We chase the Tin Horses

When we left Wave Rock I had the maps out, ready to guide us through some back roads, south and then west to a town called Wagin, about 200km away. I started seeing road signs pointing to the east and mentioning the town of Kulin ‘via the Tin Horse Highway’.

Mare Grylls

I’d read about the THH, a wonderful lark by the farming residents of Kulin, who put tin horses on their road boundary fences, so we changed plans midway and followed those signs. We were so glad we did as the good humour and innovation that had gone into those horses was immense. They were mostly made of old oil cans welded together, with other bits and pieces forming legs, ears, etc.

Some were pulling carts or sleds, some took on human attributes, playing tennis or golf, one was on a scooter and my favourite was the PLC Piping Pony, with the ‘horse’ standing upright, wearing a kilt, a shirt bearing the PLC badge, also a straw boater with the school badge, and playing the bagpipes.

PLC Piping Pony

Once we reached Kulin, another prosperous little wheat town, we then turned south, and after wandering for a while through wheat and canola fields, we eventually came to Wagin.

It’s famous for The Big Ram, as it’s a Merino breeding centre. Sure enough, there in a rather nice park, was a huge fibreglass ram. We found out the locals call him Baart; which reminded us of the huge sculpture of ears of wheat which we had seen in a wheat-growing area further north, Mingenew. The locals call it Big Ears.

On our way to Wagin, we passed through a tiny town called Dumbleyung. We didn’t know anything about it and just after leaving it, saw a road sign to Lake Dumbleyung and the Donald Campbell memorial. Intrigued, we went up that road, and found an immense salt lake, now with some water in it but obviously not yet full.

It seems that Donald Campbell, the British speed ace, had in 1964 set a new world land speed record on Lake Eyre. He was trying to set a water speed record in the same year and tried to do so at a lake in South Australia. He didn’t manage the world figure but did set an Australian record before he heard of this lake in WA that might be suitable. So his whole entourage arrived in the tiny town in early December that year. Local divers had been enlisted to clear any snags from the lake; conditions just weren’t right for days or there were too many ducks on the lake; and finally on New Year’s Eve, he managed to make a high-speed run in his Bluebird craft and he set a new world record of 276.3mph. That achievement of setting land and water speed records in the same year has never been bettered, although the individual records have been.

The nice thing is that a local wheat farmer, whose land borders the lake, allowed a memorial to be

Lake Dumbleyung and wheat fields from the

memorial.

built on top of a rise called Pussycat Hill 20 years later in 1984. It has plaques telling Campbell’s  story, including his death almost 3 years later during another speed attempt on an English lake; as well as a lovely memorial. There’s a bronze plaque on the ground, with a granite boulder above it. There’s a small hole in the boulder, set at such an angle that at the time he broke the record on Dec 31 each year, the sun shines through onto the plaque.

We each knew about Lake Eyre and the land speed record but had no idea he’d made history at Lake Dumbleyung.

After a nice night at Wagin, we drove through increasing rain south to Denmark, which was just about as cold as the country by the same name in northern Europe, with wind and lashing rain. However we did some exploring, and found a nice little place to stay high in the hills behind the town, but only about 5km out. There’s one of the many district wineries literally just down the road, in walking distance, with a well-recommended restaurant, so that’s lunch today sorted.

The almost luminous yellow of the canola fields.

The owners now, after it had been shut down for five years, are a young couple. Each site has its own en suite bathroom, not that we really need it, but there’s also a sheltered place to sit, when the sun’s shining. The young wife spoke to us on the phone from their nearby house, and sent her husband down to settle us in. He told us he works at Port Hedland, on Gina Rinehart’s iron ore loaders at the port. He works 10 days on, 10 days off, so while he’s home he’s trying to restore this nice little park to its former glory. There are massive karri trees next to the park on a ridge overlooking the ocean inlet below at Denmark. It would be a magic place in summer.

Had a sad, sad phone call in Denmark telling me that a great friend, Robyn Johnston, had died in Sydney. We’re at that time of life now when such calls will become more common, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Robyn will always live on in my memories, particularly for the fun and laughter we always had together.