Australia So Much to See
The Koorarawaylee Rest Area is a large
flat area, with a bitumised area close to the toilets and dump point, bins and fire pit circles. Also plenty of space for parking
amongst trees further back, which we chose, as we decided to stay there for the night.
We parked alongside a low breakaway,
and on climbing to top I found an array of wildflower including several orchids. Being almost 400 metres from the highway, traffic
noise was audible but not enough to disturb sleep. Trains were barely heard in the distance. This is set up as a 24 hour
rest area.
This rock water collection channel and dam was also built to supply water for steam trains.
Goldfields colourful history, gold mines, and a rich array of wildflowers
Boorabbin-Koorarawaylee Rest Area
May be Dodonaea inaequifolia below left and Dodonaea microzyga below right.
Just before reaching the Sandy Ridge Mine turnoff, there is a memorial rest area truck stop on the south side of the road, with toilets and bins. Although not a designated 24 hour rest area, some caravanners have stopped here overnight, but unless you find suitable tracks back into the scrub, it would not be quiet, being close to the highway and with heavy haulage trucks stopping, and there are quieter unserviced rest areas and blue metal dump sites along the highway.
The main reason for stopping here is a monument
to three truck drivers who lost their lives in a bushfire in December 2007. Walk trail of about 300 metres leads to the monument
and information board about this tragedy.
Being on the busy east west route, the main way for transporting goods between the
east and the west, closure of the road during a bushfire was significant and frustrating for those held up on the road. The
highway was opened to allow a small convoy of trucks to travel westwards. Conditions changed, and they found themselves driving
into an inferno, with no way to turn their big units around. Tragically three men lost their lives near here. There are
also three white crosses on the highway marking the spot.
Goldfields Woodlands National Park adjoins the Boorabbin National Park, both of which lie within the Great Western Woodlands, which
is the largest remaining area of intact Mediterranean climate woodland left on earth.
Boorabbin area takes its name from the Aboriginal name for a rock, although the meaning is now obscure.
Koorarawaylee Dam
The former railway dam at Koorarawaylee is about one kilometre north north west of the camping area, or by
driving an indirect route. We did not visit. C.C. Hunt built a well in the vicinity in 1865, when it was known at that
time as Quardanoolagin and later as Quardagin. In the 1897, a dam was constructed, fed by channels from Koorarawaylee Rocks,
to provide water for the steam trains on the Perth to Kalgoorlie line.