip pens all over the walls and ceilings. I forgot to take a photo. Perhaps I’ll remember on my next visit.
Heading NW we reached Ora Banda at the end of the bitumen. Gold was discovered here in 1893 and by 1910 there were 2000 miners and their families living in the area. Ora Banda is Spanish for ‘Band of Gold’. The Ora Banda Inn was built in 1911 and was a working business until 2019 when it was destroyed in a suspicious fire.
In 2000 Gypsy Joker bikie Billy Grierson was murdered when shot sitting at a nearby campfire. Suspicion fell on the publican, who was a former head of the West Australian CIB.
At its peak Ora Banda had two stores, two butchers, two bakers, a town hall, dining halls, a post office, a police station, churches, boarding houses and billiards saloons. Huntington Mills Bank was situated there; in its time it was the largest bank in the Southern Hemisphere. Obviously there was plenty of gold to be found at that time.
Today Ora Banda is mostly abandoned ruins.
Heading further NW we reached Siberia where we camped for the night.
2 comments :
Siberia in the Australian outback, who would have known. The pit is mind boggling huge, wonder how many years they have been working it?
Jenny all will be revealed in the next post :-)
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