Gosnells RSL Hall, 2 Mills Road East, Martin WA 6110 pr@wa4wda.com.au 0418 904 844

Adventure 4WD Club – Harvey Day Trip (September 2022)

Did you know? One of Harvey’s main attractions is Stirling Cottage, built by the first Governor of Western Australia. The cottage was famously the home of May Gibbs, author of beloved children’s storybook characters, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. The original cottage fell into disrepair and a replica now features extensive gardens, tearooms, and a dedicated display to May Gibbs’ stories. Harvey is also the heart of dairy country, providing the bulk of WA’s milk supply, plus orange juice, beef and increasingly wine.

Sunday dawned a perfect morning for the 1.5 hour drive south, with sunshine and 15 degrees, although we were hearing reports of storms and even hail back in the city. We met at 8.30am at the Harvey Bakery and sampled the local wares, good reports on the chilli dog. Ange drew the short straw on the random number generator to be scribe. The convoy was:

  • Dave – trip leader – Landcruiser
  • Ange & Rob – scribe – Hilux
  • Glenn, Eli & Brayden – Rodeo
  • Paul & Cooper – Hilux
  • Mark, Imogen & Taja – tail end Charlie – Landcruiser

The rough plan was to circumvent the dam, picnic lunch with a view, visit a local farmer, and head back via Waroona Tavern for debrief. At 9am we headed back north for a few kms to Honeymoon Pool Road. The bush was  green and wildflowers aplenty, a lovely time to be out and about in WA. By 9.20am we were all aired down and on the tracks, right from the start slipping in the mud and a bit of a drop off. Taja had her first ever 4WDing experience with a nice sideways slide.

Pretty much awesome tracks everywhere we went, with the first views of the dam about 10am, looking very full with most of the dam side tracks under water after the winter rains. Dave gave it a good go but turned around after a few slides back towards the dam. Mark waded in to his thighs to confirm the track was becoming too gnarly and sensibly turned the convoy around to drive another day.

Spent half an hour on a very rutty hill climb ”short cut”, which really wasn’t, but lots of fun, a bit of road building and some screaming from Imogen and Taja. Lots of purple lavender in bloom and rivulets at the roadsides. Lunch stop just before 12 with water views, getting a bit more breezy and some grey clouds looming. Back on the road at 12.20, bidding farewell to Mark and the girls as they headed home. Met up with the farmer on the south side of the dam.

By 2.30pm we were aired up and heading for the pub. Another great outing with the Adventure 4WD Club.

Getaway 4WD Club – Mid-West Rock Tour (October 2023)

On an overcast morning we left home and headed to Gidgegannup Bakery, for the obligatory pies and coffee.
Once we were all acquainted with the lovely Lee, and were all fed and watered we all climbed into our respective vehicles and headed off. All on our way by 8.40am.
We arrived at Dowerin at around 10 am for a brief comfort stop, the weather is still overcast but not cold, we are back on our way (it really was a very brief stop).

Next stop Minivale, once a thriving community, now a ghost town. We arrived at the Minivale bak-ery at 10.30, unfortunately not a working bakery, but very interesting all the same. After poking around the old bakery we got back in our cars, and headed out to see what else we could find. We found an old church which was still in use, a campsite, and a huge silo, we met a couple that in-formed us that inside the silo was a train museum, the door was not locked and open to the public, so we went in, what was inside was a real treat. Inside were lots of carriages from passenger trains one of which was The Australind Express, High and low sided wagons, a Bogie Wheat Wagon, and the Rabbit Wagon used during the great depression to transport Rabbits to bring in food and money, unfortunately the poor bunnies were not considered to be perishable and arrive smelly and rotting! rabbit stew anyone!!! These are just a few of the wagons found in this remarkable museum, definite-ly worth a visit, a very good find.

At lunch time we arrived at our first rock, Carlbeon Rock, we had a good walk around, sun is shin-ing and the flies joined us for lunch.

Back in the vehicles we get to rock #2 Mollerin Rock, again we had a good look around and were back in the saddle around 2pm.

Beagleys Breakaway was our next stop at around 3.10pm, very speccy, stopped for photos and a quick inspection. Back in the vehicles we decided to take a detour to try to find a way to get to the top of a breakaway, we found a track after a bit of searching, and were rewarded with fabulous panoramic views.

Back in the saddle, now we need to find a campsite, on our way back we came to a steep decent which we decided to go down, happily we all made it, on the way to our camp for the night we came across Tampo Well, a government well which obviously we had to investigate.

We set up camp at BilliBurning Rock, we weren’t the only campers but we found a secluded area and set up.
The usual camp set up began, finding wood, lighting the fire, cooking dinner and talking rubbish before heading off to our beds, all in all a very good first day.

Getaway 4WD Club – Towards Serpentine (October 2023)

Mathieu and Genevieve led a fantastic trip with 14 vehicles leaving Craig Street, Mundaring at 08:30.

From Craig Street we turned onto Mundaring Weir Road, tail end Charlie Phil & Lee informing leader we were all on the right route.
First things first! The topic of milk was the first important chit chat for the day. There was a request for soy milk (no names will be mentioned, you know who you are). This wasn’t to be, although Mark did state he got up at day break to milk the oats for oat milk!
We’ll ponder that one Mark.

Whilst travelling along Mundaring Weir Road we were informed that the weir was previously known as Lake C.Y. O’Connor after the gentleman known for developing the pipeline between the weir and Kalgoorlie. It was also inter-esting to learn that Mundaring weir last overflowed in 1996. We continued until we turned left onto Ashendon Road hitting gravel. There was a disgruntled (feral) vehicle behind us but we soon turned left again on our way to Barton Mill making him a happy driver once again!

We stopped at Barton Mill for a look and to take photos. Genevieve gave an overview of the history which was very interesting. We continued on to Mt Dale driving through powerlines which went for miles. Along the way we observed some amazing flora; Za-mia palms Balga’s, Orchids, Purple Fringe Lilly’s, several species of trigger plants, just to name a few.

We arrived at Mt Dale to see amazing panoramic views and took photos. We enjoyed morning tea and a walk around seeing more beautiful flora including several stunning Enamel Orchids (thanks to the knowledge of Graham and Denise). We left Mt Dale at 11am with Genevieve again enlightening the entourage with fascinating historical tales.

We continued until we reached Brookton Highway turning left and then back onto dirt roads when we turned right onto Kinsella Road. We continued until we turned left into Gleneagle Road and stopped at the old town site for lunch. We all had a chit chat and continued on at 1310 leaving Gleneagle to turn left at Albany Highway and then anoth-er left onto Randal Road heading east.

We took another right onto Sullivan Road where there was a lot of new vegetation, flowers and a few kangaroos. We could see Sullivan rock in the distance before turning right back onto Albany Highway and a quick left onto Balmoral Road heading towards a POW/Internment camp for WW2 prisoners. Fascinating place with loads of history.

Back on the road……dirt……dust…… Back on bitumen and then stopping at the out-skirts of Jarrahdale at 3pm where the trip ended and to say thank you to Mathieu and Genevieve for organising an excellent trip.

Coming up in 2024 – Agenda

MonthDateDetails
February 2024Monday, 19thDelegates Meeting*
March 2024Wednesday, 6thEnvironmental Officer Meeting*
Monday, 18thDelegates Meeting*
April 2024Sunday, 7thKaarakin Clean Up #1
Monday, 15thDelegates Meeting*
Fri-Sun, 19th-21stAssociate Gathering – Whitegum Farms
May 2024Monday, 20thDelegates Meeting*
June 2024Sunday, 16thKaarakin Clean Up #2
Monday, 17thDelegates Meeting*
July 2024Monday, 15thDelegates Meeting
August 2024Monday, 19thAGM + Delegates Meeting
September 2024Wednesday, 4thPresident & Secretaries Meeting
Monday, 16thDelegates Meeting
October 2024Monday, 21stDelegates Meeting
Sunday, 27thKaarakin Clean Up #3
November 2024Fri-Sun, 8th-10thPerth 4WD & Adventure Show
Monday, 18thDelegates Meeting
December 2024Monday, 16thDelegates Meeting
*Meetings held at Gosnells RSL Hall

WA4WDA in the West Australian – December 2023

Refer to https://info.thewest.com.au/westadvertising/feature/17122023/page2.html

Coming up in 2023 – Agenda

January 2023Sunday, 22ndMovie night (Telethon Community Cinemas Murdoch)
February 2023Monday, 20thDelegates meeting
March 2023Wednesday, 15th
Monday, 20th
Environmental Officer Meeting
Delegates meeting
April 2023Sunday, 2nd
Monday, 17th
Kaarakin Cleanup Day
Delegates meeting
May 2023
Monday, 15th
Associate gathering weekend (club members only)
Delegates meeting
June 2023Sunday, 11th
Monday, 19th
Kaarakin Cleanup Day
Delegates meeting
July 2023Wednesday, 5th
Monday, 17th
Presidents & Secretary meeting
Delegates meeting
August 2023Monday, 21stAGM & Delegates meeting
September 2023Monday, 18thDelegates meeting
October 2023Monday, 16th
Sunday, 22nd
Delegates meeting
Kaarakin Cleanup Day
November 2023Friday-Sunday, 10th-12th
Monday, 20th
Perth 4WD & Adventure Show
Delegates meeting
December 2023Monday, 18thDelegates meeting

WA Road Stopping Places

For when you’re looking for coordinates of a resting place, throughout Western Australia, and other methods aren’t available (published books, apps, etc) you may download this Excel workbook which contains a comprehensive list of locations, sorted by region and shire.

The coordinates are as accurate as can be, the list was created by Main Roads WA.

Myrtle rust

Myrtle rust is a nasty plant pathogen that we do not have and do not want in WA.
It arrived in Australia in 2010 and since then has spread to all other States and Territories except SA and WA. If Myrtle rust has snuck into WA, spring is the perfect time for it to show up with its ‘high-viz’ spores!

Read more on the following websites, feel free to distribute the attached PDF.

Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.

Invasive Species Council

KOORDA 28th August 2021

The WA 4WD Association is running an event for the clubs at the Koorda Drive-in on Saturday 28th August 2021.  The movies Rams and American Graffiti will commence at 7pm and finish around 10.30pm.  Sponsorship has been sort from Make Tracks WA to cover the movies.

Gold coin donation per person to enter which will go to the RFDS.

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