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This year we started out from home in Perth and onto the Canning Stock Route. Our plan was to travel the full length of the stock route to Halls Creek and then head to the west coast at Broome, following the North West Coastal Highway through much of the return trip home enjoying as much sun and fishing during winter as we could. The CSR section of our trip was undertaken for a number of reasons - mostly because we've never done it and secondly because we were commissioned by map publisher Hema Maps to conduct a full and detailed survey to enable them to reprint a totally updated map. We also conducted a unique online fundraiser for the Royal Flying Doctor Service called the ExplorATHON, whereby members of the public could guess the kilometres travelled whilst donating funds to this important Australian outback service.
Within these notes, you find numerous references to maps and books used in preparation for our trip along with notations were anomalies with this information was identified. No ill-harm to the publishers of any material is intended by pointing out errors or where we became confused due to misinterpretation of the information (in all cases we have a healthy open relationship with the publishers who would see these comments as constructive). We have merely pointed out anomalies in the interest of clarifying certain points that we encountered so that you might be avoided any confusions during your own trips.
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Day 1 |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Thursday 3rd July | Perth | South Paynes Find | 478 |
| This morning we awoke to grey skies threatening rain and a flat tyre
with just 2hrs to go before the media event to send us off on the ExplorATHON at
Jandakot Airport [see Press Release].
Needless, to say, it was not a great start. The reason for the flat tyre was that yesterday we had a whole new set of tyres fitted and I had specifically asked the fitters to find the rim with the leak and dispose of it. They seemed to think that none of them were leaking - but today's flat just proved them wrong. |
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Problem was finding another Toyota GXL rim. We tried another 2 from "the shed" and finally had to buy a new one (after the media event). All this actually took place via numerous trips between Hillarys, Midland and Jandakot and our departure time of 11am consequently became 2.30pm.
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Leaving Perth in winter usually means at least a full day's drive to get past the rain. There were only the 2 cars in our convoy and thankfully our 2 ½ year old daughter Leah loves travelling so it hardly mattered when or where we stopped. Our travelling companions Chris and Graeme were excellent company and very patient so before long we were enjoying the open road, even though we were just tar-blasting this section to get onto the Canning as quickly as possible (Chris's 5.6L Chevy modified Patrol was the one doing all the blasting). |
To make up for missed time we grabbed a burger from a roadhouse in Dalwallinu for dinner and drove on until 7.30pm and pitched camp in a dry area 20km south of Paynes Find.
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Day 2 |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Friday 4th July | Sth Paynes Find | Wiluna | 475.7km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Max speed |
| 2hrs 50 mins | 92.6km | 5 hrs 8mins | 108.4km/hr |
| For us, the holiday never begins until we pass the rain and get off the black-top into open desert country - and we still weren't there yet. We hardly had anything out of our vehicles because we hadn't cooked last night so we decided to keep things simple and headed off this morning without breakfast and instead stopped at Paynes Find and Mount Magnet for food and coffee. Further on at Meekatharra we stopped in at Woolworths for a final shopping trip before heading east to pick up the Goldfields Highway out to Wiluna. Note - all meat here is very reasonably priced, I would even say the same price as I pay at home for meat or even cheaper. And its all pre-cryovaced into meal sized portions. Our stops were lengthy and leisurely so we didn't quite make it all the way to Wiluna but found a bush camp 60km west of Wiluna in a road builders' quarry. Campfire dinner of meat and sausages using the BBQube made a great night. |
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Day 3 |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Saturday 5th July | Wiluna | CSR Well 3 | 216.4km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Max speed |
| 3 hrs 15mins | 34km/hr | 5hrs | 85.3km/hr |
After a breakfast of egg jaffles we lifted camp at 9am. The Goldfields Highway is still dirt but its a fast wide graded road and we averaged 93km/hr in this section towards Wiluna. Unfortunately, at that speed its a bit hard to miss the wildlife - and the roos were everywhere. In all our travelling, we've actually never killed a roo before today although we've had plenty of near shaves. This one didn't stand a chance. Luckily for us it was only small and did no damage so we managed to keep it quiet from Leah who would have been distressed to know that Daddy killed a kangaroo!
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If we hadn't been on contract with Hema to supply an accurate bottom to top
plot file we would have taken a bypass track direct off the Goldfields Highway
to North Pool, totally bypassing Wiluna. We were really tempted to do that last
night for our camp and then backtrack but had run out of daylight. We have kept
the waypoint however for future sorties in that area.
These sorts of options become apparent when you travel in moving map mode with good detailed maps loaded on your laptop in front of you. My job on trips is passenger, navigator, cook, nurse and mother so I have to be able to make quick decisions based on reliable information. We used to leave the laptop in the backseat doing its job quietly, but now we have it upfront and use it to truly navigate [note - this laptop mount was custom-made by David and is not commercially available]. |
On reaching Wiluna we were surprised to find a sparkling new store called Gunbarrel Groceries on the corner of Wotton Rd and the Gunbarrel Highway. Locally run by David Betteridge and his wife this store really does cater for the Canning or Gunbarrel tourist. They have only just opened this season and it is apparent that they need to advertise that these new services are now available. I purveyed the store in detail and found an excellent range of meats in cryovac packaging, and an excellent range of supermarket goods and even fresh fruit and vegetables. I would highly recommend people give them a ring and make an advance order so you can travel light from home to here and then pick up your goods in Wiluna. The community run Wiluna General Store also still operates but seems it will end up servicing the locals and the Gunbarrel Groceries will cater to the tourist. Both sell fuels.
Whilst in the store I met Tony the CEO of the Wiluna Shire and made ourselves be known and then switched hats to Track Care and discussed the 2004 signage project. So it was 10.30am by the time we left Wiluna and hit the very start of the Canning Stock Route.
The mapping survey required that we:
this just simply meant that we couldn't move the vehicle without it being recorded on paper and confirming that the computer had saved the GPS plot. At the end of each day we had to carefully save each waypoint marked by day and download photos off the camera to the computer and save into the relevant day file. We simply take the memory card out of the camera and insert it into a card-reader connected to the laptop to copy the file across within seconds. [PostScript - I took a total of over 1000 photos on this trip]. I also keep a small spiral notebook with a short diary of each day's events.
To drive forward from the Gunbarrel Groceries we were mindful of the need for absolute performance of our recording gear for the 2 main tasks - the Hema survey and the ExplorATHON. With 2 GPS units each unit had its own task, plus acted as a backup for the other plus we set the car's odometer for the entire trip as the main distance control.
Setting out from Wiluna to the north the road ahead is wide and graded - hardly what you expect. If you aren't careful you could miss the turnoff to Well 1 altogether as we did, because it isn't signed and you hardly feel as if you are on the stock route at all. Because we had never travelled the Canning we were relying on good information to ensure we knew where we were going. Loaded on the laptop, we used the Hema GDT series NW map plus the 250K NatMap raster maps, plus the WestPrint CSR Map and the book by Ronele and Eric Gard - The Canning Stock Route A Travellers Guide (which I had used extensively to prepare for the trip). I didn't have the RAC map of the CSR nor the Australian Geographic book and map but I obtained access to these during the later half of the trip. So, even with all this gear, we missed the turnoff. After finding the track however, its just a short trip out to this totally ruined site and then you have to back-track again to the main track.
Finding the turnoff to North Pool is also a bit of a mystery, with a maze of tracks leading off to the left. The main track, once you see it, is rather obvious however as its been graded by Telstra workers. North Pool was absolutely quiet on this lovely Saturday - it was certainly too cold to expect the locals might be swimming. We enjoyed about ½ hr here but Leah missed it as she was already asleep.
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After backtracking onto the main track again we turned right onto a minor track on the right - marked with a large yellow sign this is the start of the vehicular track along the CSR. Whilst we stopped to take a few photos a convoy of 5 vehicles popped out of the trees ahead of us and passed through the junction obviously just nearing the end of their CSR trip from north to south. But rather than turning left towards Wiluna they swung right onto the main track towards god knows where. After some banter on the UHF radios we overhead their realisation that they were heading the wrong way. This is an area where your sense of direction obviously gets a bit muddled. We watched them turn around and head in the right direction but they still stopped to talk with us to check they were going the right way. |
Then it was our turn to get confused again. Looking back, it was a stupid mistake to make, but at the time we seemed to think that finding wells was not going to always be straight-forward. The Hema GDT map doesn't provide a GPS reference for Well 2, whereas one is listed on the Westprint map. The position of the dot on the Hema map also seemed to indicate that the Well lay in the centre of the junction and the description on the map indicated it was in ruins so we anticipated that it would be hard to find. How wrong we were!!
Setting off with GPS in hand, we all walked off in search of the well site. After a few hundred metres David realised it was much further away and that we should drive. Rather than mess up the plot file for the recording of the route in our car, we opted to take Chris's car only and left Graeme and Leah with our car to have a snack, whilst Chris drove David and I to find the well. It wasn't long before the GPS was pointing off into the scrub and we couldn't drive any further. So the boys got out to walk. Chris gave up after a few minutes and came back to me waiting in the car, and David continued on. He reached the well took a waypoint then came back to the car about ½ hr later saying the well site was right on the track just ahead of where we'd left our car. A huge waste of time and a lesson for this trip that things were going to be obvious and less adventurous than we had expected.
I made a note for Hema to remove the notation that this well was in ruins - it is operating perfectly and the water even tasted fine.
Well 1, Well 2, Well 2a
So once we found Well 2, we simply followed the track and came to the Granites (Well 2a) which has a good small camp/picnic spot opposite a rocky outcrop with cairns at the summit. In hindsight, we should've stopped here but at only 3.30pm we thought it was a bit early. The weather looked excellent so we continued onto Well 3, which is prone to being very soggy even after the slightest rain and sure enough as we reached this area the weather changed and looked almost certain that we'd have a wet night. The water from Well 3 was putrid, which is a great shame as this well has been fully restored. We moved on to higher ground for our camp that night and watched in awe as the moon displayed the largest moisture array we've ever seen. For dinner we ate creamy mushrooms drizzled over mashed potatoes. Mushrooms keep for about a week when travelling if kept in an airtight container in the fridge. Sautéed with garlic, white wine and cream (200ml UHT packet stored in tubs not fridge) its a quick and very tasty and fulfilling meal when served over potatoes. Kids love this meal too.
First camp on CSR, Well 3 fully restored
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Day 4 |
Start | Stop | Trip Odometer |
| Sunday 6th July | Well 3 | Well 6 (Pierre Spring) | 135.3km |
| Stopped time | Moving average | Moving time | Max speed |
| 3 hrs 26 mins | 31km/hr | 4 hrs 27 min | 80.8km/hr |
Camping in swags certainly makes departing camp really easy. Best of all, Leah is just loving it. At night she comes up and asks to go to her swag! Any of you that have children will know that is a most unusual trait for a 2 ½ yr old, and certainly isn't the case at home. No idea how long this novelty will last, but no complaints from us for the time being. But early to bed means early to rise and by 8.15am we were off and feeling great - it had not rained overnight and the morning was still and slightly cloudy. There were many red roos in this area and the track was mostly flat on a sandy surface with scattered gibbers. We followed the winding track through trees and creek beds, past a couple of station wells, passed a salt lake and onto Kennedy Creek.
Well 3a, Wildflowers at edge of Salt Lake near 4a
This section of track has been realigned by Cunyu Station to bypass a notoriously boggy section. Cunyu is a private leaseholder and much of the rest of the CSR is unclaimed crown land. Cunyu is just a small station, operated by a husband and wife team. Tourists travelling the Canning during the peak winter months conflict with Cunyu's mustering operations and this has caused the station many problems in the past when travellers have become bogged and stranded requiring help which has interrupted their mustering. So Cunyu decided it was best for all if the original track was realigned for the benefit of both travellers and their operations and since this track passes through their property they have exercised their right to impose some regulations on the use of their track. Strictly NO trailers are allowed between Well 2a and 4a - the only option is to take the alternative routes via Granite Peak or Glenayle stations and enter/exit the CSR at either Well 5 or Well 9 respectively.
Kennedy Creek, Windich Springs
We had another navigational error along this section of track - mostly due to the fact that I was relying on finding landmarks mentioned in the Gard's book The Canning Stock Route - A travellers guide. I had forgotten it was many years old now and that this realigned track meant that I should have ignored sections of trip notes and just trusted the track. After a few kilometres driving around in the scrub and finding station bores on the other side of Kennedy Creek I realised the problem and again, 4a is found dead ahead on the newly aligned track. What we had done was pick up the old track. It was the final straw for us and we agreed to trust our instruments and maps and ignore the trip note sections in the very outdated guide book, however the historical information was still relevant.
Well 4a, Well 4b, Well 5
The turnoff to Well 5 is marked and beyond the site is the signed track to Granite Peak Station. This is a private track and a $20 fee is required if you wish to use it. Chris and Graeme needed to take this easy exit off the stock route to head out to the graded shire road that would take them down to the Gunbarrel Highway and the quickest way for them to reach Geraldton in time for meetings on Tuesday. We continued on solo from here towards Well 6 - an absolutely excellent location and certainly worth a few days stop. For dinner we prepared the camp oven and cooked a whole scotch fillet of beef wrapped in strips of prosciutto and baked with whole fresh tomatoes and potatoes! (Prosciutto is a very thin cut of cured pork similar to copra or salami and available in thin vacuum sealed packets with at least 2 months use-by date from supermarkets - store in fridge and used within 4 days of opening). Left over roast can be wrapped in foil and stored in the fridge for up to a week. Use for sandwiches, or cut into chunks and mix with apple, sultanas, mayo and lemon juice to make tasty fulfilling salads.
Magnificent stands of Blackboy or "Grass Trees" (Xanthorrhoea
preissi), Well 6 - fully restored
