An outback trek like no other

22 Sep 2021

Geraldton Probus Club set off on a 4-day adventure, travelling 2,000KM. The Outback trek started along the Chapman Valley and on to the Mullewa-Carnarvon Road. Road conditions were fairly good all the way up to Murchison and the Wildflowers were spectacular; with almost 100km continuous display of wildflowers as the Club approached Murchison Settlement. They then continued travelling on the Wool Wagon Pathway to Gascoyne Junction and extensive road works on the last 100km made navigating the road somewhat difficult. Darkness was falling and as they were the last 4wd on the convoy rough terrain and driving at dusk and into the sun required some concentration.  Wandering cattle in the middle of the pathway also did not help! The group of travellers stopped overnight in Gascoyne Junction and enjoyed the local hospitality with a welcome dinner and enjoyable refreshment. 

The next day, they continued their journey by travelling the pathway of the Kingsford Smith Mail run. They halted their journey to tour the magnificent Kennedy Range National Park. This was a truly awesome place to visit with many places to walk and explore such as Honeycomb Gorge. The abundance of beautiful wildflowers added a further degree of magnificence to the enjoyment of the visit!  After the visit to the Kennedy Range National Park, they continued their pathway along the Mail run to reach their next destination of Mt. Augustus, a massive monocline and said to be the biggest in the world.  Much to see at Mt. Augustus including Cattle pool, which was full of water from recent rains, and this gave a perfect setting for the beautiful feature of many very old and stunningly beautiful gum trees.  Some Trek members embarked on interesting walks in the vicinity of the Mount whilst other members took the opportunity to investigate some of the other features to be found around the Rock. 

Next day they continued on their way, this time to Meekatharra, which was to be their last overnight stop before they travelled the Great Northern Highway back to Geraldton. On the way they made a stop and visited at the Mt. Gould lock up. The Mt. Augustus to Meekatharra Road was surprisingly good with a lot of recent roadwork and quite a bit of new bitumen road. They understood that these road improvements were a consideration for the arrival of thousands of racegoers who are likely to arrive for the October Landor race meeting.    

The trek from Mt. August to Meekatharra also included a stopover at the Landor racetrack. As frequent visitors already know this racetrack is located in a truly remote part of the Outback. Cashed up racegoers might like to embark on alternative ways of travel to this Outback race meeting as there is an airstrip close to the racecourse and you could come in on a Helicopter.

Some readers might not know how this race came about and how it got started. Here is the story.

The Landor Races are the Eastern Gascoyne Race Club’s traditional bush race meeting. The meeting is held annually at the racecourse near Landor Station. The meeting has a colourful history and truly Outback flavour.

All members of the Trek thanked Russ who planned the trek and had the role of major Director of travel on the second ever Outback Trek. The group thanked both for a memorable and enjoyable journey and to all the drivers for a safe return back to Geraldton.