On the bus

20 Sep 2013

The Kalgoorlie/Boulder Combined Probus hop on the bus and toured around the area.

The day was full of fantastic fun, friendship, fellowship and frivolity! Not to mention the scintillating scenic sight seeing, the tastebud titillating and tantalising tucker and engineering masterpieces both old and new.

The tour captain picked up the 12-seater and trailer from Racy Rentals at 7am and set about the pickups. The last pickup was completed before 9:00 and the trip began.

First stop was Coolgardie to check out the shiny new high tech, musical/talking toilet.

About 120km down the track a picnic spot in the bush was utilised for a short break, followed by a brief visit to the nearby Boondi Rock.

All along the track the group constantly travelled alongside or crossed the world first C.Y O’Connor engineering masterpiece, the Mundaring to Kalgoorlie pipeline.

But another engineering feat, the Perth to Kalgoorlie railway, beat that pipeline by around five or so years. So what did these trains run on? Steam! That’s what. The group learnt about it all along their travels.

So how did they produce the steam? By burning Collie coal to boil water, that’s how. So where did the water come from? There was no pipeline then.

Throughout the Goldfields and Wheatbelt, water runoff was captured from the many granite outcrops and funnelled into tailor-made dams. Boondi Dam happens to be a classic example of the type of engineering utilised in the late 19th century, not only for producing steam power but for human consumption as well.

Diesel and diesel/electric displaced steam power on the railway some 60-plus years ago and these water supplies fell into disuse some 50 to 60 years before that. Such was the quality of the engineering involved in the construction of these facilities that many are still functioning, though for no purpose other than a tranquil picnic spot or handy break on the long drive between Kalgoorlie and Perth.

Back on the bitumen then and the next stop was at the lookout on the hill overlooking Southern Cross for a quick glimpse of that town and the surrounding farmlands and lakes whilst the captain phoned ahead to Bodallin to warn of the group’s imminent arrival.