Connie Sue / Anne Beadell - Pt 1
Attendees:
Penny and Spence - LC 200 (trip leaders)
Ivo and Lucy - LC 300
Kelvin - Pajero
Sandy – Patrol
Sean - Triton
Shane - Triton
Rob - Prado
Ron - Pajero
After some months of planning and vehicle preparation we were finally off to explore two of Len Beadell's tracks, the West part of Anne Beadell and the North part of Connie Sue. This was to be followed by a side trip up David Carnegie Rd and ending up on the Gunbarrel to Carnegie Station.
Four of us met at Karalee Rocks and headed for Lake Ballard up the Coolgardie North Rd.
Bit of a mistake if you don't like mud. It rained overnight, and more while we were on the road and the vehicles ended up a bit muddy. The four vehicles stayed pretty much covered in mud for the whole trip and the Stone Stomper had to be cut off the Ultimate.
Three more of the group met at Lake Ballard with Rob meeting us at Laverton. Lake Ballard is a great spot for a short stay and some of the group climbed the hill or walked around the lake.
We clearly were a group of like minded individuals - even to the point of a matching dress code on some occasions.
The rest of this report was written by Shane and Sean.
Day one for some of the group started on Friday. For Shane and I day one was Saturday and it had been a hectic day completing the fit-out for the trip. Shane's brand-new Triton had had a Service Body fitted a good week later than had been planned. The ute everyone saw on the first Sunday of the trip had literally been an empty service body four days earlier on the Wednesday, when Shane was able to get his ute back from the company that had supplied and fitted the service body.
Dave F’s help had been invaluable getting the electrical side sorted out, much being put together by Shane with guidance from Dave while the ute was having the service body fitted. After getting the ute back Dave was helping Shane every evening and Saturday morning, the day we were leaving. Rocking up at Shane’s place on Saturday morning it was onto the tools and after a few last-minute runs to places like Bunnings for needed odds ‘n’ ends, the plan came together. A short run to Gary’s place in Wanneroo for some jerry cans and we were on our way.
Our destination was Karalee Rocks, and the time stamp on my fuel docket from the Burk servo in Landsdale was 4:43:07 PM. Karalee Rocks (according to Google Maps) was 427km and about 4hrs and 45min away. We were going to be getting to camping late tonight and most of the drive done in the dark. It was an easy run out of Perth and onto Great Eastern Highway. Chatting on the radio helped pass the miles, and towns started to be ticked off as we headed east.
About three hours into the drive we rolled into Merredin and decided it was time for a break and a feed. It was Karaoke night in the Merredin Hotel, and the kitchen was still open. Saturday evening was particularly chilly and a wood fired heater in the dining room a nice spot to thaw out a bit before dinner. The food was good, and the tunes from the next room were belting out all manner of popular songs with the skills of the enthusiastic singers broadly ranging from terrible to atrocious! Everyone was having a great time. We did get a generous offer from the hotel staff to camp in the yard out back, however we figured we could still make Karalee Rocks before midnight, so we carried on.
Eventually we made Karalee Rocks (I believe) sometime after 11pm. By this time of the night, it was bitterly cold and sleeping in the car proved to be a lot easier than setting up the stretcher tent. Shane though just popped two latches open, lifted the lid up and promptly disappeared into his new Roof Top Tent. Shane got the better sleep on Saturday night.
Bright and early Sunday morning we were back on the road with Lake Ballard our destination. A need for supplies required staying on the black top to Kalgoorlie first, then very well stocked, eventually had Kal’ behind us, and we finished our run through to Lake Ballard where we found almost everyone else. Given the very muddy state of everyone else’s vehicles and camper trailers, I think both Shane and I were grateful a needed supply run steered us away from Penny’s route to the lake.
By Sunday night, the entire group was together except for Rob’ who we were going to meet up with in Laverton on Monday.
Monday saw everyone packed up and on the road inside Penny’s 08:30 deadline, destination Laverton. If there are features about Laverton worth noting they would be: three choices for fuel, two small supermarkets, and really good coffee, friendly staff, and tons of useful touristy information at the Great Beyond Visitor Centre and Café. Worth noting that here you’ll also find the nicest, cleanest public toilets likely to be found anywhere in the entire goldfields.
Although Laverton is quite small with only a dozen or so streets, there were some entertaining moments for a few finding the official start point for this trip adjacent to the (currently closed) Laverton Caravan Park. Rob’ had arrived well ahead of us all and was waiting patiently, and after we were all finally assembled in the same spot, organised ourselves into our numbered position in a convoy and headed towards The Anne Beadell Highway.
Ordinarily, “Anne” is accessed directly from Laverton however unknown track conditions, and a road closure had us heading out the Great Central Road towards Shenton Rd, the route we would take to get onto Anne. Before then we stopped briefly at a place called Giles Breakaway – which has an interesting half circle of cliffs below the carpark, before continuing to our next campsite being The Pines.
An interesting sidebar note about Giles Breakaway is that it’s located about 14km WNW of the Jindalee Over the Horizon Radar Network (JORN) Radar 2 Transmitter site. At night camping here it is possible looking ESE to see the lights of this site. Using frequencies in the HF band, the unique characteristics of HF signals being able to “skip” off the ionosphere allows these radars to “see” over the horizon. Wikipedia puts the radar’s effective range at 3000km, however anyone with a sound understanding of HF radios and their capabilities might be able to ascertain more accurately how far these radars are able to see. The receiver site for this transmitter array is located about 80km away to the NW of Laverton somewhere near Erlistoun Station. There are three of these radars in Australia, the other two being Radar 3 near Alice Springs in the NT and Radar 1 near Longreach in QLD.
Although this wasn’t the original preferred route, it wasn’t a huge detour, nor did it detract in any way from the spirit of the trip. Soon enough we would be back on the planned route, indeed, now only one sleep away. As an overnight spot, The Pines has a graded road that runs well off the Central Road with plenty of flat open space for camping. Worth noting that the trees here are not actually Pines but Black Oak (Casuarina) that reminded early settlers of Pine trees, hence the name.
Tuesday and everyone were up and away (again) before Penny’s 08:30 deadline. A short run a bit further out the Great Central and then we were on Shenton Road that was followed southeast to Yamarna. Here we would rejoin the Anne Beadell Highway. Near this intersection is a serviceable well that has a running downhole pump supplying water somewhere, most likely a nearby mine. Still here is a working windmill (although not drawing any water), and an old drilling rig. It was funny seeing Shane in the remains of a driver’s seat making engine noises and changing gears on a gearbox that still worked!
Now properly on Anne, we headed east to our next overnight stop, the Yeo Lake Homestead. Much the same as we remembered it from 2018, it was quite a treat to find in the visitors’ books, the entries made by our group back then. We had a great evening around a warming fire at Yeo, also enjoying an excellent test of general knowledge playing a quiz put together by Sandie. We’ll keep who won a secret, however it was great fun. From recollection, the night at Yeo was likely the coldest we had for the entire trip with every vehicle covered in a layer of ice the next morning. Hands on a hot water bottle shared around was welcome relief for many aching cold fingers as we packed up for the next leg, Yeo to Neale Junction.
For a bit of fun we had a "posh" night at Yeoh Station - everyone was asked to wear something fancy - people had bow ties, pearls, sparkly clothes and a tiara!
Three friends, Burgo, Sue and Deb were unable to make the trip despite earlier plans so at Yeoh Station we gathered the group and had a photo with mementos designed to bring them along on the trip in spirit. Burgo's hat, Sue's glass of wine and Deb's embroidery. We missed you guys!
The rest of the trip will be covered in a second trip report to follow soon.
