"Walkabout" to Bonnie Vale July 14, 1987
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I spent most of 1987 attending the Australian National University in Canberra as part of an "Education Abroad" Program that the University of California offered. The semester break at the ANU was in mid-July (their winter), so I figured I better go somewhere amusing or interesting or both. I didn't have any plans made up, so I went to the train station in Canberra and starting asking the ticket agent the cost to travel to various points in Australia. The first few places were just too expensive, so I asked about Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The price he mentioned was reasonable so I bought a ticket to Kalgoorlie on the spot. He seemed amused by my method of choosing a destination. Kalgoorlie is a big mining city in the thick of the middle of Western Australia, about a five hour train ride (or car) from Perth. I knew nothing about Kalgoorlie, but figured I would very soon. The real point of this trip was to journey across the Nullarbor Plain, a vast treeless, plane flat limestone plateau that stretches about 800 miles along the southern coast of Australia. This I knew about and it intrigued me. Plus, the train journey was well-known in its own right: the "Indian Pacific", which ran the entire route a handful of times a week. So really, Kalgoorlie was just a place to get off and from there, get back to Canberra.
The train left that night and made the overnight journey to Adelaide in South Australia, arriving in the early morning. I barely slept. The train didn't get moving again until that night so I had a full day in Adelaide to kill. I had some friends there so I sought them out at the youth hostel, and we palled around the city for about 10 hours, among our wanderings we watched a "footy" match: Australian Rules footy. Soon, it was getting close to dark and I headed back to the train, and began the 24-hour journey westward. The train just rumbles along at about 60 mph, and this leg was the equivalent of traveling from New Orleans to Phoenix, a long stretch, no doubt. I slept most of that night in my wooden seat, but I didn't miss much. When I awoke the next morning we were still way the heck away from Kalgoorlie in the middle of South Australia.
The train did make a stop for a couple hours in the town of Cook, South Australia. The rail-line is supported by small pre-fab towns that line the route about every 50-70 miles. Most are tiny settlements and just serve as a mail-stop or supply-stop. Cook, on the other hand, has about 100 people, and my guess is that most people who live here work for the railroad. There is no road access to these towns, aside from dirt tracks coming in from nowhere. It is extremely isolated out here. Back on the train we simply kept moving west, making a few short stops at other sidings. We arrived in Kalgoorlie around 9 p.m. and I was the only person to exit. I stayed in Kalgoorlie for two nights and one full day. The full day was spent walking around town. The "downtown" is pretty basic but clean and easy to get around. The fringes get pretty rough-looking pretty fast.
I needed to get to Coolgardie, a small town of about 500 people about an hour south of Kalgoorlie. Coolgardie had a youth hostel where I could stay for cheap, plus it was along the main highway where I could catch the bus back to Canberra. But there is no shuttle service from Kal to Cool, so I did something I had bever done before: drew up a "Coolgardie" sign, walked to the edge of town, and stuck out my thumb. A trucker pulled aside and gave me a lift. His name was Ted and he seemed pretty cool. I get the impression that hitching out here is commonly done, so I didn't feel too scared. In Coolgardie I walked to the hostel and set myself up there.
I stayed in Coolgardie almost a week. Unlike most youth hostels where there are dozens of people from all around the world and a constant change of faces, the people staying here tended to stay for a few days at least, and most seemed to be from Australia, so I got to know a few people in my short stay here. Also, the total number of people here was maybe 10, including the host. We all pitched in and helped around the grounds, which was basically an old big house. Amenities were basic but functional. It was in Coolgardie that I made a couple of "walkabouts", a slang term for bush hiking. One day I simply walked into the bush, heading south, for a solid hour, then walked back out north, eventually coming out to the main highway about 500 feet away from where I had entered. If was fun to test my nascent navigational skills.
On another day I got it into my head to walk along the road to the Bonnie Vale Railroad Siding, an 8-mile journey north of town. No reason, just wanted to walk! One of the guys at the hostel seemed interested so we set out for the journey one morning (the 14th of July. How do I know? I noted the date on the back of one photograph). The walk was up and down over paved and gravel road amid man-high West Ozzie brush. Periodically we'd surmount a rise and get a sort-of panoramic view of the countryside: continuous brush, as far as the eye could see, and no hills to speak of. After a couple hours we came to the siding where we had a lunch and rested. Then we started back. We got about half-way back when some locals out cutting wood saw us and gave us a lift into town. We had to sit on cut logs in the back of their ute (utility vehicle, what we call a small truck). Nevertheless it was a good walk and a lot of fun.
Finally, it was time to get back to Canberra. Classes started the following monday and here it was Sunday night. I got on the bus, which wasn't filled much, maybe just half-full. I had two seats to myself. The drive was very long and often tedious but interesting too. We eventually got onto the Eyre Highway, which runs along the south boundary of the Nullarbor. We'd stop every two or three hours at a small "town", or roadhouse. We'd change drivers, grab a bite, walk around or do whatever. One guy got tossed off the bus for drunkenness, so he was required to dry out at one of these little roadhouses for 24 hours; he could catch the next bus the next day. Bummer for him. Finally, 30 hours after baorading in Coolgardie, I got off in Canberra and walked back the two miles to my dorm room at ANU, arriving tuesday afternoon. A great trip!
 The road sign pointing back to Coolgardie.
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