Back in 2005 I was part of a team who spend many hours trying to establish where an old stock route went from about 150kms due south west of
Newman down to
Meekatharra (no modern maps were included).
After more than 12 months of planning, and a considerable effort in gaining copies of maps dating back to 1910 - 30 we finally met up in
Meekatharra.
Before I go any further the names of the properties won't be mentioned in this trip report.
After a good drive north we headed down a station track and turned off to a dry creek bed a couple of kms into the bush. My old drover mate lit a fire to the biggest pile of drift wood you could imagine. Wasn't a cold night...
The other fella went off to his swag early and remarked next morning, that two dills drinking rum don't make much sense to a sober man.
Next morning we headed off through the bush and scrub to have a look at
Tunnel Creek, then went on to the
homestead and stayed the night. Have to say, good hospitality can wreck a man. LOL
We were all a bunch of bleary fellas next morning, and I don't think I got to thank his missus.
The owner of the property took us up over an escarpment and then departed back to the station. After that we where on our own in country never crossed by a vehicle.
Arangements had been made with another property owner to give us Aerial support starting around 10pm (from memory). The country was difficult and within an hour of travel the outside cosmetic features of the Prado were completely destroyed.
We arrived at a rocky creek bed and it was suggested that we bash up the other side, whilst the another fella tried to do the same further down. We finally got over the rocks and landed in a sandy uphill depression on the other side.
It then became clearly obvious there was no chance of going forward. That's when the mess began.
After a bit of difficulty the car was facing back down
hill again with a significant lean to the left in deep dry sand. This meant that I would have to drive to the right to allow for drift.
Unfortunately there was a clump of scub on the right hand side which didn't allow for a wide steering ark.
The fella with me was out the front yelling on out about putting the tyres forward, without giving any thought to the fact that this advice would see the car jammed to the trees on the left hand side.
By this stage I'd had enough of this dill and took to the scub with an axe. Finally got out, then spent a bit of time trying to find the other car in the bush.
The bush was dense and there was know way of telling where he was.
Anyway we came across him about 200ms away.
Once we had the aircraft support it made navigation easier, but only lead to more overgrown creek beds that were starting to take a toll on the cars. In some of the lower Spinifex country we also had a bit of a problem with old stock yard wire wrapping around the diffs. On one occasion it took more than a hour to get rid of the stuff.
The bush also created a few other problems. Because it was a good season, we lost sight of each other within 25m
If your on a track this isn't a problem. However, in this case we spent a fair bit of time trying to find each other through the scub and Spinifex.
By now your probably asking yourself why these pack of dills didn't have a GPS. In fact we had two, plus three compasses.
GPS is the best thing since sliced bread. It'll tell you the direction to go, but won't explain the country up ahead.
After a bit of a talk at the bush landing strip we were on our way again to find a stock tank further south. On the way we came to the steepest river bank crossing I've ever come across. Without a word of lie I thought the car would go
turtle. To make matters worse, we did this three times trying to find the extension to the old stock route.
Things started to get a bit unreasonable when I pointed out that we were attempting to go west rather than south. The worst thing you can do is tell a Bushy he's wrong. If it wasn't for the other fella we would have got into a right down blue.
We back tracked and found a roo shooter in the bush who gave us directions down to a mustering
camp out of Mulgul Station(?).
After that the relationionship got worse, and we were glad to see the arse end of each other. I won't
bore with the detail, other than to say we haven't spoken a word since then.
Bit of a pity in some ways, because we crossed some of the hardest off track country in the
Pilbara.
The mate and I come from similar backgrounds, but by cripes we couldn't get on.
Regards
Kim
Regards
Kim McFarland
Phone/fax (03) 97821702
Mobile 0409213403
e-mail kimmc@satlink.com.au
Bus Phone 97055467
Bus e-mail kmcfarland@casey.vic.gov.au