OUR BRIEF RETURN TO PERTH, THE BANKSIA PARK AND AN OLD FASHIONED PUB CRAWL (31 MARCH - 7 APRIL 2015)

Our trip back into Perth from Brookton took us in through the foothills suburb of Kalamunda, an area we promised ourselves we would visit before leaving.  But for the present there was work to be done, beginning with establishing ourselves in our new park for the next seven days. 

We had chosen the Banksia Caravan Park for two main reasons.  Firstly, it is located very close to our good friends the Cooks (they had joined us in Denmark for the Albany 100 weekend) with whom a renewed social agenda had already been planned. Secondly, I was partly sucked in by what I had found on the park website, despite the fact that I now know to take much of this with a pinch of salt. I shall give you examples of the blurb and the reality shortly.

As we approached the entrance on the busy Midland Road, things were looking to be on song,

and as we drew to a halt outside the very impressive office building nothing changed immediately.

I began to gain a feel for the way in which things were managed here when I read the two notices posted on the office door 

This did not strike me as being very user friendly....a major metropolitan park and they close for lunch, close early on Saturdays and do not open at all on Sundays. Come on.

Admittedly the interior of the office was amongst the most well appointed we had ever seen, but as I later discovered this is very much window dressing. Ah, well, we booked in and began to make our way to our allotted site.

It was as we negotiated the entrance boom gate that we came across the most ridiculous system we had ever encountered. Yep, your eyes are not deceiving you. The system demands that those entering do so on the wrong side of the road.

And, obviously, the same applies on departure, when vehicles veer to the right onto what would normally be the incorrect side of the roadway to trip the automatic boom gate reader.  What a ludicrous set up this is and so easily solved.

So after passing this entrance examination, we continued down the roadway past some motel type units

and on towards the very pleasant BBQ area which marked our turn.

We were aware that this park was home to many permanent residents, and at this junction we could see on into the 'forbidden city'. 

We dutifully turned left and continued along past what we soon discovered is the only area in this entire seventeen hectares where sites are actually grassed.

Off to our left ran one of many roadways housing semi-permanents

whilst, to our right, we found the very large park pool, one of the selling points for me in making the decision to stay here.

This is indeed a large pool. We know of very few parks which boast this type of aquatic feature, other than those like, for example, Mossman, where the main town pool is managed by the park owners, or our favourite, Kurrimine Beach where the 20 metre pool is a real draw card. Here the pool is 16 metres long, but, as you can see, that is it.




No poolside furniture, no lawn (real or artificial) and a completely paved surround. We did wonder just how inviting this would be during the heat of a blazing summer day with the sun baking the pavement.

On we went past the pool to the roadway at the back of the park and our allotted site

where we finally set up on a large cement slab between two permanent residents.

At this point let me quote from the park website.  This is the description given of the 'Premuim Powered Dog Site', which ours was.

"Conveniently located across from the ablution block and dog exercise area."

Now this is absolutely true but here is the dog exercise area over which we looked from the front of our site.

"Very spacious and can accommodate any caravan, campervan or motor home in pleasant surroundings."

This is also true as far as the site size goes, but 'pleasant surroundings?'  If you look closely at the previous photo you will see a raised area of earth beyond the scrappy grass of the pooch patch.

I was first alerted to what this might be when, as we were setting up, our olfactory senses were assailed by a most unpleasant odour. My immediate suspicion was confirmed by our very amiable neighbour who did his best to convince us that things would improve when the wind direction changed. It takes a very long stretch of the imagination to describe any location in the immediate vicinity of a smelly settling pond as 'pleasant'.

"Conveniently located in wide open shady space with plenty of room to move."

We did have shade.  I'll let you be the judge of our wide open spaces.  We were jammed in with permanents on either side and behind us.This was the sight at the rear of our van looking one way, 

and this, the other (our  path to the conveniently located ablutions). I will reiterate here that the two neighbours with whom we had contact could not have been more pleasant, but I am sure that the website was not referring to them.

Finally, this is the major website photograph of a caravan site.  Admittedly those we had passed on the way in were grassed, 

but this is what the vast majority of the park sites are really like....either narrow, red brick paved slots (again, admittedly with hedgerows between them as advertised)

or these quite uninviting cement slabs (again admittedly amongst trees)  We remain eternally grateful we were not here in hot weather...the park would bake.

The only other area of grass we found was that set aside for tent sites, and few at that.

As you may have guessed by now I was less than impressed with our site, our 'pleasant surroundings' and the pool.  And as for the 'tranquil traveller's paradise'  as the website home page vaunts, the constant traffic noise from the nearby Roe Highway put paid to that.

In fairness I must take a quick jaunt through the rest of the park in general for any who would like the bigger picture.

The children's playground is more than adequate and located well away from most of the transient sites, which for any who have had to deal with screaming kids on the slippery dip at 0600 hours (as we frequently did in Albany over the Xmas holidays) is a real blessing.

The camp kitchen and one BBQ are located under the roof of the main office building at its rear, adjacent to the playground.

The large, well lit indoor kitchen provides all that is needed for the culinary requirements of those who have the need to use it.














This room leads off

into the adjoining recreation room where leather lounges lend a real touch of luxury.










But here again, the ambiance suffers with notices such as this posted large on the walls. Our park management experience taught us that one has to expect all types, but there are many ways in which to adequately caution the rowdy rabble to behave......this is not one of them.







The amenities block, which was indeed close to our site, housed facilities which were perfectly adequate for purpose. Hot showers, a strong flow and plenty of hooks are all that can be asked for. 











Apart from the permanent block of park houses behind the pool, which out of courtesy I only snapped from a distance,













there are a number of other roads populated by full time residents,












some of whom take obvious pride in the outward appearance of their humble abodes.












Banksia is also home to row and rows of cabins, some in the upper range










others much more modest in their amenity.










But despite  the drawbacks of this park from our perspective, we were here to stay and did make the most of it. The convenience of its location was indeed a winner, as was one particular sunset which I initially spotted through the park trees in its early stages.










I quickly scooted around into a better viewing position and within a few minutes this was my reward....a real beauty.






And we couldn't move on without sharing two more snippets unique to Banksia. Liz had, by now, finally decided that Max had well and truly adopted his new internal scratching post 

and that the old portable stump could be consigned to the bin. I was overjoyed... no more stubbed night time toes.














Mind you, she doesn't look happy about it, does she? 










Now I have made previous mention of our park neighbours, and you would have rightly assumed I was referring to the human kind. Indeed I was, but we had others.  It was the Black Panther which first alerted us to the antics of these other park residents......bandicoots of all things.

They were very elusive and particularly hard to photograph, but we did manage this shot of our little long snouted neighbour as it scurried under Max' baleful eye past this old lattice at the rear of our van 

and off to its sanctuary beneath the floor of our neighbour to the side, a man who was considerably underwhelmed by their presence, and more to the point, their penchant for digging.






Fortunately we were aware that these southern WA bandicoots do not, like their more northern cousins, carry the dangerous paralysis tick. Had we not confirmed that with several vets, poor of Max would have been confined to quarters for the duration. As it was, Billy Bandicoot provided as with a few moments of distraction in the great outdoors.

Well now that I have been more than forthright about our digs, let's get on with business. We were back in Perth primarily to allow Liz to complete her annual compulsory nursing competencies, and we had another problem to solve.


We had spent a considerable amount of Tuesday grappling with the ongoing problem of our leaking water pressure limiting valve, or more to the point, trying to source a replacement. After having no joy with three major plumbing suppliers, we made the cross town trip to a caravan shop in Welshpool where we were persuaded to buy an alternative plastic model. I was less than convinced it would fit but took the gamble.  


I should have trusted my initial judgement...attaching this to our rig was impossible. Thankfully, we were able to return the item for a full refund, but this meant another lengthy trip through the suburbs of Perth later in the week. In desperation I contacted Country Time in Geraldton. I wish I had done so earlier.....I was assured that they could fit an alternative device when we arrived for our brakes and bearings service the following week.  Tick off one more problem.

Shortly after we had arrived back at the park, our old mate Cooky popped in for a quite couple of beers and a planning meeting...a pub crawl the following afternoon and an evening BBQ chez Ann-marie and Jim was confirmed.  So, bright and early the following morning I drove Liz the 26 kms into, and past the city, to Osborne Park where she presented herself for examination. 

Whilst she had her head down I did number of errands, including sourcing foam rubber to improve Max's ride in his cage, and some square hard foam to fit over the awning rafters as a buffer between them and the canvas. 





And then it was back to Banksia where the redoubtable James Cook esquire arrived as planned and the boys were off to the pub(s). The charming old suburb of Midland was our initial destination, 










or more to the point, the 7th Avenue Bar and Restaurant in the Council Club Hotel.












Could this possibly be true in Western Australia? A pint of beer for $4.90....all day every day?












As we walked in through the very appealing dining area of this good old fashioned pub













the notice at the bar confirmed that my dreams had come true. And the special for this month was Tooheys Extra Dry, my tipple of choice.  Cooky, you absolute champion!










This was but the start of the afternoon's festivities.  Next it was off to the nearby and less up market Commercial Hotel where the atmosphere was decidedly 'working class'. So what, when 'handles' of beer arrived in front of us on the bar in exchange for a mere $5.00.  Another triumph of procurement for the ever resourceful Mr Cook.



We completed the afternoon at the much more trendy High Wycombe Hotel where, for a couple of pre-dinner hours each afternoon $2 middies are available.  We availed ourselves liberally!


To top off a wonderful day, Liz and I were then whisked off to the newly acquired Cook mansion for a fine BBQ dinner. I am not often prepared to admit that the 'sheets to the wind' number three, but they certainly were this evening. I cannot remember how long it has been since I spent several hours with a police mate chewing the fat and reliving 'war stories' over far too many beers....it was just great fun. Thanks Jim, you are even forgiven the hangover!


This was not the end of our social engagements. The following evening we had arranged to catch up with Tim Hanna, the President of the SA RSL, and an old sub-branch and Keswick Officers' Mess mate of mine. Tim is currently working in Perth and had been too busy to join Liz and me for a planned weekend in Albany whilst we were there, so we were making amends....which we did in fine style at a flash restaurant within easy walking distance of Tim's West Perth apartment. Another very enjoyable and entertaining evening indeed. Apart from catching up with all the SA RSL news, Tim, in his role as Toll Holdings' Barrow Island CEO of logistics, was able to provide us with a real insight into the extraordinary scale of the mining industry in WA, and the current problems they are facing.

Before leaving Perth we did spend a very pleasant morning walking around the hills suburb of Kalamunda and paying a surprise visit to Jeanette Hadden, the widow of Pete Hadden, our first Helicopter Rescue pilot in Adelaide (Pete and I flew together in 1974 and remained firm friends thereafter).  On the next day, our last, the urgent demand for some solid exercise found us taking a very long walk along the banks of the Swan River in the casino precinct before we pulled down in preparation for our departure.

And this was not a moment too soon.  From this point on the weather turned on us. We woke the next morning to hear that Perth airport, a mere kilometre away, had recorded overnight wind gusts of 75 kms....even all the park locals were complaining. I was very grateful all our canvas was securely tucked away.  

So, with Liz re-qualified for another year, the van groaning with supplies, some serious social engagements completed and important repair and replacement arrangements made, it was time to take our leave of Perth for the last time and make our way northwards though the wheat belt to spend another couple of nights at Moora, one of our favourite little country towns.