Perth Trip 2022, Days 1-2: Heading east

We’ve sort of lost our travel blogging mojo of late, partly of course because we haven’t travelled so much since the pandemic started in early 2020, but mostly because we started this blog primarily as a way of sharing our trips with Mum and Dad. With their having both now died, my inspiration has failed a bit. However, it is a good record for us and there are other family and friends who like to read it, so here we are again, reporting this time on our little one week trip to Perth and environs.

We chose Perth for our first “big” trip since COVID, largely to see a friend who’s chronically unwell and unable to travel. We knew it wasn’t guaranteed, and as it has turned out the risks are too great given his current state of health, so we will not get to see him. There were, though, other reasons for heading west, and so we will share those with you.

Day 1, Arrival in Perth, and then York

Being fit “elderlies”, we started our trip the old-fashioned way. That is, we walked to the station from our Ivanhoe apartment, got the train to Southern Cross Station, and then the airport express bus to Tullamarine. We could have Ubered/taxi-ed of course, but where’s the fun in that?

Our Qantas flight got off about 30 minutes or more late, and then there was a delay on the tarmac at Perth airport (lightning, apparently, made it too dangerous for the aerobridge to operate) so we disembarked about 40 minutes late. Then it was the baggage. So-o-o slow, and our bags were in the last bunch, meaning we didn’t get them until over 40 minutes after we’d disembarked. The most efficient part of it all was picking up the hire car. That took all of about 5 minutes, and, finally we were off. Also efficient were my blogger friend Bill’s (The Australian Legend) instructions to the lunch place he suggested. We hadn’t met before but have known each other so long through blogging that conversation was easy – and, all being well, we’ll meet again before we leave Perth next week.

I had previously told Bill about our little three-day road trip plan, and he, who knows WA roads very well, provided us with a suggested route. This, he told us, would take us past the Perth suburb of Darlington where, in 1922, DH Lawrence and his wife Freda, stayed at the guesthouse owned by the Australian writer, Mollie Skinner. In fact, Lawrence’s 1924 novel, The boy in the bush, is set in Western Australia, and is derived from a story in a manuscript given to him by Skinner. The first edition’s title page shows the authors as being “D. H. Lawrence and M. L. Skinner”, though later editions just show Lawrence.

Bill also said that our route would have us turning off the Great Eastern Highway just south of Wooroloo, which is where Elizabeth Jolley had her farm (about which she wrote in her idiosyncratic, but-I-loved-it, “memoir”, Diary of a weekend farmer, about which I posted on my blog.)

We arrived at our destination, York, which is on Ballardong Nyoongar land and is described in settler history as “Australia’s oldest inland town”. It was an easy, but somewhat damp drive from Perth. We dined on traditional country food in a traditional restaurant that night. It was Roast Lamb for me!

Day 2, Wildflowers galore

Today’s plan was to focus on wildflowers, and having woken early due to a little case of jet lag, we started with a before-breakfast walk along York’s originally named Avon River. It was cool, but pleasant, and we enjoyed seeing the unfamiliar-to-us Australian Ringneck parrot (or Twenty-eight), as well as more familiar birds like thornbills, wrens, galahs, and others.

After breakfasting in a local cafe, we headed off for our first wildflower drive of the day towards Wallaby Hills Reserve. We based our day’s adventure on the excellent “Experience York: Wildflowers, Birds and Reserves” leaflet. Besides all the wildflowers, there were swathes of canola fields, which, whatever you feel about canola, provide glorious colour, particularly in the sort of semi-sunny-partly-grey-day light we had today.

But, here’s the thing about wildflower spotting. Some you can see easily from the car, while others, like small orchids and the tiny ground-hugging plants, you only see if you stop the car to get out, which makes it all a bit hit and miss. Adding to the challenge is that it was a very gusty day – and sometimes very bright – both of which make photography tricky. Why is it that just when you get set up to photograph a flower, a gust comes up? (Another challenge is separating out the wildflowers from the introduced species/weeds.)

While we are definitely not experts, we have been looking at wildflowers for a few decades now, first in the Southern Californian deserts and then in Kosciuszko National Park. We know many families, such as leptospermums, banksias, fabacea, acacia, hibbertia, melaleuca, hakea, and so on, but over here we discovered new families too, which is always fun (at least, it is to me) though I despair of remembering them all.

Between checking out wildflower reserves and designated “good wildflower roadsides”, we also drove up Wongarel/Mt Brown Reserve to check out the recommended lookout. It was worth the little detour. We appreciated that the signage gave the local First Nations name, Wongarel, first, and also told the local story about the formation of the landscape. It seems that this approach is increasingly becoming the standard and what we expect – and so, slowly, does change happen.

We took a break from our wildflower hunting to have lunch – at the Greenhills Inn, a double storey Federation-style building, built in 1906 by one of Western Australia’s first female publicans, Mary Ann McMullen. En route there, we came across a little historic site featuring a well maintained bakery building. It was owned by Herbert Taylor who lived in Greenhills from 1897 to1909, and is the only remaining building from this area of the townsite. There is, however, also evidence of a blacksmith’s shop and water tank.

After lunch, we continued our wildflower hunt, focusing on areas west and north of York, like Wambyn Reserve and St Ronan Reserve. I loved hopping in and out of the car, flower spotting, but without a good wildflower guide I haven’t managed, yet, to identify all that we saw. What you see in the slide-show is a small proportion of the photos we took. Be thankful we spared you the lot!

For dinner, we went to an other historical building, back in York, the 1886-built Imperial Homestead. I should explain that York was recommended to us by reading group friend Paula who knows my preference for interesting inland sights over the beach! She recommended well because York is a small, but beautiful little town. Anyhow, the Imperial proved to be friendly, but entertaining. I ordered the Lamb Rack. “How do you want it?” I was asked, “medium, medium well?” “Actually”, I said, “medium rare”. “Chef doesn’t do medium rare”, was the reply. “Medium, then, I guess”, I said because what else could I say. Fortunately, it was fine. Not medium rare, but certainly not over cooked either. This was just one of the little things that happened. Like last night’s dining place, the Imperial was busy, which surprised us given we saw few people when we were out and about sightseeing.