I got to Halls Creek early on Thursday afternoon and just as I pulled up at the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) station a weather balloon took off from behind the building. I watched it rise and slowly move south east. I walked around the building and saw my friend David Murray behind some contraption that is used to manually track the balloon. Once he had finished his tasks he bade me inside the station and explained the intricacies of making the weather to me.
David and I used to work together in the snow making department in Thredbo about 20 years ago. Now he is in charge of the weather station in Halls Creek. This is a job with a lot of responsibilities and requires a great degree of accuracy and timeliness. After all, the data collected is used to inform pilots of the weather, in addition of working out forecasts and measuring climate change. There is a beeper that comes on every half an hour reminding David to log his observations that he gathered over the past half hour, which includes stepping outside to watch the clouds and scan the horizon for dust devils. About an hour later David went to another section of the station, further away from the building, to take readings of evaporation rate, air temperature, ground temperature and underground temperature. I can report that the air was 39 degrees Celsius, the ground surface was the same, but, to my surprise, even one metre underground it was still a hot 35 degrees. David explained to me that technically Halls Creek has too much annual rainfall, with an average annual rainfall of 530 millimetres, to be classified as desert, but because of the high evaporation rate of about 3 metres per year there is a great deficit that creates the desert conditions.
After David knocked off for the day we went to his house, which he gets as part of the BOM job. It is very large, with a sizeable garden in which he grows all sorts of veg and herbs. I settled into the guest room, while David went off to hospital to get a minor procedure performed; if you want the gory details visit his facebook page... When he came back he was too sore to go out, so we had dinner at home.
On Friday morning I got up at 5 AM and had my breakfast in David's garden, watching the various birds that he attracts with his plants. Once we were all fed and watered David took me for a tour of the local Halls Creek attractions in his 35 year old Subaru, that has a proud 437,000 kilometres on the clock.
We left Halls Creek on the Duncan Road, formerly known as the Duncan Highway. After about 15 km this takes you to Old Halls Creek, the site of the original town before it was moved closer to the air field. There is not much remaining. The street signs are still there and the spots where the businesses were are marked with rock cairns and plaques (if they haven't been stolen). The only building that still partially exists is the old Post Office. It is now protected with a tin roof over the top and a chicken wire fence around it. The buildings were all built from Adobe, made from mashed up termite hills and spinifex grass. This is not a material that stands up to wet weather very well, so when the tin roofs were moved to the new town the remaining walls of the old town soon deteriorated into oblivion.
From Old Halls Creek David took me "along the back way" to Lake Komatpillar; the name is apparently the combination of the Komatsu excavator and Caterpillar bulldozer that were used to build the dam. The back way took us first to an abandoned open cut gold mine with a lake at its bottom.
After that we kept going past several "Danger Keep Out" signs further towards the lake. The track was quite rough, but David and his trusted Subaru navigated it with great skill and determination. Here is a short video showing how to navigate a hole despite limited ground clearance:
We arrived at the lake at about 9 o'clock in the morning and it was absolutely stunning. It is a perfect place to set up camp, swim, canoe and generally chill out. Because David was still rather sore after his operation, and not allowed to get his wound wet, he was restricted to only getting his feet wet. I took some photographs for you before we headed on to our next attraction.
The next stop was Sawpit Gorge, which you can see from a long way away on the Duncan Road. It is a popular camping spot and while we were there a couple arrived with their four wheel drive and camping trailer to set up camp for a day. David and I moved on to what he calls the "secret water hole". This is a small water hole not far from Sawpit Gorge, in a small hidden valley, covered by trees and crystal clear water. This is where we stopped for a break and I had a refreshing dip.
After our break we headed back towards Halls Creek, stopping off at Palms Spring, a spring that runs year round into a water hole that is surrounded with an ancient species of palm. Nearby is a small swampy area that in the times of the old town was used to house a market garden. We explored the old buildings there and found some fruit growing on trees that we didn't recognise. I cut one in half and licked it. It tasted very sweet, but I wasn't brave enough to eat it. If anyone knows what it is, please let me know.
Closer to Halls Creek we visited yet another water hole, which was the most ordinary of all the ones we visited, so I already forgot its name and I didn't take any pictures. However, we did visit another local attraction called the China Wall. This is a wall of large quartz rocks that runs along a north/south ridge. Because the quartz is harder than the surrounding rock it doesn't erode as quickly, which led to this spectacular formation, which almost looks man made.
When we got back into town we went to the shops and I took up the challenge laid down by the butcher shop. As I sit here and write this post there is a fatty, tasteless leg of lamb in the oven, trying to be turned into a tasty roast dinner, one of which I haven't had for over three months because no of the places I stay in on my travels has an oven.
Tomorrow I will continue on my way around Australia and drive to Broom, which means getting back to the coast after two weeks out back.
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| Halls Creek BOM Station It is a radar tower, not a minaret |
David and I used to work together in the snow making department in Thredbo about 20 years ago. Now he is in charge of the weather station in Halls Creek. This is a job with a lot of responsibilities and requires a great degree of accuracy and timeliness. After all, the data collected is used to inform pilots of the weather, in addition of working out forecasts and measuring climate change. There is a beeper that comes on every half an hour reminding David to log his observations that he gathered over the past half hour, which includes stepping outside to watch the clouds and scan the horizon for dust devils. About an hour later David went to another section of the station, further away from the building, to take readings of evaporation rate, air temperature, ground temperature and underground temperature. I can report that the air was 39 degrees Celsius, the ground surface was the same, but, to my surprise, even one metre underground it was still a hot 35 degrees. David explained to me that technically Halls Creek has too much annual rainfall, with an average annual rainfall of 530 millimetres, to be classified as desert, but because of the high evaporation rate of about 3 metres per year there is a great deficit that creates the desert conditions.
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| David making the weather |
After David knocked off for the day we went to his house, which he gets as part of the BOM job. It is very large, with a sizeable garden in which he grows all sorts of veg and herbs. I settled into the guest room, while David went off to hospital to get a minor procedure performed; if you want the gory details visit his facebook page... When he came back he was too sore to go out, so we had dinner at home.
On Friday morning I got up at 5 AM and had my breakfast in David's garden, watching the various birds that he attracts with his plants. Once we were all fed and watered David took me for a tour of the local Halls Creek attractions in his 35 year old Subaru, that has a proud 437,000 kilometres on the clock.
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| Unbreakable (both of them) |
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| Ruins of Old Halls Creek Post Office |
From Old Halls Creek David took me "along the back way" to Lake Komatpillar; the name is apparently the combination of the Komatsu excavator and Caterpillar bulldozer that were used to build the dam. The back way took us first to an abandoned open cut gold mine with a lake at its bottom.
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| Disused gold mine |
We arrived at the lake at about 9 o'clock in the morning and it was absolutely stunning. It is a perfect place to set up camp, swim, canoe and generally chill out. Because David was still rather sore after his operation, and not allowed to get his wound wet, he was restricted to only getting his feet wet. I took some photographs for you before we headed on to our next attraction.
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| Scenes from Lake Komatpillar |
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| Sawpit gorge from afar... |
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| ...and close up |
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| Taking a dip in crystal clear water out in the desert |
After our break we headed back towards Halls Creek, stopping off at Palms Spring, a spring that runs year round into a water hole that is surrounded with an ancient species of palm. Nearby is a small swampy area that in the times of the old town was used to house a market garden. We explored the old buildings there and found some fruit growing on trees that we didn't recognise. I cut one in half and licked it. It tasted very sweet, but I wasn't brave enough to eat it. If anyone knows what it is, please let me know.
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| Does anyone know what this is? |
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| Palms Spring |
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| China Wall (each boulder is about as high as a person) |
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| A powerful marketing message |
It looks like a "Kakadu Plum".
ReplyDeleteThanks Hels, you are quite a botanist!! I looked up Kakadu Plum on Wikipedia and it fits the description pretty well.
DeleteDidn't you say they were deadly Hels?
Delete