The Wedding

Lots of things have happened since I last visited bloggerland.  We have arrived home to the home paddock and have derigged the bus and have temporary put it out to pasture.  Now I only have to find room in the apartment for all the extras I accumulated over the past few years whilst travelling.  The weather blessed my granddaughter as she tied the knot with her partner on Saturday.  It was a beautiful sunny day, a wonderful ceremony and a really nice reception.  I hope that their little family unit will be very happy in the future.  Here are some happy snaps to share with you.

Here we all are before the wedding, Grandparents, parents and siblings.  Yes I am the parrot in the corner.

The Official Wedding Party.

The Bride's siblings and cousins with their partners

Here I am with Benjamin (He loves my hair) when he is not chewing on my necklace!!

Here we are no longer spring chickens (He is not so sure of my hair but he can find me in a crowd)

It was also grandson Shanes birthday he shared his day with his sister!!!

I also better mention that granddaughter graduated from Senior College with distinctions and a few awards.  Good on ya Claire!!

Merredin & Bruce Rock

It didn't take long before the oval was full of RV vehicles

Another week has slipped by and our time here at Bruce rock is nearly at an end.  I told you earlier to watch this space and by Saturday the grounds were nearly full regardless of the inclement weather.  Our beautiful sunny skies very quickly turned black on Thursday afternoon and the rain came down, it was stated by an old timer as being the heaviest he had seen in the area for over 60 years.  The oval soon became waterlogged and boggy but along the edge of the oval we were high and dry.  The drive in to the oval (in front of us) soon became churned up and a couple of buses ferrying cadets and the band managed to get themselves in a predicament.  The family arrived on Friday and everyone was settle in before the big day on Saturday.  The markets didn't disappoint and it was a very friendly atmosphere in the town especially with a backdrop of the Challenge brass Band and the Kalgoorlie Brass Band performing in the Amphitheatre.  The March went on schedule and it was fascinating to watch the representatives of the various forces and cadets proudly marching through the town accompanied by the pre-vintage jeeps, tanks and army vehicles.  They all  looked very distinguished with all their medals proudly adorned on their chests.  The free BBQ went off without a hitch followed by the evening's entertainment.  The breakfast this morning started a brisk exodus from the grounds and only a few of us stayers remain for the night where we will all congregate around the campfire in the Bard Pit for more great entertainment and camaraderie.  Hang on a moment I almost forgot to tell you- that on Wednesday we drove over to Merredin to my old hometown for a trip down memory lane.  We drove out to our old farm, near Koonadgin to discover that some of our land and surrounding properties have been taken over by great big wind turbines for the Collgar Wind Farm.

 I did manage to take a photo of our old house in town although it has been rather dwarfed by the trees.  We did a tour of the revamped Cummins Theatre and it looks very regal.

  I have fond memories of going to the pictures and rolling the Jaffas down the aisles. I also used to be employed by the owner of the drive-in and the theatre and would have to bank the takings every Monday after the weekend.

  This is a photo of the school where I spent most of my misspent youth, it still looks the same after all this time.

This old water tower has been here for as long as I can remember.



The Prospector had pulled in to give the passengers a break on their way to Perth From Kalgoorlie

The Merredin Railway Station well preserved is now a museum.

Goomalling & Bruce Rock

Parked at Goomalling Caravan Park

Another week has gone by and I am again behind in my blogging, again my photograper has let me down but I can also blame the weather.  It was raining for most of the week, and the Caravan Park started to resemble a river.  We did however manage a visit to Dowerin; a small town about 20klms away.   They have a field day here every August and the town is buzzing then but on an average rainswept day it was very quiet.

Commercial Hotel Dowerin

 There was a patchwork shop but it advertised that it was only opened on a Saturday so I missed out again.  Thursday we drove over to Northam for a bit of retail therapy and to meet my sister and husband for lunch.  Northam is the main centre for shopping in the area and I did manage to check out the craft shop and the Janome shop.  Lunch was enjoyed at the Shamrock Hotel and the servings were huge, in fact we were unable to manage dinner that night we were so sated.  I spent Friday with my sister scanning photos from the past to assemble together for my delve into our family history.  It was fun reminiscing over the old photos and thinking of the past as I truly treasure these special moments with my family.

The Goomalling Caravan Park

 It was uncanny but I met a lady in the Caravan Park on Saturday who taught my sister in home science in the 1955's, it was rather a shame I hadn't met her the day before and she would have been able to catch up with Beth again.  Saturday morning we were back on the road again heading over to Bruce Rock for the week long Vietnam Veteran's get together.  We had intended to stop at Nukarni for the night but on arrival decided to push on to Bruce Rock.  As we approached the Sportsman's complex we realised that their annual Agricultural Show was in full swing.  It was a bit embarrassing driving around the outskirts of the oval meandering past the parked cars but we managed to turn the old girl around and pulled up near our old spot under the scoreboard.  It wasn't long before I again met up with brother Graeme and Sue who happened to be there showing his prize chooks.  I was amazed that he had about 31 entries and nearly all were First Prizes with a couple of Seconds thrown in.  In fact he won the Highest Point Scorer in the Show.  Quite proud of him I was.

Bruce Rock Sportsman's Complex (the view from our windows)

Well the show has been pulled down and the grounds are nearly empty now but please watch this space because before next weekend this oval will be covered with Motor Homes, Caravans, and even tents as everybody comes from near and far to celebrate.  In fact quite a few of our fellow motor homers and friends are already here.  There will be concerts and markets in town and of course the big march on Saturday to the church with the stained glass window of peace that was donated by the veterans.

A quick visit home

Nothing like a quick trip home to rejuvenate the soul.  Yesterday when I woke up Bill suggested a quick visit home as we were only a couple of 100 klms away, of course I said yes.  Was able to view youngest son's new property as he was busy moving in and managed to attend a special birthday party with a dear friend and surprised him completely.  After a quick clean up we will again be on our way.  I thought I would share a couple of snaps that my brother caught of a certain person testing out an electric bicycle at the Kalgoorlie Rally.  Guess Who!!!!!

Meckering WA

Here we are parked up with our own backyard consisting of the Rose Memorial Garden

I managed to source the following information from the Internet so I thought that I would share the details with you.  On this particular day in 1968 I was visiting my family in Merredin, in fact I was changing my eldest son who at the time was only 17 months old when I felt the quake.  Great Eastern Highway was impassable with large crevices in the road and as we were returning to Perth that evening we had to detour through York, we were very concerned at the time because we had family living in Meckering.  It was nice to see that the town is still surviving years later.

 A Relic as a reminder of all the homes & businesses damaged in the Quake

MECKERING EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION
downloaded from the net

The Main Street in the aftermath

Buckled Railway Lines from the quake

At 10.59a.m. on the 14th October 1968, the small town of Meckering, about 130 km east of Perth, was destroyed by an earthquake. The magnitude of the Meckering earthquake was 6.9 on the Richter Scale making it one of the largest recorded in the seismic history of Australia.

The earthquake lasted 45 seconds and was felt over an area of 700kms in radius and caused damage in many towns. The quake focus was 7km deep and had the force equivalent of 10 Hiroshima type atomic bombs. The largest land displacement measured a westward heave of 2.44m, a southerly slip of 1.5m and vertical lift of 1.96m. The principal fault scarp of the Meckering earthquake was originally 37 km long, aligned approx N-S, of which the Great Eastern Highway was bisected 4.4km West of Meckering township.

Trenching across the scarp took place in 1990, and it was concluded that the Meckering earthquake was the result of the reactivation of an old fault line, possibly tens of thousands years old. Unfortunately today approximately only 1.5km of the actual fault scarp remains which is located 12 km South/West of Meckering. Over the years since the quake occurred the scarp has been bulldozed to continue wheat farming of the region and to remove the scarp as a livestock hazard.

The Meckering Earthquake was located in a well-documented zone of seismic activity which is the most active region of Australia. This region is centred about 150 kilometres east of Perth and is known as the South-West Seismic Zone (SWSZ) and measures roughly 300 kilometres by 500 kilometres. According to Geo science Australia (AGSO), more than 12,000 earthquakes have been recorded in the area since September 2001 with most of these events being aftershocks of larger events.
We moved on from Meckering and have settled in nicely at the Goomalling Caravan Park and hope to catch up with my sister Beth and her husband tonight for dinner at the Jennacubine Tavern.

Coolgardie, Moorine Rock & Kellerberrin WA

Coolgardie Post Office

It is a little hard to recap the last few days since leaving the rally but again my Internet connection let me down so I has to retain some data in my grey matter until we had a better reception.  We left Kalgoorlie on Tuesday and first port of call was to historical Coolgardie, another old Gold Mining Town, once very prosperous but now steeped in history.

The old site of the National Bank

  Lunch was at a cafe in the main part of town, a visit to the sign museum, the old Post Office and "The Camel Man", the latter being a lovely shop run by Jayne and touts beautiful western wear made from Moleskin and also features Camel Leather, all made on the premises, in fact they held a fashion parade at the rally which we all enjoyed.

 Wardens Court Building

 We pulled in for the night behind the Moorine Rock Hotel, a huge flat parking area which could house several Motor Homes, tonight we numbered four as Kerry and Carol, Barry and Leslie from our CMCA chapter along with my brother Colin and SIL Beryl joined us for the night.

Moorine Rock Hotel (Please stop by)

  Available were nice hot clean showers and toilets and there were extra toilets over at the community Hall.  The Moorine Rock Hotel has new managers, Janice and her husband and we all availed ourselves of a lovely cooked meal in the Dining Room.

Parked at the back of Hotel

 The meals were huge and beautifully cooked, amazing since they would have to be prepared to have guests of 20 or sometimes only two. We enjoyed the meal so much we stayed for sweets and rocked up the next morning for breakfast.  We parted from Beryl and Colin at Westonia as they had some reminiscing to do as Beryl once lived in the area.  We continued on to Kellerberrin where we stayed for a few days with another brother Graeme and his lovely wife Sue, Colin and Beryl rejoined us in the afternoon.  The property we were on consisted of Stables and horse paddocks, and it was rather pleasant to look out the window to be greeted by a friendly pony or two.  The family are kept busy working the horses and tending the chooks but we all managed to spend a couple of very pleasant days together.  Talking to Graeme, I was able to get more of an insight into my father's earlier years as he shared his memories with me.  I also visited Mum and Dad at the cemetery.  We travelled about 68klms today to the Meckering Memorial Park and a beautiful aroma wafts in the windows from the memorial rose garden adjacent to the Motor Home and we listen to the sounds of the birds in the bush.

Kalgoorlie Rally 2011

We are parked in the back row about three along

Here we are parked up before the rally

So much has happened since we first entered the CMCA Rally site two weeks ago.  We have all been housed on the lovely grassed area of the Oasis Recreational Grounds and I must surmise the venue is superb, our entertainment is in a huge area behind the swimming pool area and the sound is brilliant.  The heated pools were available to our members usuage for free and many took advantage of this generous gesture.  We were busy working with our coordinator, Carol and supplied BBQ meals four nights and a First Timers breakfast on the Tuesday ( We call first timers virgins as this is their very first time at a national rally).  I was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the week but the positive feedback we received from our dinner guests was very rewarding and made the whole event very worthwhile.  I must also mention that I had one very embarrassed SIL, Beryl who locked herself in the toilet on the very first day.

  Some mothers do have them but we love her all the same.  We managed to fit in a tour of the town and took some photos from inside the bus so they aren't too bad considering.

One of the infamous buildings

The Super Pit (Don't the big dump trucks look like dinky toys)

Of course everyone knows that Kalgoorlie is famous for its Goldmining

This is the size of the bucket on the dump trucks

Poppet Head for lifting up out of the mine

Old mining cottage

School

  I also managed to fit a small workshop of freeform knitting which I found very interesting, I couldn't make the second part but I think I can follow the instructions so that I can finish.  I spent a brief time with Lois doing the Fields of Gold stitchery, and from Maryke a kit for the tumbling blocks, I know that I can call on these lovely ladies if I get stuck doing these projects.  I must do photos later.  We have now left the Rally Site and spent last night at Centennary Park with lots of other Motorhomers and spent most of Happy Hour catching up with everyone we missed.  We are also spending lots of quality time with Colin and Beryl and may travel a little with them.  Not sure if we are heading off today or tomorrow but we will travel to the wheatbelt to catch up with other family members.

Kalgoorlie

We spent Saturday night camped at Mt Thirsty Roadside Camp No 311 in the Camp 6 Book after leaving Esperance in the morning and arrived about lunchtime.  This was a lovely spot, with plenty of parking room for large motorhomes, lots of shady trees and adequate rubbish bins.  The railway was close by but didn't distract us in the bus as we are quite soundproof.  We had the whole area to ourselves with the only visitor being Ray, stopping for a cuppa on his way to Kalgoorlie to pick up his wife from the airport.  Lorraine had been in Africa for 8 days.  Lucky thing!!!  We arrived in Kalgoorlie and joined lots of other Motorhomes at Centennial Park in Hannan Street, one of the many staging areas for the rally.  Tomorrow morning we will be entering the rally site where we will spend the next couple of weeks.  Officially the rally starts on the 10th October, but volunteers are allotted different days depending on their duties.

  I thought I would share a little bit of Esperances's Stone Henge located on the road to Cape Le Grand.  It looks quite spectacular and is open for visitors for a fee of $5 per person.

Back in Esperance

I could hardly believe my eyes when I woke up last Friday morning and realised that we were back in the bus the month spent at home no longer a reality but now a very pleasant memory.  We enjoyed being at home immensely although it was quite a whirlwind, we managed all our business and medical appointments and managed to catch up with most friends and family, I even managed a couple of cuddles with baby g.g.son, Benjamin.

 I had two memorable visits with my Perth sewing ladies and also the Southern Country Quilters regional day, so all in all it was a very successful visit.  Now to the serious stuff.  We have been busy preparing for the Kalgoorlie rally and as very willing volunteers we have to be there a week early so we will be heading off on Saturday, spending two nights on the road and entering the rally site on Monday.  I have been on the website and the programme looks very exciting, we will be on the team cooking and serving 4 nights.  I have glanced through and picked out the craft classes I want to do, and now can't wait to catch up with everyone and hopefully make some more new friends.  Check out the website fields of gold it's awesome.  The weather hasn't been the best the last few days very wet and windy and Esperance even experienced hailstones but today the weather warmed up so a drive along the beach to Cape Le Grand was in order.

 The drive was perfect with the striking coloured water contrasted with the pristine white shiny sands and I say shiny because the sand is full of silica and it feels great between your toes.

We espied this tank in the main part of town, there was no plaque or description so have no idea why it is here but it is very interesting.

 I would also like you to meet our little friend, he has been visiting us every day on our front window.

He is really quite inquisitive and unusually coloured.