DAY 13 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip, SNAKE HILL – MALCOLM DAM

12 March 2008


DAY 13 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

SNAKE HILL – MALCOLM DAM

What a lovely day today
Although I’d like to give the heat away
The hot refrain is with us again
It has hit forties once again
As we head slowly north
Whilst striving forth
On gibber tracks and roads
Past mulga scrub in loads

“Inside Australia” we dropped in
To see Gromley’s carbonised steel figures sunk in
Like antennas in Ballard Salt Lake’s ba-sin
They walk in the water, or so it would seem
As rain in the area there has much been
Not easy to walk on the salty lake bed
As feet slip and sink in the muddy lake bed



After some dips in Niagara Dam
Wandered if it will be the same at Malcolm Dam
Then to Niagara the town that has been
And to Kookynie likewise it seems
Like blazing trails of passing comets
They rose and fell as well known sonnets

Along Old Laverton Road we go
Looking for signs that will tell us where to go
Finally turn left and three K to go
To sit by the water and nowhere else need I go



You must be wandering what is “Inside Australia”. It is an incredible instillation of 51 life size sculptures by an English Born artist, Anthony Gromley on a salt lake 51 km from Menzies. They were obviously installed when the lake was empty as we could only get to a few of them. The rest were way out in the water.

DAY 12 KALGOORLIE - SNAKE HILL

11 March 2008

DAY 12 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip

Today it started to warm up again.

Last night we finally solved the question of how to post photos. So I spent some time in the library today updating all the postings. So please have a look over previous posts as the photos are now on. Also we really enjoy receiving comments from you. Please keep them up.

After the library a visit to the post office was necessary as I finally finished making a baby shawl. I packed it and all other wool I had taken with me and posted them to my daughter. It is just too hot to knit or crotchet as we travel. I also finally drew up the templates for our Dye Hards friendhip quilt blocks. I posted them as well as the postcards to the older granchildren. Since we first started travelling in our Oka in August 2004 I have sent the grandkids a postcard from every town we visit (if they had postcards of the town) so that they could plot our trip on a map that we had left with them of Australia. This way they were being introduced to many parts of Australia. I still do this.

Back to Kalgoorlie and our trip. I really like Kalgoorlie. The locals are very friendly. The town is clean and lots of bougainvilleas are in bloom wherever you look. After another visit to Kalgoorlie Oka to pick up a few additional spares we left in the afternoon. We pulled up at the Miner’s Hall of Fame. It was so hot and we were just too mentally tired to spend a couple of hours having a look. So we pushed north.

A road sign alerted us to possible road trains of up to 53.5 metres long. Hope we don’t run into any of those today.

Stopped at Menzies and then continued onto Snake Hill via Sandstone Road.



What a beautiful view from here of Lake Ballard. More importantly – it had a considerable amount of water. I think we were witnessing a rather rare event as the lake was last full from March to July in 1995. Before that, since European settlement, it has only been full in 1929, 1963, July 1973 and 1974, May 1975 and September 1986. From where we were it looked full. Lake Ballard is listed on the Register of the National Estate as it is deemed to be a nationally significant ecosystem to be protected.


We decided to spend the night here. After the accordion had a few repairs done I was serenaded as the sun set and the meal was being cooked.