147. Day 94 – We rediscover the Poseidon Secret and travelled on the Great Central Road

Monday 28 July 2008

We had a leisurely start today.  We were in range of the Telstra mobile phone service in Leonora so we were able to collect our emails, make phone calls and send the updates of words and photos for the web site.  At 9.00 am we drove the short distance into the town and had a look around at the wonderful old buildings that lined the main street.  Every now and then a great road train would go thundering through.

We drove a few kilometres south of town, to the old gold mining town of Gwalia.  On the way we passed a drilling rig at work just beside the road.  The big mining companies are still exploring today.

It was great to see the old buildings mostly constructed using corrugated iron.

We stopped outside the grand State Hotel which seemed to be closed up now.

We then drove up the hill to the old Son of Gwalia mine office and the house where Herbert Hoover (who later became the President of the USA) lived in 1898 as the mine manager.  We were able to look into the huge pit of the mine that is still being mined today.

We visited the museum which is housed in the old mine buildings.  In 1987 the mine wanted to expand the pit so the old headframe (built from Oregon pine timber in 1899) and the steam winder (which was installed in 1913) were moved up beside Hoover’s House.  We noticed that the side of the pit next to Hoover’s House is very steep, so it is obvious that they didn’t want to move the house.

We were able to go inside Hoover’s House and see how it has been restored. It was built in 1898-99 and cost six hundred pounds – very expensive as the average house at that time only cost one hundred pounds to build.  Part of the house is used as a bed and breakfast today.

We spent an hour having a good look around at the photographs and artifacts left from the history of the Son of Gwalia gold mine before we drove back through the old town and returned to Leonora.

We filled up the diesel tanks again with 193 litres at $1.89 AUS per litre and drove out to the airport.  Dick found a technician installing a new ADS-B transmitter.  On the way we passed the gas turbine power station that generates electricity for Leonora, similar to the turbines in our Cessna Caravan and Jetranger.

We headed for Laverton at 12 noon and turned onto the Old Laverton Road at Malcolm, following the ruins of the old railway line.  We passed the abandoned Eulaminnia mine of 1901 to 1907 with its colourful soil heaped beside the road.  There also appeared to be a working mine nearby, not shown on our map.

In Mt Morgan’s abandoned mine site there was only one building left and it is now used as a prison work camp.

Not long after, we drove to Windarra to the top of the hill and looked down on the site of the Poseidon nickel mine – the reason for the huge stock market rise and fall in 1969 to 1994.  The shares started at 80 cents and at their height they reached $280 each.  We could see the ruins of where the old mine had been.  Today a Mr Twiggy Forest is planning to re-open the mine and as you can see in the photo, new buildings have been constructed.

We drove into Laverton at 2.00 pm, drove down the main street and discovered a dirt road that took us onto the Great Central Road. This wide dirt road was amazing, smooth in parts and horrible corrugations in other sections.

We stopped for a good old cup of tea just off the road and noticed that the rear bumper appeared to have dropped, just a little on one side.  Dick got the trusty old rope out and tied the bar supporting the spare tyre onto the outboard motor mounting on the back – similar to what we did in Russia – this time the frame hadn’t broken, just bent a bit we think.

Our map states that there are plans to seal the road from Laverton all the way to Winton in Queensland.   However we wonder with the increase in the price of oil (which asphalt is made from) if this will ever happen.

By 5.00 pm the sun was sinking below the horizon so we started looking for a place to pull in off the road.  We found a track at 5.20 pm and drove in a way into the bush to park for the night.  Dick built a good campfire and we enjoyed looking up into the clear sky at the Southern Cross and the Milky Way.

Total today 358 kms  35,355 kms since Anchorage, Alaska.

Click here for the next day.

Click here to return to the Smith’s Overland main index page.