Off to Wongan Hills

Well it was time to hit the road again and this time it was a sunday drive, to the little sleepie bush township of Wongan Hills. This trip was gonna be with the fellas as the little sheilah wanted to stay in bed..... bloody woman! But our story doesn't start in the town as we drove straight through the town, and drove another 8kms to a place called MT O'Brien.











And here we are.... the three Paul fellas Oscar, Harrison and Jacko, just about to hit the top of the lookout of MT O'Brien. I would of liked to go to the next mountain as it was called MT Matilda, because then you can say 'Well I went and Mount Matilda on the weekend' ha,ha. But if you say 'Well I mounted O'Brien last weekend' just doesn't sound quiet right (call me old fashion!), And here is the view from on top of O'Brien lookout... well actually it's called "The Centenary of Federation Wheatbelt Lookout"(somebody's been doing his homework). In the back ground is Lake Hinds












So after a ripper view we went back to the main street and had a gander at some of the old farming machinery on show, like this ripper old rusty farming thingummyjig that Oscar just loved.







Here is Oscar next to the Twin-City 17:28 model tractors purchased from the USA for 500 pounds ($1,000 each) in 1926, the tractors would travel at 2.9mph in high gear and 1.5mph in low. The machine's 28 horse-power (19.6 kilowatt) capacity was used to pull a 10-disc, 6 feet wide plough, at speeds of up to 3.5 mph, covering approximately 22 acres during a day's light. Today the main tractor for many farmers can be 500 horse-power (350 kilowatts) Strewth!, capable of pulling a 60 feet implement at 6 mph, covering 700 acres per day(using lights to work).








Those Twin-city tractors use to pull this old Sunshine Harvester for reaping, and fair dinkum this harvester is in real ripper condition.










Another photo of the old Sunshine Harvester, with an old windmill in the background.


























Now every bush town that you drive through has one thing different then the other, like Dowerin has a rusty Dog, Wyalkatchem has a rusty fence and Konnongorring has.... well Konnongorring is just rusting! But Wongan Hills has a ripper home made Tractor! Fairdinkum this old tractor was made by a bloke by the name of Ron York in 1975, he was educated for four years via correspondence but never had any formal mechanical training.








It took Ron about 700 hours using second-hand parts, a Cummins 855 motor (200 horse-power), plus axles, chassis and cab from a Terex scraper, and a truck drop-box, 10-speed transmission, plus good second-hand tyres. Top speed was 11.25 mph, and it served well as the farms main tractor for a decade.







But that was about it for Wongan and it's hills and it was time to start the two hour drive back to Middle swan, but I couldn't help but stop for a photo when we came to this town. What a ripper bush town name hay, pity this was all that was in the place.

The Mundaring Weir

Well it was time to have a little trip up to the bush, so we drove the little drive up to the Mundaring Weir. It was just yours truly and the boys Jacko, Harrison and Oscar, as we just had a beaut look at this old Dam.









Here are the little nevilles out on the Dam wall, showing a fair bit of guts as I hight heights and was shitting myself but not these little sods.










Now these little blokes were way to happy to be out here, so I couldn't help myself and I just waited till the little fella was looking over the edge.... then a little shove and aaaaaa







Ha,Ha,Ha not so tough now little fella hay!













But after having my fun it was time to head off the Dam and back to the commodore, here are the little ones having a last look at the Dam.

A little drive through Hyden

Well on our latest camping trip to Wave Rock, we drove through a little old bush town called Hyden. The township itself didn't have much going for it, but in the car rest stop in town it was another thing. It was filled with metal people who use to live and work in Hyden, like ....











Here is Sarah in frount of Hyden's very first power station.... Fairdinkum mate!





Jacko, Harry and Sarah next to Marco and Carolina, were a local Italian family who applied for and were granted land in July 1956.


Old Don Munday the shearer is shearing a sheep which he did for over 73 years! Strewth that would of been hard yacka, just some info in shearing: In 1892 blade shearer Jackie Howe set an Australian record of 321 sheep in a day, it was not until 1949 that a machine shearer Dan Cooper was able to beat this tally a total of 500 fully grown sheep in a day.... bugger that!















Harry holding hands with Harry and his mum Hilda, back in the old days kiddies were taught at home on the farm. Till the first school was built in 1934, but only kiddies who lived within 15 kilometers managed to ride either bikes or horses to get to class fairdinkum.



In late 1924 a young would be settler named Mick mouritz set of for Hyden, riding his new bike along the faint tracks into what was still virtually a wilderness. He had brought a block of land at Graham Rock and soon settled their, he was part of the first wave of settlers to this district.











Hydey and Toby the horse... John Hyde was a sandlewood cutter who roamed all over Western Australia, around 1920 Hyde was camped near here when two surveyors passed through. They named the rock outcrop near his camp Hyde's Rock, but when the lands department named it's maps it became Hayden Rock. It is now more commonly known as Wave Rock.












Russ and his Bus! Russell Mouritz was the primary Bus driver in the deverlopment of local tourism, he once said 'We don't ask Why don't they do it - we are 'they'!'


Here are Harrison and Russ driving the Bus! And that was our drive through Hyden, not much more to the town except for this ripper rest stop. But it's really worth the stop here if your ever out having a sunday drive, and don't forget to say g'day to Russ.