Australia 2025

Day 15- The Wheatbelt

A slightly early start today as we head for the Ferry across to South Perth from Elizabeth Quay - yet another part of the excellent TransPerth system.

We are met on the other side by Kevin and Jane. Jane comes from Essington but married Kevin 30 years ago having met on a young farmers exchange. The significant bit of this was that Jane is the daughter of Bill Simkin, he that once owned Essington Fruit Farm. Bill died some time ago, but I used to see him in The Minerva on Wednesdays.

Jane tells us of the battle to get her share of the estate since Bill's death, some 7 or 8 years ago. A sad tale of theft, embezzlement and corruption.

Moving on, Kevin has picked us up in his "Ute" which is a pickup truck with a crew cab. We drive to see their friends, Lindsay and Silviano who run a "hobby" farm near York. According to Wikipedia, "York is the oldest inland town in Western Australia, situated on the Avon River, 98 kilometres (61 mi) east of Perth in the Wheatbelt, on Ballardong Nyoongar land, and is the seat of the Shire of York."

Lindsay mainly raises emu's and a few sheep. Kevin has a few sheep as well - about 2,500. Lindsay was a lecturer in agriculture in WA and is a most interesting and engaging chap. It was also a good privilege to visit an actual farmhouse owned by a genuine local, and not see another hotel. Silviano is also very pleasant but reminds me a lot of our late Queen.

We had a tour of the farm driven in Lindsay's 4 x 4 and he explains how they conserve water, which involves digging a pit to certain dimensions that retain a percentage of the water even though the evaporation rate is measured in inches per day in the heat of an Australian summer.

Having concluded our tour, we head off to the Imperial Hotel in York for lunch. Lindsay shows us around the Town Hall, which is a bit like Dudley's inside, and was one of the first buildings built here around 1830. Consequently, it has a very colonial feel and as it's off the beaten track (you need a car to get here) it's not that touristy.

Following lunch, Lindsay to the observation point at Mount Brown where we can view the Avon Valley. It's quite hot - at 34 degrees and the flies are around - but the views are spectacular.

Kevin points out the grain collecting buildings in the distance known as "bins" which are large storehouses that concentrate the produce from local farms for onward shipment. There's a bit of an issue here in that the grain used to to be shipped by rail to Fremantle but as the government leased the line to an American corporation, this has stopped forcing grain to be shipped by the more expensive road route. We aren't talking trivial amounts here ether - 20-30 million tons in a good harvest. So a battle and lobbying is taking place with the politicians and as usual, common sense is taking a back seat.

From York, Kevin drives us to the Mundaring Weir which is the head of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme , built by an Irish engineer named C Y O'Connor. This fabled chap built a water supply system from Perth to Kalgoorlie from where we stood, and it supports 100,000 people even today. It was crucial for the gold exploitation in that area and as gold extraction is such vital part of Australia's economy, this is probably one of the most important reservoirs ever built. Unfortunately for O'Connor, many people criticised him and he committed suicide before the scheme started to work.

From the Manduring Weir and having disturbed a young Kangaroo, we drove back to Kevin and Jane's "town house" - a small detached bungalow built originally for returning veterans from WWII. How the Aussies look after their own eh?

A refreshing "cold one" (as Kevin calls it!) and we head on to the local eatery, "Henry's" and enjoy a decent meal. Then we walk to Canning Bridge railway station and catch the train back to Elizabeth Quay, very tired after a long day but we had learned a lot, especially the politics and economics of Western Australia. It seems to be that there's obviously corruption going on here, such as he story of an American who flew in to a charity auction and bought something for an overinflated price and then immediately flew out. I also observe that Jane is a feisty woman who frequently buttonholes the state politicians formally and informally. Let hope her campaigning works.