A Western Swing – Wildflowers, Gorges, Coast

[JohnM]

Righto, I’ve been home a couple of weeks. That’s long enough. Time to hit the road and again get ‘up north’, as we say here. So, tomorrow morning, it’s off again.

PJM snared a week of leave between school holidays, so she is in on this jaunt and we can avoid the worst of the zoo that points north turn into during winter and spring at those times. In anticipation of high demand, and hopeful of a good wildflower season, way back in December I snared accommodation in key locations.

Brother and SIL are also tagging along.

Here’s the plan:



First night at Mellenbye Station Stay (Station Stay at Mellenbye) in a Homestead room (Homestead Rooms — Station Stay at Mellenbye). That will get us into the spectacular wildflowers of this sensational season (jeez - can I pick ‘em , or what… ) with a relaxed drive (Covid Revised: Roaming near Rudall River/Karlamilyi National Park).

Then on Sunday a long sector to Newman, being only an overnight stop before carrying on to Karijini NP (Guide to Karijini National Park - Tourism Australia; Karijini National Park - Wikipedia) for two nights glamping at the Eco Retreat (Karijini Eco Retreat).

Then two nights at Coral Bay (Coral Bay), followed by two nights at Denham, at World Heritage-listed Shark Bay (Explore & Discover The Treasures of Shark Bay World Heritage!; Shark Bay - Wikipedia).

To be continued on return…

 

[CaptainCurtis]

Enjoy! The accommodation in Mellenbye looks lovely, can't wait to see pics.

 

[Daver6]

Hopefully another Cue Burger washed down with some Far Cue wine?

 

[JohnM]

Enjoy! The accommodation in Mellenbye looks lovely, can't wait to see pics.

It was great! Highly recommended.

Hopefully another Cue Burger washed down with some Far Cue wine?

Just stopped right now at Cue for morning tea, but need to press on to Newman today. No Far Cue delights this time.

 

[Major]

I hope wreath flowers are on your list

 

[craven morehead]

Looking forward to some more great pics

 

[JohnM]

I hope wreath flowers are on your list

Just you wait!

 

[JohnM]

OK, back home yesterday evening and resuming transmission after a sensational trip.

Day 1 was cruisy. Perth to Mellenbye Station Stay, taking in the agricultural scene and then just into the rangeland. The key target was the great wreath flower patch just north of Perenjori that I had scoped about three weeks earlier, but which was before peak bloom (post #94 here: Covid Revised: Roaming near Rudall River/Karlamilyi National Park).



Canola crops and PJM were in full bloom and a chance to teach the others a little about agriculture.

 

[JohnM]

In some bushland reserves in the ag area.

 

[JohnM]

A brief stop at Perenjori. The Catholic church is one of many in the region, including the large Geraldton Cathedral, designed by Monsignor John Hawes. He also designed the Melangata Station homestead (post #85: Covid Revised: Roaming near Rudall River/Karlamilyi National Park).

 

[JohnM]

And, about 7 clicks out of town – BONANZA!

 

[JohnM]

Pushing on, and north of Morawa just before the ag region ends and we enter Outback rangeland.



Then more wreath flowers and prolific blue Dampiera spp. (Dampiera - Wikipedia, amongst others, a few clicks into the rangeland.

 

[JohnM]

Some of the diverse Eremophila genus (Eremophila (plant) - Wikipedia) that is common in the region.

 

[Black Duck]

They are stunning John. Its a very good year.

 

[JohnM]

Then on to Mellenbye Station Stay. This ended up massively exceeding expectations. It was too bad that we could not spend more than the one night, but it was a tight trip and we were on a mission.

We stayed in the homestead, but there are plenty of other options (Station Stay at Mellenbye). We didn’t get to see the self-contained cabins as they were further away and out of sight of the homestead and sheds area.

The sun was setting, but we managed to get in a ride on The Beast’s second run. What a blast!



Then drinks as the sun went down, followed by dinner in the shearing shed. There is no catering at Mellenbye, but there are excellent camp kitchens, plus wood-fired pizza oven and plenty of seating in the shearing shed, as well as a dance floor and stage. Quite amazing.

The shearing shed is used for functions, school camps and so on. A recent Bush Bash event raised $150K for charity.

I had made a meal that all we had to do was heat, but the main kitchen facilities just to the side of the shearing shed dining area were impeccable. There was also a more informal camp kitchen on the other side of the shed, near the caravan/camping area.

 

[JohnM]

Now, just get a load of this! The shearing shed hasn’t been used for shearing for many years since the economic decline of the wool industry and ultimately its death in rangeland WA because of wild dogs. It still smelt of sheep and wool. It is just sensational what Shelly has done to the place – and it’s still work in progress. Very eclectic and highly recommended.



Just waiting for the Bee Gees and John Travolta…



Even a shearer’s sling set up for visiting clowns to use…

It was full moon. Moonset the next morning and then dawn.

 

[JohnM]

We had a brief pre-departure look around the homestead and sheds area. Facing a long drive to Newman, we couldn’t linger long.

 

[RooFlyer]

Now, its not very often that I say good things about the weeds, but the wreath flowers were great .

 

[JohnM]

Now, its not very often that I say good things about the weeds, but the wreath flowers were great .

It's about time you reciprocated, given all the nice things I am forever saying about boondies.

 

[JohnM]

We headed north towards Yalgoo and beyond to Mt Magnet and Cue but made only limited stops for wildflower viewing because day 2 was a full day to get to Newman and overnight there as a staging stop before going in to Karijini NP.

In any event, I’ve recently covered most of the spectacular wildflowers around Yalgoo from about post #87 here: Covid Revised: Roaming near Rudall River/Karlamilyi National Park.

We went through a patch of fog between Mellenbye and Yalgoo. It was quite thick in parts and an unusual occurrence in that area. There is still quite a lot of water or damp soil in the region from the earlier rains. That, and a very still, cold morning obviously gave rise to this phenomenon.



The moisture had caused some everlastings to close up.



We made a morning tea stop at Cue. In a little walking about, we came across this remnant of the old No. 1 rabbit-proof fence that I had not noticed on previous visits to Cue. Basically, the S-N fence line turned W at Cue and ran through to the coast.

The reason for the wood pole palisade section was not explained.



From Cue, we beelined to Newman.

Next day, it was into Karijini NP, via a detour to the scenic route of the Newman-Port Hedland road through the Hamersley Range.



We drove through the range for a few pics from the west, then back eastwards and up to the viewpoint.

Plenty of mulla-mulla in bloom.