Covid Revised: Roaming near Rudall River/Karlamilyi National Park

[JohnM]

More exploring around Meentheena the following day, to a lovely pool in a small gorge. Tranquil.

 

[JohnM]

Call me Monet with camera...




Next morning, a pea-soup fog came as a surprise.



And at the river, with a closer look at the Melaleucas (paperbarks).

 

[RooFlyer]

Call me Monet with camera..

I was thinking more like Namatjira, post #61

 

[JohnM]

After breakfast and the fog clearing, a short drive over to Tranquillity Pool.



Some interesting rocks. Seemingly river-washed stones solidly cemented together.



We dropped in to the Meentheena office/camp kitchen/recreation area before departing for Marble Bar.

 

[JohnM]

Marble Bar (Marble Bar, Western Australia - Wikipedia) has a reputation as ‘Australia’s hottest town’, after setting a world record of most consecutive days of 100 °F (37.8 °C) or above, during a period of 160 days from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924.

The colourful rock formation that forms the ‘bar’ across the Coongan River was initially mistaken for marble, but it is actually jasper.

The Ironclad Hotel is famed institution of the town.



The old government buildings.

 

[JohnM]

The bar.

 

[JohnM]

Next stop the old Comet gold mine (no access) and the museum over the road from it. Worth a visit. The vary tall chimney was for blowing off coughnic-laden exhaust.



The museum had some fascinating aviation-related history.

Not least, some interesting information on Charles Kingsford Smith (Charles Kingsford Smith - Wikipedia; Biography - Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith - Australian Dictionary of Biography).

He was married in Marble Bar in 1923 while working as a pilot for pioneer aviator Norman Brearley (Norman Brearley - Wikipedia; Biography - Sir Norman Brearley - Australian Dictionary of Biography). The wedding reception was at the Ironclad Hotel.

He also had a mail run in WA that is now a publicised tourist trail: Kingsford Smith Mail Run - Outback Pathways, mentioned here last year in post #36: A circuit around the WA mid-west.



The first paragraph of the main sheet of text in the display says a lot to me. I had no idea that he had such a deep affiliation with WA’s north.



The second interesting aviation link was to the Corunna Downs WW2 military airstrip, about 35km by road S of Marble Bar. I think the aura of mystery around it being supposedly ‘secret’ – as in implying so well-concealed it was ‘invisible’ is a bit of embellishment. I reckon it was just in the middle of nowhere and outside the range of Japanese aircraft. There’s not much information on it (Corunna Downs Airfield - Wikipedia; Corunna Downs airfield, WA; Corunna Downs Airfield | Australia's North West).

Anyway, it was interesting to read the material they had in the museum and I resolved to visit the site that afternoon with a few of the others.



I photographed a brochure that no longer seems to be available at the Marble Bar information centre.

 

[JohnM]

Our tag-along leader had this book, which I read. A lot of anecdotes, but no systematic information. It must have been dead boring there most of the time. Somewhere I read that they only flew about 40 missions the whole time it was operational.


I hardly think that a field with two bitumenised runways 2300m and 1650-m long was ‘invisible’!

It’s certainly not invisible to Google Earth:



The runways are no longer sealed but, as you will see, are vegetation-free and firm. Good drag-strips. The revetments are clearly visible.

Yamamoto and the crew planning Pearl Harbor 2.



E-W runway, aka dragstrip, 2300m.



Windsock frame near the intersection of the two runways and N-S runway 1650m. There is very little infrastructure remaining.



Revetment with my B-24 Liberator parked up.



An interesting day.

 

[JohnM]

Next day, an excursion to Coppin Gap, NE of Marble Bar, arriving in time for morning tea. It turned out to be a lovely spot.

But, from the previous day at Corunna Downs airstrip, a different species of Mulla Mulla.



Walking through to the other side.

 

[JohnM]

Then to Doolena Pool. Quite an oasis, with a lot of birdlife.



And a feeding frenzy as the ducks and pelicans herded fish into the shallows.

 

[jastel]

Very interesting...didnt Smithy have a trucking/haulage business up there somewhere as well before the air mail runs etc were successful...

 

[JohnM]

Very interesting...didnt Smithy have a trucking/haulage business up there somewhere as well before the air mail runs etc were successful...

Yes - see post #67.

 

[JohnM]

Next day, we departed Marble Bar for Newman, via Nullagine and the end of the group trip. Marble Bar to Nullagine is a scenic drive.



After a stop at Nullagine for morning tea and to air-up tyres, it was the run into Newman and to decide how far S to go that day, given a wet, cold and windy forecast further S.

Taking in the profuse Mulla Mulla near the Roy Hill mine site.

 

[JohnM]

There were initially about 6-7 wedgetail eagles on this roadkill. Once I swung around to take some closer shots several moved away but those that remained were tolerant of my presence (inside the vehicle) as I lingered for about 15 minutes.



Ophthalmia Dam, Newman’s water supply.



I reached Kumarina Rodahouse, about 150 clicks S of Newman by late afternoon. Freezing S wind and PJM telling me not to hurry home as Perth was stormy, cold and wet. Bailed out of camping and into a room.

 

[jastel]

Ok didnt click on the links...was confused whether the mail run was air or by vehicle or both.
Have to re read his biography one day.

 

[JohnM]

Ok didnt click on the links...was confused whether the mail run was air or by vehicle or both.
Have to re read his biography one day.

The mail run was by truck. It is a bit confusing because I guess we all assume that pretty much everything he did was by air.

And a lot of his earlier life is shaded by later flying exploits. The Marble Bar marriage being a case in point.

I think the truck mail run may have been a means to raise funds to get back into the air.

 

[tgh]

What tyre pressures did you run on these roads John ?
I assumed you were heading into sand when you wrote about lowering tyre pressures but the pics show what for me
were regular everyday unsealed country roads in really good condition ….. 100k + cruising...

 

[JohnM]

What tyre pressures did you run on these roads John ?
I assumed you were heading into sand when you wrote about lowering tyre pressures but the pics show what for me
were regular everyday unsealed country roads in really good condition ….. 100k + cruising...

There was no sand. While a lot of the roads were good dirt, there were some rough, stony sections, corrugations and washaways.

Bear in mind that when I was taking pics through the windscreen, that was only on benign sections. Whenever there was rougher stuff, I put the camera away. So, to that extent, what I've posted is misleading for the road conditions. It only shows the best.

We expected rougher conditions between Marble Bar and Nullagine, but they have done quite a lot of work on that road in the last couple of years, so it was much better than expected. It used to be pretty rough. A bit of stony stuff at the Marble Bar end but that gave way to good stuff as we moved S. It was hellish dusty as there was no wind at all, so the dust just hung in the air. Had to hang well back from the vehicle in front.

We aired down by only about 10% just to soften off a little for the stones and corrugations. It was entirely different on the Canning Stock Route, which is predominantly sand - and 1000 sand dunes to cross (from the steep - Edit, correction: from the long slope side, as we were heading N), plus endless corrugations from hell (Way into the WA wilderness). For that, we aired down to low-mid 20s psi.

 

[jastel]

The mail run was by truck. It is a bit confusing because I guess we all assume that pretty much everything he did was by air.

And a lot of his earlier life is shaded by later flying exploits. The Marble Bar marriage being a case in point.

I think the truck mail run may have been a means to raise funds to get back into the air.

Yeah he was always running out of money and trying to pay for the next big flight/adventure.
Have you seen the Southern Cross Memorial at BNE Airport?

 

[JohnM]

Yeah he was always running out of money and trying to pay for the next big flight/adventure.
Have you seen the Southern Cross Memorial at BNE Airport?

I have seen the memorial driving past many times, but it was a long time ago that I once stopped to have closer look.