Briefly escaping the intra-state WA travel restrictions

[JohnM]

Well, seeing I'm supposed to be a week or so into a 13-week DONE4, but most unlikely to be going anywhere overseas this year, I put into action a plan that has been lurking in the back of my mind for the last year or two: to change my sedan for a 4WD.

The week before Easter, I poked around the dealers and made a pretty much instant decision to go for it when the only 2020-build vehicle in WA that met my specs was available, with further shipments suspended. Delivery was the Friday after Easter.

Hmmm..., now where the hell to go, given that rigidly-enforced regional travel restrictions are in place in WA, to shake this baby down?

Fortunately, my elder son has a business in the Goldfields region that he operates much like FIFO - a few weeks on, then back to PERfection for R&R. He arrived back in PER the day I took delivery, for a little over a week's R&R. He has approval to travel between the Perth region and the Goldfields (which entails passing through the Wheatbelt). It's a tightly regulated industry that he operates in, but I have had for several years authority to work in his business.

Sweet - add me to the approved travel list with his staff and sub-contractors.

So, with that sorted, Monday last week we were out of town heading in convoy for Kalgoorlie and then out another couple of hundred clicks NW to where his operation is currently located.

Sailed through the major Checkpoint Charlie at The Lakes, about 50 Km out of Perth at the turnoff to York on Great Eastern Highway. Plain sailing from there.

The WA regions. Currently, anyone in PER can only travel within the Perth-Peel region (and who in their right mind wants to travel to Mandurah? ).

That is set to be relaxed next Monday when the South West, Great Southern and Wheatbelt are opened for PER peeps. (Busselton-Margaret River here I come next week! )



So, just a few pics from out bush.

Location:



Tuesday, getting ready and then working out in the bush.




The bush flies were quite abundant. Almost every one of these on the slight scratch on my arm (yummy protein from my blood matures eggs) is a female. How do I know? - Just look at their eyes (you think I'm joking, don't you?... (Never let it be said a @JohnM TR is not educational...).



Camp - and the boys still like to work out. No gym closures out here .




TBC...

 

[RB]

Good to see the distinctly Aust colours in the photos. Keen to read your report.

 

[StevoQFtraveller]

Great report JohnM. You need to venture as far south as Denmark (another WA delight!) when the travel restrictions are lifted. So blessed for outdoor scenery here in WA.

 

[JohnM]

Great report JohnM. You need to venture as far south as Denmark (another WA delight!) when the travel restrictions are lifted. So blessed for outdoor scenery here in WA.

I've roamed very widely across WA during my working years and since, so I'm very familiar with the Denmark-Albany region. I only mentioned Busselton-Margaret River as I have friends there who I have not seen for some time, so that will be a first port of call after the travel restrictions are relaxed next Monday. It's also more easily handled as a day trip from PER.

I intend to get to the S coast, especially Fitzgerald River NP, later in the year.

Hopefully the restriction on travel to the Mid West/Gascoyne/Pilbara will be lifted by mid-year. Just have to hope for a some rains there and a good wildflower season.

 

[JohnM]

Next day, first up, I went for a bit of a poke around down a track near camp.




The reason why we're there. A native sandalwood Santalum spicatum (Santalum spicatum - Wikipedia) tree. This is a specimen too small to harvest but it does illustrate something about the sandalwood harvesting.

Note the dead branches on the tree. Harvesting is for two separate products: 'green wood' and 'dead wood'. Dead wood can take the form of dead branches on green trees and free-standing dead trees. Sandalwood is a hard, dense wood extremely resistant to termites, so when trees die they can remain standing for many years, just slowly degrading by shedding smaller branches until just the trunk remains. It retains oil, albeit in reduced concentration, for the life of the wood. Amazing stuff.

It takes a bit to get one's eye in for dead sandalwood trees amongst other dead trees, but snapping a piece off and smelling it for the glorious scent is the way to confirm its identity.

 

[Daver6]

You keep mentioning work in this. I presume what you mean is watching other people work?

 

[JohnM]

You keep mentioning work in this. I presume what you mean is watching other people work?

Bloody cheeky millennial pops up like a jack-in-the-box yet again.

I put in a full day on Tuesday, took some R&R on Wednesday-Thursday, and on Friday did the 200-odd click run into Kalgoorlie picking up gear and spare parts and from the train one of the workers whose grandmother's funeral in PER on Thursday had delayed his return.

I am entitled to pick my own hours - I know the boss...

 

[OZDUCK]

Next day, first up, I went for a bit of a poke around down a track near camp.

View attachment 217654
View attachment 217656View attachment 217657View attachment 217658

The reason why we're there. A native sandalwood Santalum spicatum (Santalum spicatum - Wikipedia) tree. This is a specimen too small to harvest but it does illustrate something about the sandalwood harvesting.

Note the dead branches on the tree. Harvesting is for two separate products: 'green wood' and 'dead wood'. Dead wood can take the form of dead branches on green trees and free-standing dead trees. Sandalwood is a hard, dense wood extremely resistant to termites, so when trees die they can remain standing for many years, just slowly degrading by shedding smaller branches until just the trunk remains. It retains oil, albeit in reduced concentration, for the life of the wood. Amazing stuff.

It takes a bit to get one's eye in for dead sandalwood trees amongst other dead trees, but snapping a piece off and smelling it for the glorious scent is the way to confirm its identity.

View attachment 217659View attachment 217661View attachment 217660View attachment 217662

Once again lovely photos of the country out there.

You have also bought back more memories of my father for me. I am sorry to bring him into your report again but you are very much in his neck of the woods. One of his first 'adult' jobs in about 1918 when he was around 14 was actually being a sandalwood cutter in that area for a few years. For the next, close to, 80 years he use to amaze first his children and then grandchildren by getting them to feel the 'nicks' on his tibia. These were from when the adze he was using to trim the sandalwood bounced off the timber and hit his legs.

 

[TheRealTMA]

With apologies.

 

[RooFlyer]

The reason why we're there. A native sandalwood Santalum spicatum (Santalum spicatum - Wikipedia) tree. This is a specimen too small to harvest but it does illustrate something about the sandalwood harvesting.

Note the dead branches on the tree. Harvesting is for two separate products: 'green wood' and 'dead wood'. Dead wood can take the form of dead branches on green trees and free-standing dead trees. Sandalwood is a hard, dense wood extremely resistant to termites, so when trees die they can remain standing for many years, just slowly degrading by shedding smaller branches until just the trunk remains. It retains oil, albeit in reduced concentration, for the life of the wood. Amazing stuff.

All very interesting (for a few seconds), but you completely ignore the most interesting thing in your photo:



Absolutely magnificent example of an erosional nubbin of Archean granite. A decent bulldozer would remove the weeds and show the good stuff off to better effect.

 

[JohnM]

All very interesting (for a few seconds), but you completely ignore the most interesting thing in your photo:

View attachment 217663

Absolutely magnificent example of an erosional nubbin of Archean granite. A decent bulldozer would remove the weeds and show the good stuff off to better effect.

You know that I always include some boondies for you...

 

[tgh]

I had o idea about Sandalwood, now I have 0.5 of an idea...
Can you tell us how the process works ?

 

[OZDUCK]

I had o idea about Sandalwood, now I have 0.5 of an idea...
Can you tell us how the process works ?

This is a few years old but may be of interest.

 

[JohnM]

I had o idea about Sandalwood, now I have 0.5 of an idea...
Can you tell us how the process works ?

Wild sandalwood harvesting is a forestry industry coming under the WA Forest Products Commission (FPC) (Forest Products Commission) who regulate very strongly the quantity of green and dead wood and areas from which it can be taken. It usually surprises people to see a 'forestry' operation in the Goldfields.

It's rather like a highly-regulated fishery - eg. the Western Rock Lobster fishery. There are strict limits, rigidly enforced.

FPC calls tenders for the areas they have designated for harvest. Green trees have to be a minimum size (off the top of my head I can't recall how that is defined, but suffice to say they are quite large - way bigger than the examples I showed). They specify harvest 'cells' and the contractors have to systematically work through them and provide the GPS tracking to show that they have fully covered the cell. Kalgoorlie-based FPC inspectors, equipped with a farm motorbike on their ute for mobility of inspections, keep close local watch on all the contractors for harvest rigour and audit for safety compliance. Every worker has to hold a Timber Worker's Registration (that was my pass to cross the travel boundaries).

The dead wood goes into the bulker bags in the bins on the trailer in pic 5 of post#1. Each bag holds on average about a third of a tonne. With the shortening days, three workers were gathering about three bins a day; that would stretch to probably four bins/day when the days are longer. Of course, a lot depends on hitting thicker spots, especially large, heavy dead trees that need to be chain-sawed. Google Earth offline is a godsend for reading the terrain to predict hotter spots and getting access. There's a lot of bush-bashing in old 70-Series Landcruiser utes. Their life - and that of many tyres - ends out there.

The green wood has to be cut into lengths and fed into a tumbler to abrade the bark off. Bark on the wood ruins it for oil extraction. Bark removal needs to be done quickly as it dries and hardens and becomes very difficult to remove.

For greatest efficiency, green and dead wood are harvested mostly separately. The contract specifies the quantity of each that can be produced.

Here are some pics that show the work yard. The bulker bags are stacked two high in the frames for loading onto the semi of the transport contractor. The tumbler can be seen. The yard was pretty empty as it was first day back after a break, prior to which a load had gone out (48 bags fit on the semi IIRC).



As far as I understand it, the dead wood is turned into a dust and used to make incense sticks and maybe other products like that. The green wood is used for distilling the oil, and maybe other purposes. I believe that a very famous perfume that contains some sandalwood oil is Chanel No. 5.

For anyone visiting southern WA, the Mt Romance factory near Albany is worth a visit:

The Sandalwood Shop - Australian Sandalwood for Sale

Explore the distinctive range of health, beauty & well-being retail products and experience the true spirit of sandalwood. A uniquely Australian brand.

www.mtromance.com.au

Contact Us

Hope that helps.

 

[Antoallison]

And you end up with something that looks like this...

 

[oz_mark]

Wow, familiar looking place of the world. Back in the day, I was involved working at some operations at DavyHurst and Siberia/Sandking.

I remember there being sizeable Sandalwood operations in the area. (Where I use "in the area" in WA terms!)

 

[JohnM]

Moving along.

After poking about in the bush, I headed to Menzies. The Evanston-Menzies road is a good dirt road typical of the area. It was easy to drift up to 125 or so...



Menzies, quiet at the best of times, was morgue-like.



Menzies lies centrally on the Golden Quest Discovery Trail (Home - Golden Quest Discovery Trail). The region was peppered with gold-rush towns, many very substantial, around the turn of the 20th century. Most vanished once the easily-worked near-surface gold was exhausted and major capital was required to continue as deep-mining.



Menzies is also the jumping-off point for Lake Ballard and its sculptures (Antony Gormley’s “Inside Australia” - Lake Ballard). Well worth a visit IMO.

I then continued to the 'living ghost town' of Kookynie (https://www.westernaustralia.com/my/Destination/Kookynie/56b267a82cbcbe7073ae1868#/).

It was very quiet, and although the Grand Hotel had 'Open' on the door, I had to social-distance from the other customer who resolutely refused to budge.



Then back to camp, encountering a mob of wild donkeys on the way. They looked like masked bandits with the white around their eyes.



And that's it.

 

[Daver6]

If only you were stuck on the inside of the pub like I was

 

[RooFlyer]

Of course Broad Arrow was the setting for the Nickel Queen

 

[Major]

Is there any gold fossicking going on in this area ?