So a little family history, my grandma went to school just outside of Southern Cross and they had a shop in Merredin.
So I had nothing booked for Easter weekend and decided to take a small trip down family lines and headed east towards Kalgoorlie and followed the Golden Pipeline trail.
I got to the shops Friday night and purchased stuff for lunch and a couple snacks and got up early on Easter Saturday to hit the road.
First stop for the morning was Meckering, where on the 14th October 1968 an earthquake ripped through the town. It may have only lasted 40 seconds but with a magnitude of 6.5 it moved the earth up to 1.5m.
After taking a few shots of Mallow with the train lines it was onto the next stop, chasing pipelines towards Kalgoorlie, to find an epic spot to get a photo of Mallow with the pipeline behind me and the Salmon Gums beside me.
Driving through/past Cunderdin and stopping next at Doodlakine, where I found the street I live on, and a beautiful old butcher shop, which is no more, but definitely some history! Such a tiny little town, but quite a few cars still around so must be a few people still living there. According to google 75 people still reside here. Very cute town.
Its amazing driving through our wheatbelt towns, so much history, makes you wonder what it used to look like? How many people have moved, farms that have changed hands and families, all the while, chasing the pipeline, over ground and looking for it when it disappeared underground.
So after Doodlakine I stopped in for lunch in Merredin, and checked out the shop my grandparents used to own, its a medical practice now, so has definately lost alot of the charm it would have once had. But was very cool to think I had family who used to once work there.
I wished I had taken a photo of my super yummy lunch!! I had a beautiful Casa loaf, tomatoes, ham, salami, pickled onions and mayo and my god it was so good! Washed down with a export. I reversed into a carpark in the shade, at the other end of the main part of town, pulled everything out, put it all together and sat on the grass in the shade! It was awesome!
I was stopped by a fella with a beautiful dog named Henry who asked about my car, how much I liked it, how good it was, how was she on fuel? ha ha ha He was very excited to know how much I love my car and how happy I was with her capabilities.
After checking out the town a bit I headed on down the road towards Southern Cross, dad had told me there was a small town, non existent anymore, remaining only by a sign and a plaque, so I was on the hunt.
I put the place – Corinthia – into my GPS and followed it to the exact location.
I found the location of Corinthia, the turn off is just before you enter into Southern Cross, on the way to Bullfinch. This is where my Grandmother went to school, I couldn’t find anything to show a town, couldn’t find any remnants of any buildings and couldn’t find the plaque on the rock dad had told me about. So what else is there to do but take some photos of my car surrounded by a massive rock formation.
As I was heading back to Southern Cross I came across a small dirt road and an even smaller road sign on the post to say it was 1.8km to Corinthia old school site! Slight skid and I turned around and down the road and came across the big sign and then the small plaque and big rock it was placed on.
Quite literally there isn’t anything else around it, some broken bits of glass, some rusted tin and a couple of sections of bricks level with the ground in this area. Its mostly flat, many trees around but no scrub.
It was incredible, not only was there a plaque for the location of the school, but this plaque showed the year the school opened, the first teacher at the school and the family names of those children who attended the school. My grandmothers name was there, dad didn’t even notice it before.
I was so glad to have found the location of the small little town, even though there wasn’t much left, it was nice to have seen where my history was from. On the way to Corinthia, the road actually goes right through the most amazing salt lake, absolutely huge but so impressive, the photos below don’t do it justice.
Left the location and headed into Southern Cross, bit of a drive around town and stopped for a pee break – much easier than bushes on the side of the road.
As I came out of the toilets I met a lovely couple in a very nicely set up ute, brother and sister, who were headed up to Mt Manning, Mt Helena and Mt Aurora. We talked about my car again also, and did I like it, how was she to travel with?
They invited me to come with them if I had no other plans, but I wasn’t set up to go camping. They told me how amazing it was, free camping and no amenities, but vast open spaces, ranges, star gazing and away from everyone. So this is a new place for me to explore at some stage!
After Southern Cross, I headed straight back to Perth.
What a brilliant day out, we really are the lucky country and we have such an amazing state!
Thanks for reading and happy exploring!
Bouncer & Mallow Adventures 