To "up land" We Go

Thursday, 15-9-2011

Finally left Pinjarra and headed inland again and the first "up" town we found was Dwellingup. "Up" at the end of the names means "place of", and every second name seems to end with "up" in the bottom part of WA. As it was raining heavily we passed through and proceeded to Boddington, Bannister and then stopped at Wandering for lunch in the park in the cold wind and misty rain. Not much to see in these little towns.

We called into Pingelly but apart from some nice old buildings, there was not much there. We continued down the Southern Highway where we found Popanyinning and a great little caravan park, "Laze Away", on a farm about 4kms from town with all kinds of animals, wombat, kangaroos, peacocks, pigs, sheep, cows, chooks, ducks, geese and cats and dogs, of course.

Next day we moved southwards to Narrogin, but no where to stay so we continued on to Highbury for lunch and then we found Wagin, pron. Wait-jen. They have an RV area at the 

showground where we could have power and water for $8 per night. From there we had a drive to Arthur River and then spent the next few days in Wagin as the weather turned cold and wet. Wagin is also home to the Big Ram but it is not as big as Goulburn's Big Merino. On Thursday we packed up and travelled passed Woodanilling and then to Katanning where there are many lovely, old and impressive buildings. Katanning was and is still a very prosperous agricultural area, with large grain, sheep and wool handling facilities. Apparently there was a small earthquake at approximately 1.00 pm on Friday while we were having a lovely roast lunch at the pub, roast pork or

Wagin, WA

lamb and pavlova for $10. No wonder we didn't notice the earthquake. Katanning also has an adult sized playground which I couldn't resist trying.
Kojonup was our next stop where they have an RV area in the old railway precinct across the road from the Info Centre. Lots of great wildflower drives and walks around Kojonup, the best being "Myrtle Benn Flora & Fauna Reserve". Myrtle was a teacher who encouraged her students to preserve the area to protect the flora and fauna. This was really the start of our wildflower search. From Kojonup we were able to take a drive to Broomehill, Tambellup and Gnowangerup. Gnowangerup's hotel, which was closed for renovations, was apparently once owned by Ned Kelly's sister. Back at Kojonup there is a Rose Maze with plaques which record the lives of three pioneering women of the area, one aboriginal, one english and the other italian. They all had similar problems, troubles and joys in their hard lives in the early days of the area. Unfortunately we were a bit early to see the roses in full bloom.



Cranbrook was our next resting place. Nice little country town with friendly people, clean, cheap caravan park and lots of wildflowers. From Cranbrook we took a drive through the Stirling Ranges where we saw great views of the area and many wildflowers. We visited several art and craft displays, photography displays and several smaller towns including Tenderden and Amelup where we found an old dutch style windmill which was originally a flour mill.