April 2014 - Mandurah and Perth

Our time in Mandurah waiting for Judy’s knee operation was well spent catching up with our Western Australian friends and family.  First up was a day trip to Mount Helena up in the hills east of Perth to catch up with our friends that we met in Meekatharra way back in the mid seventies.  We always love catching up with Trevor and Margo as the laughs never stop and we just pick up on where we left off last time we saw them.  The area around where they live was devastated by fire earlier this year and 56 houses were destroyed by fire, fortunately the last wind change for the day kept the fire from reaching their place so all is well. Trevor's mum and sisters live around Mandurah and Pinjarra so we caught up with them as well.

My sister Lyn and her family moved to Rockingham 20 or so years ago and we caught up with Lyn, her 2 sons Jay and Lane as well as Jay’s partner and 2 sons for a BBQ lunch at Jays place. We also caught up with Lyn’s ex, Russell, who was one of my best friends before they got married 40 odd years ago.It was great to catch up with him again and remember a lot of folk from our past and a lot of good times.

Mandurah has a lot of houses built on a man made canal system, so we took the canal boat tour to have a look at just how the other half live.

This house was said to be the most expensive in the area, valued at over 10 million dollars. It is owned by the president of Singapore’s brother. He doesn't live there but rents it out for $1,900 per week. 

Where there is water there are always residential developments.

Dolphin Key sits right on the edge of a canal and has it’s own sandy beach with shops and restaurants all within the same complex. 

Judy was booked into Hollywood hospital in Perth for an MRI scan at 6.00 pm so we took the day to visit Perth again.

The hospital is very close to Kings Park and the Perth Botanical Gardens so it was great to have a stroll around the gardens and a coffee in one of the open cafes.

Like most botanical gardens, the lawns and flower beds are immaculate, but this one also has a prehistoric theme with concrete dragons and huge crocodile for the kids to play on.

The MRI scans on Judy’s knee turned out to be exactly as the surgeon predicted, a torn cartilage and a damaged ligament was causing all the problems so the arthroscopy was the only way to fix it.

With the operation behind us and a good report from the surgeon a week later, we left Mandurah to spend Easter with Trevor and Margo in Mt. Helena.

During the Easter break we visited Hillarys Boat Harbour to the north of Perth and also the Maritime Museum at Fremantle to the south.

Fremantle is Perth’s major shipping port and the mouth of the Swan River so there is constant activity along this part of the river. Cruise ships mix it with container ships, Rottnest Island ferries and a whole myriad of smaller cabin cruisers and yachts.

The museum houses all types of maritime history including whaling and pearling vessels, but the most interesting for me was the Americas Cup and Australia 2 with its winged keel.  We were amazed just how big this yacht is, the keel is on the floor of the lower story, the deck is on the second story and the top of the mast is way up another 2 stories of the building.  Also on display is one of the worlds rarest sharks called Megamouth.

These sharks, which grow to 5 metres in length have a bulbous head and rows of small sharp teeth.  Only 9 of these have been found throughout the world and this is the 3rd one to have been captured. 

The Easter break at Mt Helena soon turned into a week as these guys are so easy to stay with, but with still a lot of kilometres to travel we headed of north, with our first stop being at Moora in the heart of the wheat belt, just 175 kilometres north of Perth.

We found Moora to be a very comfortable little town with a very neat and tidy shire run caravan park.  The lady that runs the caravan park is obviously a keen gardener and the roses were in full bloom.  Moora has a proud history with the army as there were 3 army camps around the area during WW2.

Even though Moora is 120 kilometres from the coast, the 44th Infantry Battalion which was stationed in Moora in 1942 was regarded as the strike force if any landings were detected along the Coral Coast. Various other murals around town depict various stages of life around this community.

This one with life sized statues of a draft horse and a kelpie are lasting memorials to these animals as they were essential in opening up the area in the early years.

From Moora we head across to Jurien Bay on the west coast, and then make our way north, trying to keep a bit ahead of the rest of the grey nomads and the real busy time.