Wave Rock to Norseman

On Sunday 10th we travelled with Colin & Yolande east along Coalfields Highway to Wagin (home of the big ram), stopped for lunch at Dumbleyung continuing along Fence Road passing Dudinin, Kulin, Kondinin before camping @ Wave Rock C/P.  Once set up we walked to the Rock and over it although did not feel like walking the 2km round trip.  Wave Rock appears very commercialised with Resorts, Speciality Shops etc.

Wagin's BIG RAM, not sure if Cindy thought it was her big brother.

Lunch stop at the Dumbleyung  Railway Station

Only stayed one night at Wave Rock however before continuing on we backtracked to the town of Hyden where we had a look around and was particularly impressed with 'Living Art Street Sculptures' which tells a story of the history of the area.

The sculptures start with the early settlers and moves though time

Early settlers arriving in the area

Story relating to history of Shearing in the are

Johnny the mechanic came to town

Had to take this piccie but can't remember the piece of history, the bike on the left represents the Hyden Taxi Circa 1929 - 1930.

Wave Rock is the start of The Granite and Woodlands Discovery Trail, a 300km track from Hyden to Norseman in the southern inland of Western Australia. It is a spectacular wildflower wonderland in the spring and offers many sites along the track with significant natural or cultural history.

Traditional Wave Rock photo

View from top of Wave Rock looking north across the salt lake.

Yep,  Hels at Wave Rock ...... really, on the level!!!

The Granite and Woodlands Discovery Trail has 15 sections of interest and is very well documented in a brochure available from the tourist information centre.  We didn't stop at them all as they include the State Barrier Fence (dog fence), Shire Boundary and several rock formations starting at Wave Rock.

Hyden to Norseman road, pretty dusty but generally good

One site of interest on the road was Forrestania Plots - during the 1920s the Western Australian Government hatched a scheme to establish 3500 farm plots from Hyden to the east to be settled by Australian and English migrants. In 1929 as a result of the Depression the scheme was abandoned. From 1960 to 1967 as a result from project manager Tom McDowell local farmers built a shed and started various cropping trials, although the trials provided some success, a change in government the funding was not available to continue and clearing was banned in WA so the land returned to its natural state.

This small shed is really know as McDowell House in recognising of the late Tom McDowell the driving force behind the Forrestania Plots project.

The section around the Breakaways has some great varieties of wild flowers including tall spindly flame grevillea, which would look spectacular when in full flower.  They weren't when we went past so no photo.

The Breakaways, a great camp spot with the contrasting colours of the sandstone.

McDermid Rock - had a walking track across the rock and evidence of early attempts to gather water for farming in the attempt to build a small dam in the rock.

We decided to camp at Lake Johnstone, 200km from Hyden. With plenty of room for both vans we overlooked the salt lake and stayed for 2 nights.

Our camp on the banks of Lake Johnson Lake

Colin got a bit toooo close to one of the water holes on the lake and took an unplanned swim .... or mud bath.

Some of the wildflowers present on the lake perimeter

We entertained our self buy swatting "March" flies and feeding them to the ants, they preferred them belly up!!

This section of road between Hyden and Norseman was well worth travelling along and the brochure was very informative making the 300km most interesting, particularly explaining the reason for the various changes in vegetation.

On Wednesday we headed into Norseman and stayed at the Gateway caravan park.  We had dinner at the Motel next to the park as Colin and Yolande were heading across the Nullarbor to Adelaide, and we were continuing south to Esperance the next day.