Back to Mooka

When we turn off the Gascoyne Junction/Carnarvon road to head down the dirt track to the Gascoyne River we can see how much rain has fallen while we were away. There's lots of water laying in the low parts of the track.

I started to worry about our river crossing but if you've got the right gear, there's no need to worry at all. In fact, it's just that little bit more exciting!

Now THAT'S a 4WD !!

We arrive at the minesite and nothing seems to have changed very much. Although we could see the creek had flowed quite heavily.

The Aloe Vera (donated by the local cattle station master a few years ago who said it's good for sandfly bites) is thriving.

And the wattles are blooming everywhere now that's it's winter.

This time, as Woody isn't with us, at mealtimes we are joined by a fox. We can't resist throwing him scraps even though he looks well fed. He's been dining on the wildlife, no doubt; something we dislike them for intensely. But it's exciting having a wild animal come so close. Digging goes well and it's not long before we have a load to take into town. Glenn brings it from the mine on the 6WD Mercedes, across the river to the woolshed where the Kenworth is waiting. The Mercedes has a Hiab (crane) which he uses to transfer the bags of rock to the other truck. It's an hour and a half drive to Carnarvon.

There's still a bit of weather about giving us spectacular skies.

After a couple of weeks and a few tons dug we head north for the Crazy Lace Agate Mine. But on the way we meet up with some friends.

Not quite sure how we managed to find them, right in the middle of the outback, miles from anywhere. It was a combination of GPS and ESP.

After a couple of days of fossicking and lots of laughing we continue on our way north to the Pilbara Region and there's still rain about. This rainbow lasted for ages and cheered up the somewhat ordinary scenery.

We reach the minesite and soon set up camp ready for digging to begin.


Crazy Lace Agate is one of my favourites. You can read about it here.

Fortunately, there is a windmill nearby, 8kms down the track, where we can get water for washing, . Can you believe there are graffiti artists this far out? The tree trunk hanging over the side is for visiting ducks who probably wouldn't be able to get out, otherwise.

The soil up here is red dust. It isn't gravel, it isn't sand, it is literally DUST! When we first arrive it is quite compacted after the rain but it doesn't take long to loosen up. It gets into absolutely everything and it's pointless to try and fight it. Our camps always include a shower cubicle so that we can wash at the end of each day and sleep in clean bedding. But it doesn't take long after stepping out of the tent in the morning before the dust has 'taken you over'.

The first year I came up here to the Pilbara Region I learned very quickly to just live with it. And I wrote this:

The Dust

I breathe this red dust,
I eat this red dust,
It’s in my eyes, up my nose,
In my ears and between my toes.

It’s under my nails and in my hair,
The red dust it’s bloody everywhere!

I had a black/grey dog, now he’s red;
Thought I’d got a tan but it’s dust instead.
It’s in my book and in my bag,
It’s in my knickers and in my swag.

But I love it and accept it,
It’s all part of being here;
I’m in Mother Nature’s clutches;
I am safe, I am red, She is near.

Mining at Mooka - Phase One

We've just completed the first three weeks of this year's mining.

This is my third year of accompanying Glenn to mine rock and after the first year I started to put together a list of what we needed to take. (It's a 'woman' thing, I suppose.) Glenn's been doing this for years and has never had anything written down; he just throws everything in and off he goes. I need a list and this list has become "The List" and I wouldn't be without it. We're miles from civilisation for sometimes weeks at a time so I must feel organised.

We've done the 'big shop' (groceries galore), Glenn's done his packing which amongst other things includes every vehicle spare he can carry and I've got enough first aid and medications to open a chemist shop. Plus newspapers and books to last a year.

We got away mid-morning making it to Geraldton for dinner. There can't be many roadhouses that overlook the ocean as this one does; you can see the sea from the restaurant over the top of three or four roadtrains parked in the carpark.

As I still have coverage on my mobile phone there I usually call my sons and as I did so this year I realised that this time last year I could only phone Doug. Matt was in Iraq. What a lovely feeling it was to be able to call him in Melbourne where he lives happily with his new wife.

After dinner we get back on the road and do a few more hours before we pull off and unroll our swags to get some sleep. We are awake before the sun is up and make an early start. We get to Carnarvon and have eggs and bacon for breakfast, yum! As we head further north I'm amazed at how green the verges are when there is such a drought. The wildlife and cattle are attracted to this luscious growth and this makes driving hazardous. They can be very unpredictable and I've seen one or two cow's carcasses along the way. However, kangaroos are another story. Dead bodies all over the place! The crows and eagles have a feast (if they don't get collected by a passing vehicle themselves!)

Smartypants Woody, as soon as he sees the 'errant wildlife', pushes his way from behind the seats of the land cruiser and sits on the passenger seat. He decides he needs to ride 'shotgun' and proceeds to tell all wildlife where to go in no uncertain terms. I put a finger in my left ear.

I consequently have his breath misting up the windscreen and wet nose stains all over it too. But he's good company. He's excited. He knows exactly what's going on, where we're off to and what lies ahead. He's looking forward to lots of water to swim in and wildlife to chase.

Soon I can see the Kennedy Ranges in the distance and we turn off the bitumen and soon reach Winnamia which is where we bring the bags of rock to be loaded. There is a woolshed and living quarters here - all built of tin, run-down and completely abandoned. But there are still rain water tanks that fill from the roof gutters and when our supply has got low it has been a good standby as the water in the Gascoyne River and Mooka Creek is a bit too full of minerals to drink.
So we leave Glenn's truck there and drive to Jimba Jimba to collect the Mercedes. I have to say that I was impressed when Glenn told me he had a Mercedes. And here she is..



The people at this cattle station are quite happy for Glenn to store her there and have even done repairs on her for him free of charge. She's come in handy for the odd job for them too. I call her our "Rock Goddess". If not for this 6 Wheel Drive truck we would have to do an extra 160km round journey each time to get the rock to town. With the Rock Goddess we are able to transport the bags of rock from the mine across the Gascoyne River to Winnamia where it can be loaded on to a roadtrain.

Crossing the river the first time with fully loaded vehicles is usually a bit tricky. Woody couldn't care less - he's found what he came for:






The Land Cruiser is fully loaded and pulling a fully loaded trailer so I knew I'd be lucky to get across first time. I got so far but Glenn ended up towing me with the truck. I find this all a bit traumatic. He doesn't.

Before you know it, we're at Mooka, camp's set up, tarp's in place for shade, fridge is on the way to getting cold, tent is up and bedding in place and the kettle's on!



And it's not long before Glenn has unloaded the backhoe and is digging Mookaite. Turning this:

Into this:

And making lots of work for me!! Like this:

Digging rock like this:

To be made into things like beads, carvings,

or the really really top of the wozza stuff into things like this:

I now realise how easy we had it last year. Few mechanical problems and few flies. This year.. mechanical problems big time and more flies than you could poke multiple sticks at!

We came armed with numerous cans of personal fly repellant and a fly net for my face that I wore constantly. We cannot, however, carry a spare gear box for the Land Cruiser. Yep, almost completed one of our many river crossings when "Phhhht!" no gears. But never fear, bush mechanic is here. Glenn ordered a new gearbox from Perth, got it sent up to Carnarvon, we collect it, get the LC to the camp on the back of the Rock Goddess, and he fixes it. Amazing!

The offending article.

We tried a fly net for Woody as they'd made camp on his nose, poor thing.

Didn't last long, surprisingly.

The best times are early morning and evening when the flies go to bed and all is quiet.

Dog's are not allowed in the tent.

Afternoon in Perth

We took some friends into Perth recently to visit two places; first was the Department of Industry and Resources and, second, was the Perth Museum.

At the Department of I & R I saw this map of Western Australia showing the "Recent Activity in Minerals" and was very impressed. (click on the photo to enlarge) What a rich state this is!! The legend at the top lists the minerals and in case you aren't familiar with the "Periodic Table of the Elements" as it were, Au is gold, Cu is copper, Ni is nickel. We were surprised at the amount of diamond mines.

Then we made our way to the Perth museum where we found a stunning display of meteorites! One of the best displays of meteorites in the world, in fact. Read here for more information about meteorites.

This is the "Mundrabilla" meteorite that fell about a million years ago and was found on the Nullabor Plain of Western Australia in 1966. The 'tide mark' across the lower part shows how much was showing above ground. It weighs 11.5tonnes.

But, wait, there's more!!

Gear Box - Truck - Broken!

The convoy slowed down.

All looking in rear view mirrors.

The truck had stopped.

They all stopped.

Very short inspection.

Instant diagnosis - broken gear box.

Yep! That's a broken gear box, for sure!

A Buzz in the Bush

Off to the bush again for the odd bit of "fossicking".

We turn off the highway and go another couple of hours until we reach our destination. The area was dry and dusty but still we are surrounded by bright green shrubs and new seedlings. You'd almost think someone had been going around 'handwatering the plants' every morning.

Seeing the black tree trunks and crispy remains of bush it was obvious that a fire had been through at least a couple of years previously. This explains the vigorous new growth. There's nothing like the smoke of a fire to promote seed germination.

This time we brought our 'secret weapons'. Well, quad bikes. What fun these were!

A much better way of getting around the bush rather than walking or bush-bashing with the Land Cruiser. Also, these light, manoeuverable, four-wheeled bikes were much less likely to get punctures.

Our friends, the bush flies, were all there to greet us. And they weren't there in ones and twos, they were there in their gadzillions. As we walked along, each one of us had our own personal cloud of flies to accompany us. Oh, what friendly little things they are. They just couldn't leave us alone; not for one minute. They seem to enjoy riding on our backs, in their millions, all just sitting there, the backs of our jackets black from shoulders to waist, and there wasn't room to swing a mozzy!

Yes, eating was a problem!

Batman and Robin.

I don't think these bushes were originally this shape.

It's almost as if, as the fire went through, they tried to wrap their arms around themselves and crouch down in an effort to avoid the inevitable.

The majority of the trees here looked like this; bent right over with new branches sprouting upwards from the bent trunk. A result of prevailing winds or maybe fire.

This looks like a pile of deadwood but it is in actual fact, a tree! It must be very old because I could see where it has grown, fallen over, grown some more and fallen over and even now it still has roots in the ground so there are new branches growing up from the horizontal trunk.
David has a friend who goes to the bush and collects pieces of tree trunk which have hollows in them for the purpose of making them into works of art. On one trip to the bush as he was driving home with his vehicle full of potential artworks, a snake slithered into the front cab with him. Obviously he hadn't received his eviction notice! The guy stopped, opened the door to let the snake out and carried on home!

Devil's Dice

In my previous post I had some photos of Devil's Dice that we found. Glenn wasn't around so I looked on the internet to find out what they actually were but as they obviously had nothing to do with pop groups, had no luck. So today I asked him and he gave me an answer....

"The existence of a mineral with a crystal form of another species. Pseudomorphism may occur by substitution, encrustation, or alteration. For example, limonite pseudomorphs after pyrite can be formed by leaching away the sulfur. It this case, the limonite preserves the cubic structure of pyrite.

Pyrite, also known as fool’s gold because it has tricked many into believing it was the real thing, is iron sulfide, an iron ore. Under the proper conditions, though, pyrite can become iron hydroxide, or limonite. Its external appearance remains essentially the same, but the composition has been altered. Pyrite cubes have become limonite cubes"

When he gives me an answer like this I just nod, intelligently, and thank him. He also gave me a link, here.

Trip to the Pilbara

Thursday afternoon we set off for one of Glenn's mining leases in the Pilbara region of Western Australia . He needed to collect some samples for analysis. It is about 12 hours drive north of where we live.
Once again, it is going to be a quick trip so we throw the few important things into the Land Cruiser; food, water, dog and get going. Glenn's important things are maps, compass, GPS, satellite phone, book to record findings, geopick, etc. My important thing was my fly net!!

I usually sleep so soundly in my swag and the first night I certainly did just that. The second night, however, I was sharing my swag with some dear little ants who wanted to get cosy with me. By about 2am I'd woken a third or fourth time (lost count) and must have disturbed Glenn as he asked me what was wrong. He passed me the personal insect spray and I said, "What? Spray my whole body??" He replied with the obvious answer which escaped me that time of the morning, "No, just the edge of your swag." tut.
By Friday mid-morning we are almost at our destination and we turn off the highway. Then begins the slow and arduous drive across rough terrain, clonking and bumping over loose rocks at 3kph. Even though the tyres are built for this type of environment we still have to avoid spikes of dead trees. When a bushfire goes through areas like this and trees and shrubs are burnt, after a while all that is left are stakes sticking out of the ground. Drive over one of these at the right angle and ptshhhhhhh!

We had two and a half punctures in all. Glenn said that many a time after crossing some rough country he's woken up in the morning to find a couple of tyres have gone down overnight with slow punctures. Needless to say, he always carries spares and tools.

Here is Glenn in his element.

Lots and lots of nothingness, for miles and miles and miles.

When I was young and used to walk my dog across the fields and through the local woods for hours on end I used to try to find places where I thought no one had ever set foot before. In Surrey? In England? I don't think so. But it was fun to imagine that I had found that very untouched place. Here, however, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I have placed my feet where no man or woman has ever stepped before, ever. You can do that alot in Australia. It's so vast.

These were interesting. Not placed there by man but by nature.



No flies on Helen !!

I have never seen so many flies in all my life.

And just for the record - neither had Glenn and he's been coming to the outback for years!


This is Glenn making a phone call with the satellite phone.


We see some magnificent skies out here.
Wildlife trails
Even though we'd driven a long way towards the lease, we had to do a fair bit of hiking to get to the locations where Glenn wanted to take samples. It was impossible by vehicle. One of the easiest ways to walk in these areas is to follow the wildlife tracks. They are so defined you would think they were manmade for tourists but they're not. The animals, mainly kangaroos here, all stick to the same route and over time the loose rocks get knocked out of the way leaving just a dusty track which is easier for all to use, including us.

A passing kangaroo took this photo for us.

It will always amaze me how anything survives out here - animal or vegetable. It is all so arid and hostile. I came across these lovely lavender-coloured bells.

Bird's nest
We don't see any parrots out here, probably because there isn't anything for them to eat, I suppose. But there are quite a few little insect-eating birds here and I can guarantee there's plenty of that sort of food to keep them going!

At another location we came across an area of Devil's Dice. Above you can see how they can be lodged within rock. Below are some we collected that had broken away.

Miles and miles of nothing. And the sky goes on for ever and ever.

On returning to Perth a weather trough produced a spectacular sky, a storm we could watch in the distance complete with fork lightning and this rainbow.