October 2017: A Brief Trip into WA's Wheatbelt (Part 2)

After a pleasant night at Gnaala Mia we left driving east on Tomingly Road past the  Lions Dryandra Village . Turning right into Wandering-Narrogin Road we stopped at Cuballing for a morning cuppa in front of the Cuballing Tavern.

Still heading east through Wickepin there was a convoy of vans and camper trailers heading west home from the Kulin Races. Apparently there were upwards of 800 vans etc there for the weekend.

Our destination tonight was Yealering. This is another wheatbelt town that has provided a small caravan park to attract people. We turned north on the Wickepin-Corrigin Rd and parked up on the edge of Lake Yealering.

Surprisingly there weren't too many mosquitoes around. 

We walked up to the pub later that afternoon and had a beer there.

The caravan park is equipped with a Dump Point. An essential item and appreciated.

The next morning we drove up to the General Store and paid for our night in the CP. We headed east purposely taking the unsealed sandy minor roads. They are much more interesting and we see a lot more of the farming properties. We actually ended up coming into Jilakin Rock from the north which is where the Kulin races were held just a few days previously.

We then drove north-east to Karlgarin and stayed at Tressies Caravan Park. What a nice place, and what a fascinating private museum in one of its buildings.

We met up with another Bushtracker couple visiting from Newcastle in NSW.

We had two nights here and visited Hyden & Wave Rock. just a few kilometres down the road.

October 2017: A Brief Trip into WA's Wheatbelt (Part 1)

It was still a little cold but rumour had it that Spring was here and some wildflowers were out, so we decided to dust off the van and look around our own backyard.

We enjoy WA's Wheatbelt and we thought we would visit some more of these small towns that have built community caravan parks to attract people like us. 

However, the first night would be in a campsite called Gnaala Mia. It is in the Dryandra forest just next to Congelin and only a couple of hours away from home.

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/gnaala-mia-campground

We have been to Congelin many times, even before it was turned into a proper campsite by the Dept of Parks & Wildlife. Gnaala Mia is very new and we hadn't been there before.

There are sites for caravans, campers and tents and a very nice camp kitchen as well as drop toilets. Each campsite has its own firepit. Firewood was provided by the Rangers.

No power and no water, but that's OK by us. Our van has all we need.

There were only about 4 other campers there. It was nice and quiet.

In the morning light I took some photos of some of the wildflowers.

Our Time with Dick Smith Electronics

After I left ATC in 1994, I was Mr Mum for a couple of years and also spent some time instructing at the ATC College in Brisbane.

I had some lengthy discussions with one of the other Instructors whose brother-in-law had a Dick Smith Electronics shop in a WA country town.

DSE was just in the throes of allocating Franchises (as opposed to Stockist outlets) in some larger country towns and we put up our hand for one and were chosen to open a DSE Franchise in Mandurah, just outside the Perth Metro area.

It suited us very well and we opened in November 1998.

 



Our first day:

 

 

We certainly stocked up for Christmas sales, and post Christmas sales. Robyn and I would come in on Christmas day afternoon to put the stock out for Boxing Day.

 

 

Our annual conferences were just outstanding. We had such fun. One in Adelaide was a  Murder Mystery theme with all sorts of characters and shenanigans.

 

At these Conferences we were given previews of all the new products for Christmas and the coming 12 months.

 



DSE Head Office was kind enough to provide sponsorship for the Third Australian National 4WD Gathering at Mt Augustus in 2000. My 4WD Club in Perth were the organisers.

 

 

In late 2006 I approached Head Office to see if they were interested in buying our Franchise back from us. They were, and in February 2007, we handed our shop back to the Company. This was our last day (it seems all that changed was that I shaved off my moustache, oh, and my hair went grey and Robyn's didn't. How does that work?):

 

 



 So "our" shop was a Company store from February 2007 until sometime in 2014 or so when it was sold to an Equity Firm that floated it on the stock market. The less said about that the better.  

 

Dick Smith Electronics, for so long a household name in Australia, went broke and the stores progressively sold off all their stock and closed their doors.

 

The Mandurah Forum shopping centre began a comprehensive revamp and expansion and today, Wednesday 11th May 2016, this was our old shop:

 

 

We spent almost 9 very happy, hard working years there with some excellent staff. Thanks to our daughter Elizabeth, Adrian, Dennis, Carl,  Dyo, Kate, Storm, and John with considerable help and support from HO Staff, Susan and Steve. 

 

Special thanks, and love, to Robyn who took on this challenge and ran the best organised back dock ever.





 



Retrospective: Our 4 Years in Papua New Guinea: Part Three: Lae & Nadzab

After Madang we were transferred to Lae.

 

Approach Control was a lot harder here than at Madang. All Procedural Control in those days, no such thing as radar. A microphone and a pair of binoculars were our tools of trade.

 

 

Our daughter Elizabeth was born in Lae in August 1978.

 

 

Here's our house, just inland from end of the runway. Those two houses to the lower left weren't there in 1978. We were the last house on Oleander Avenue before Raun Warra (Round Water).

 

 

We inherited Patch the dog from the previous residents after they returned to Australia.

 

Things were about to change. Nadzab airport, several kilometres up the Markham Valley that played an important role in WW2, was re-opened and we moved operations from Lae which was later closed down. It was a 20 or 30 minute drive to Nadzab each day. 

 

 

 

This is what it was like in 1944.

 

 When we were in Lae I used to catch a few rides up into the Kabwum Valley. Very interesting, if not a little scary.

 

 

We left PNG in early 1979 to come home. We flew up to Hong Kong, then down to Singapore and boarded the Centaur for the trip to Fremantle.

 

 

Michael got to drive it for a little while.

 

And so it was back to Perth Airport and eventually back onto Approach Control.