TOODYAY - PART 1 (28 - 31 OCTOBER 2013)

Let me begin this missive with a real time update.  We are currently in Busselton, a delightful seaside town some 200 kms south of Perth on Geographe Bay.  We have decided it is high time to drop anchor for a goodly spell.  This seems to be the spot...it actually reminds us both a great deal of Victor Harbor.  It is also very handy for day trips to the Margaret River area, further south to Augusta and, in the other direction, Bunbury and its surrounds.  At this stage we are planning a month here before making our way back to Perth for the Xmas - early January period.

Hopefully this will also give me the time to catch up blog-wise.  As I think I have previously explained, I have a two hour limit banging away at the computer before I get the head spins. With the time it can often take for the photos to load, it can be a challenge to stay on top of our adventures.  To that end I have also decided to make each of them shorter and hopefully more frequent.  Well, that's the plan at least!

But for the moment, let us resume where I last left off.  I suspect there is nothing which gives interstaters away more quickly that the mispronunciation of place names.  We fell for the trap with Toodyay, which we initially pronounced as it appears....'Too-dee-ay'.  The locals vacillated between polite scorn and outright derision!  It's 'Toojay' they chorused. We were appropriately chastened and all the wiser and fortunately did not embarrass ourselves on arrival.

This oddly named town, some 100 kms north-east of Perth, lies on the River Avon at the western edge of the Wheatbelt district.  It has been declared  a Heritage Town by the National Trust and was recommended to us as a place a real interest.  Given that we were booked into one of its neighbouring towns, York, at the end of the week, we decided to absorb a good dose of WA's early history in one fell swoop before heading back to the coast.

As usual, let's begin with the caravan park. There were two from which to choose...we picked the one nearest to the town centre (and thank goodness we did...the other was miles out and less than inviting from outside appearances). And here began a week of heat and dust. At least the pool here,  which can just be seen beyond the entrance driveway, was sparklingly clean and refreshing. 

We duly booked in and toddled off down the roadway to our site,

which dipped rather alarmingly from one end to the other.  After some considerable to-ing and fro-ing and a couple of failed attempts to level the van, we finally managed with the aid of our wheel ramps and a large wooded block under the jack.  At least we had considerable shade which proved to be very handy and our wonderful C-Gear matting again came into its own.

Before we leave the park, I did spot a feature of its perimeter which I found fascinating. Initially I thought it was surrounded by a wooden post and rail fence which had been painted white....not so...this whole structure is made of cement.  Very innovative.

Once settled, we began our Toodyay adventure with a recommended walk into town along the banks of the nearby River Avon, the river which, in mid winter hosts the 'Avon Descent', a mad dash downstream from Northam to Riverside Gardens, Bayswater (Perth) through raging rapids and all sorts of aquatic challenges.  

This 125 plus kms course is traversed over two gruelling days.  It is one of those events in which just finishing is a real achievement.  And it is unique in that it is contested by both paddled craft (kayaks, surf skis etc) and small motor boats with 10 hp motors.  A couple of my surf club mates have finished this event on more than one occasion....having seen some of the river at low water I now have increased respect for their efforts.

We began our walk at the caravan park along what was just a narrow track through the bush. The tourist blurb heaps praise on the visual qualities of the river, even at low water during the spring and summer.  I have no problems accepting that the Avon is pretty spectacular during the spate, but must comment that at this time of the year it is less than attractive in many places.








There were some spots in which the water remained shallow ponded in reasonable quantities

but many more stretches were little more than a trickle through the rocks, weeds and mudflats of the river bed.









But the walk was good and much needed exercise, even if we were faced with the additional challenge of keeping a very good eye out for snakes in some of the more overgrown patches. We had been warned that this was shaping as a very good year in WA for anything reptilian.  I would describe our progress through this patch as 'cautious haste'.

The river walk of just over one and a half kms ends at one of the town parks where the very well maintained mini railway is head quartered.  This apparently runs twice a month...we missed out!

Let's end the river ramble with a shot of the road bridge over the river where I was interested to note the remaining stumps of the original structure.

Toodyay is one of a small number of Avon Valley towns which came into being very shortly after the West was formally settled.  Established initially in 1831 its original site was soon found to be unsuitable because of flooding.  The town of 'Newcastle', as it was originally know, was then built on its present site and gazetted in 1861, after a convict depot had been established there earlier in 1851.  Confusion with the NSW town of the same name resulted in the name change to Toodyay which is a derivative of a local aboriginal name for the area.

One of the first things we did after our river jaunt was to make our way to the Pelham Lookout for an overview of the township which, as you can see, does 'nestle in the valley'.

Our short trip to the lookout did also present us with two surprises.






Wildflowers...the last of the season's very aptly named  'Everlastings'. This small display did give us some feel for just how spectacular the WA wildflowers must been when in full flush.




And don't let anyone tell you that the WA kangaroos are anything but big buggers. After the wallabies and small skippies we were used to seeing in FNQ, these fellows came as a real shock. They look as though they are having a scrap but this is not so...the big lad is in the process of clouting his companions into some evasive action.  He really was a size...no less than two metres tall when upright is my estimate...and a big barrel chest to match.  A  magnificent specimen.


The worthy locals of present day Toodyay have produced one of the best 'historical walk' booklets we have ever seen.  Well armed with information we were off.  Toodyay is one of those towns where a full pictorial presentation would amount the dozens of photos.  I have been selective.

Time for an admission. One of my abiding frustrations is an inability to ever be able to effectively capture a good and fully representative shot of the main street of towns.  But we continue to try as in this photo looking north-west along the 'main drag'.  Our 'historical walk' and other snippets in my next.