The breeze is a bit cool of a morning, but lovely days. We are not far from the town centre and there is a walk along the Avon River to the edge of town which is about 1 km.
The Toodyay Caravan Park. It’s not busy, it is surprisingly quiet considering it is on the rail line. The wheat trains are a little noisy but they don’t go all the time. There is the 3.10 to Yuma – ….only kidding, that’s an old western movie :)
The river is very low at this time of year and there are a couple of Stilts and Pacific Black Ducks in the shallows. There is kayak access from the caravan park, but after having a look, it is too low for us to kayak along. The walk meets up with a small train line which runs on Sundays and leads to a lovely park with the mini railway station, BBQ’s and playground. It has the best climbing frame that I have ever seen. It is shaped like a christmas tree and even has suspended seats in it.
There is a very high bridge over the Avon River which floods. The town was originally called Newcastle but when their mail consistently went to NSW, the name was changed. I don’t think that they managed their new choice of name any better, as the spelling and pronunciation is just as confusing. The original settlement was further down river but after floods was moved to the present site.
There are lots of heritage buildings and it was pleasing to see that the IGA was built with stylized heritage. Northampton did this exceptionally well. It doesn’t take much to make a modern building compliment the surrounding area, rather than fight against it. I only hope that they have the commonsense to do this with the Maclean IGA.
Christmas 360 – what a Christmas wonderland. This is the first dedicated Christmas shop that I have ever visited. It was just lovely. It is worth going to just to see all the wonderful figurines. The shop front had animated elves workshop, just like Myer used to do when we were kids. Inside was filled with every conceivable thing for Christmas. There must have been millions of dollars of stock. There was a animated reindeer with a mixing bowl of white frost and it was $3,000 and it was only about 800cm high. I can’t imagine the cost of the larger life like figurines and even more who would buy these things. In any case, it was a beautiful store to view. You could buy items under $2, so it was a store for everyone. Your purchase came in a Christmas gift bag which was a nice touch.
Toodyay is a weekend motor bike destination and there can be 200 bikes at the Cola Cafe which has 50’s decor.
I loved the story of Connors Mill. Daniel Connor stole sheep in Ireland and was sentenced to 7 years in the colony. He came out as a convict, but within one year he was given a ticket of leave and set on the path to riches. He married, bought land, built a mill and became one of the richest land owners in the district before moving to Perth. Unfortunately he died aged 66, but that was probably a good age for the time. If he had stayed honest and in Ireland, he most probably would have been very poor. The luck of the Irish. He must have been blessed with the blarney, to have only served one out of seven.
Friday 14th – visit to Northam –fine, sunny, breezy some cloud.
We drove over to Northam via the tourist drive. Northam is 27 kms from Toodyay.
Glenfield is heritage listed and is for sale….. what a nightmare restoring this homestead would be.
(R/E photo)
Northam – suspension bridge, one of the longest, crosses the Avon River. The starting point for the Avon Descent is just down river from here. The Avon Descent is a kayak race when the river is in full flow and there are many obstacles with several rapids. In 1991 a young kayaker died near the Katrine Causeway.
We went over to Northam to order a new roof top bag, as our old faithful is falling apart. Northam is second only to Fremantle with the number of heritage buildings. We did some shopping and browsing and travelled back via Clackline and the Avon Valley National Park.
We had intended to go and camp at the National Park, but have decided to stay here at Toodyay. There was only one or two sites at the NP that we could fit the trailer in. If they are taken for the weekend, then we have a problem, plus there are no walks at all in the park. We now know why, another small issue, the national park was used between 1959 and 1966 as a live ammunition range and you are warned that there are unexploded ammunitions in the park. I wonder what the kangaroo’s think of that? That would be boing boing bang!
We will have to stay in the area for about a week awaiting the replacement roof bag. We plan to head over to York in a few days as it is also only about 30 kms from Northam and there are heaps of scenic drives in the area. At that point we will spend more time in Northam doing the heritage building walk.
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