145. Day 92 – To Well 9 on the Canning Stock Route

Saturday 26 July 2008

Dick was up at 6 am and helped Norma Ward feed her pet sheep.

**Norma feeding her pet sheep with their tails wagging**

**Henry outside his parent’s family home on Millrose**

After breakfast we drove up to the cattle yards and watched Norma, Rex and their son Christopher draft the cattle for Rob Dowling to purchase. It was exciting to see the action and to be reminded just how hard people on these properties work every day.

**Christopher and Rex Ward working in the cattle yards**

Christopher’s wife Carolyn arrived with their three month old son Jack. We took photos of the four generations of the Ward family. The Wards have been on ‘Millrose’ for six generations – a real Australian Dynasty.

**Four generations of the Ward family – Baby Jack, Christopher, Rex and Henry Ward**

Just after 9 am Henry suggested we follow him in his good old Landcruiser up the road to Glen Ayle Station, another 190kms. Henry settled at Glen Ayle in 1948 and has lived there ever since, having grown up on the Millrose property. His other son, Lou and his wife Pam and their family now run Glen Ayle.

About an hour and a half up the road we stopped and made a cup of tea – we had morning smoko! We sat in the comfort of our Earthroamer and Henry started telling us the story of how Jim Hazelton, a good friend of ours, had flown up to Glen Ayle in 1962 and how Henry had assisted him in the recovery of a plane wreck. Dick turned on the Iridium phone and we rang Jim on his mobile as he was in Melbourne and the old friends had a chat – many things have changed since 1948 when Henry travelled this area on horseback.

**Henry pulled up beside us on the road to Glenayle**

We reached the homestead of Glen Ayle just before noon to find Henry’s other son Lou cooking steak and chops on a wood burning barbecue. Lou’s wife Pam was out looking for some sheep.

We enjoyed lunch sitting in the shade of a tree. We then drove the 58kms with Henry out to Well 9 on the Canning Stock Route. Dick and I had flown there with our girls in 1986 and we were keen to see it again. On the way out there Henry showed us the first well he dug on the property in 1948, Jimmy’s Well, 16 feet down. It is still being used today.

**Henry at the first well that he dug on Glen Ayle**

We reached the Canning Stock Route after an hour and had a good look around at the old well, as well as the pile of stones – all that is left of a fort built by John Forrest in 1874 as protection from the Aborigines. There was also a surveyor’s post, left by the surveyor Pain in 1929, with PA 54 carved on it.

**Dick standing on the Canning Stock Route**

**The ruins of the fort built by John Forrest**

We had a look at the yards and gate system that Glen Ayle use to catch the cattle that come in for water at the modern water trough. Pip also had a good opportunity to get close to the cattle and get a few photographs – these animals are so much bigger than any we saw overseas or on our property on the east coast of Australia.

We drove some distance along the Canning Stock Route and checked out an airstrip that was put in for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It needs to be graded as small shrubs are growing all over it now. We then returned to the homestead on Glen Ayle and Henry showed us his original well drilling rig.

**Old blades from windmills are used as signs**

**Henry and his old drilling rig – he swapped it in lieu of wages years ago**

We joined the family for a cup of tea back under the shady tree and later enjoyed a delicious meal of barbecue meat cooked by Lou, and salads and potatoes prepared by Pam. We really enjoyed the evening with such a fabulous Australian country meal. The Ward family are such warm and friendly hosts. It is so wonderful to be travelling in our own country, especially in the outback.

Total today 190 kms 34,279 kms since Anchorage, Alaska.

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