Day 31 – 19th June – Part I – Wittenoom

Happy Birthday Vicki!  Today is your turn for the kids to send you some love… 

From the Auski Roadhouse we turned westward to skirt the northern edge of Karijini National Park.  Our first stop of the day, Wittenoom.  It was only recently that we learned the mining of asbestos occurred inside a gorge. 

Here’s a sign leading into the gorge… 

At some point all the roads in the area were paved, however, after 40 years of neglect the roads and creek crossings were looking a little worse for wear.  We made it a few kilometres towing the camper before we decided it was too risky… so we simply backed the trailer into the bush and dumped it there… fingers crossed it would still be there when we came back out ;) 

As you drive into the gorge there are a few water holes before you reach the mine at the end… 

What happens when you explore a track and it turns out to be a dead end with nowhere to turn around?  You have to reverse all the way back out… most of it without side mirrors because the track was so narrow...

This is the view while going through a creek crossing.  These guys had a prime location for camping.  We found them walking along the road further up, they were also looking for some mine remnants 

We eventually came to the mining operation end of the gorge.  The first sign, this massive slag pile down the side of the gorge.  

We managed to get in closer to the slag pile but they have piled mounds of dirt to stop you going any further.  If there are any old buildings or mining equipment it would be back behind these mounds.  We would liked to have seen them but were unwilling to walk around this area with the kids… there are blue chunks of asbestos through the gravel you walk on… Probably hard to see in this photo but anything with a blue tinge is asbestos:

A bit further up the gorge you come to the mine settlements.  You can see the concrete pads of the houses and the not-so-native plants they had planted in their backyards.  The other guys we met said they found the cricket pitch… We found a foundation of a building with a fancy stone wall and across the way was a massive stone plinth… our guess is this was the power station.

Here’s a rock at one of the creek crossings… you can see the bands of asbestos through it