2023 Mellenbye Adventure: Day 1—Morawa
On the 2nd of June 2023 my niece and I started out on what I am calling the Mellenbye Adventure.
I had been talking about getting up to Morawa and going out to the Mellenbye Station Stay since I found out about it back around 2020. In 2021 I even booked one of the cottages at Mellenbye. However, for a couple of reasons at the time I did not make it. But my niece Kim bullied me into getting there this year because this was the year I was going to turn 70 years of age and I kept talking about wanting to get back to the ‘station country’ at least once before I stopped breathing. Also, when I made the new booking with Shelly at Mellenbye she graciously credited me with the money I paid out for the cancelled booking from 2021.
The adventure was to consist of an overnight at Morawa and then moving on to Mellenbye on the following day for a few nights.
At Morawa we overnighted in one of the Morawa Caravan Park chalets. I had previously stayed in one of the two double bedroom chalets there. Very tidy and comfortable, although the Koolanooka Unit could stand a T.V. upgrade. We were not able to plug in a USB thumb drive containing movies into the T.V. so that we could watch them. Small point maybe, but something you do expect to be able to do with any ‘modern’ T.V.
The following snap shows a view of the caravan park on the morning that we were repacking my car getting ready to head for Mellenbye homestead.
On the morning before we headed NNE along the Morawa-Yalgoo Road towards Mellenbye I took a few touristy photographs around my home town of Morawa.
In the picture above is my niece Kim, who came along on the adventure with me. Although Kim had been to Morawa—though she was probably not even a teen at the time—she had never been out into the sheep station country. When she said she would come along with me to Mellenbye to keep me company I was actually somewhat concerned that when she saw what the station country was like she might have some kind of breakdown and demand the we turn back to Perth immediately.
Also shown above is the clock tower in the centre of town. And no. The clock is not working and is not showing the right time, which is pretty typical of such clocks.
I felt the need to take a picture of my Subaru Forester parked on the main street of Morawa.
At about 3:00 in the afternoon, after showing Kim all the highlights of Morawa and visiting the local IGA to pick up any bits and pieces we thought we might need, we headed off up the Morawa-Yalgoo Road towards Mellenbye station. I did not want to leave it too late in the evening to head for Mellenbye because back in my day you were almost certain to come across kangaroos if you were travelling on those ‘back’ roads any later than about 5:00 p.m.
