24 September - Morowa to Kalannie


We finished The Wildflower Way at Dalwallinu and intended staying the night here but the caravan park was a desolate affair with gravel as far as the eye could see and barely a tree in sight. The local arts and craft store looked inviting but alas, not one of the shops were open. We fear that might be the case over the next few days - it's the Queen's Birthday long weekend holiday in WA. 

We pressed on late in the afternoon to Kalannie where the Dalwallinu council-run caravan park was a bit lonely - we were the only people in the park. The facilities were clean and there was lots of hot water but it was a bit unsettling being so far away from anywhere and anyone else. 

And we were right, leaving Kalannie to Kulja, Beacon, Wailki and Mukinbudin - nothing is open so no coffee, no bread, no vanilla slices ... ... so on we go to Warralakin, Bullfinch and our destination for today - Southern Cross. 

We decided to do The Wheatbelt Way Drive Trail and headed to Wattoning, a significant historical settlement, the area first being leased in 1873 to two blokes who had been shepherding sheep in the area and were supposedly well positioned to locate good feed and water. The tiny cemetery has three lonely graves of two infants and an early pioneer and their stories remind us of times long ago where illness and accidents were hard to treat and the first to succumb were babies and young children. Little Darcy died of dysentery aged 13 months. 

Little Sheila was 22 months old when she went out to play with her two older sisters. They returned home without her. She was found by an aboriginal tracker several days later huddled under a bush and buried later that night. She possibly would have survived had a cold front not come in the night before. The plaque tells us that Sheila's two sisters were also born at Wattoning.  The three baby girls all died within six years. Such tragedy for a young family.

"Cleomine"

George Landell was a prominent Perth bookmaker and racehorse owner.  He named his property after his greatest racehorse Cleomine, the 1920's equal of Black Caviar. Cleomine raced unbeaten at country and city races through 1923, 1924 and 1925. George spelled his horses on this farm and many trainers, strappers and jockeys came here to train, work and rest. The wind driven racehorse is a tribute to "Cleomine". It was designed and constructed by the "blokes" from the Muka Men's Shed in 2015. 
Cleomine sculpture
Rough muddy roads from Mukinbuda to Southern Cross eventually doing a u-turn when we hit a truly muddy and wet crossing. Being out there on our own and without a winch we didn't want to risk the crossing.  It was nearly the Oodnadatta Track out from Farina all over again. "Leigh" our trusty Hema Sat Nav man was losing credibility with John although I still prefer him over "the bitch" on the Prado Sat Nav any day.  On we went down so many off road muddy tracks and finally on to Bulla Nulla North Road which eventually got us on to Great Eastern Hwy at 4.45 pm. Grrrr!

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