Ron and Viv Moon take us on a trip you'll just love to emulate

from Western 4W Driver #115 Spring 2020

Silly Snaps

From Pearling Port to Iron Mines

By Ron & Viv Moon

For the last 15km to the coast and the once vibrant port of Condon, the track across the billiard table-like flat plain follows the route of the original telegraph line with the occasional old pole complete with insulator still standing and running in a direct line towards our destination. We had been on our way back from the Kimberley heading to Marble Bar and after a grid took out the sidewall of one of our tyres on our camper as we turned onto the Pardoo Station access road, we changed plans (along with the tyre), and stopped at the very popular 'Grey Nomad' rest area of the De Grey River. While it's a pretty popular camp it's a bit more restricted than it used to be with fencing and rock barriers recently having been installed to stop people (and stock) accessing the riverbank because of the threat of invading Noogoora burr. That noxious weed has already closed off long lengths of river frontage along the mighty Fitzroy just a few hundred kilometres north and they are trying to stop the same happening here. It's a big ask and many local volunteers, the property owner, as well as the Department of Agriculture are actively trying to stop the invasion, so give them a hand and don't enter the fenced off area and don't transport any seeds you get stuck with - you'll know the spiky buggers if and when you find them!

Sandy beach track near Condon Port.

Pardoo Station entry road.

We had a quick trip into Port Hedland to buy some new rubber and then thought, as you do when adversity comes along, why not as we're here, head out to the coast to check out the historic port of Condon. Our travels to Condon had really started back in 1991 when we were following the footsteps of the 1879 Alexander Forrest expedition. His expedition, like ours, started at Condon, but we didn't have time to explore the surrounding area then, so I knew we'd be back. When we had returned some years ago, unseasonal rain meant the De Grey station owners stopped access to the coast as the route crosses flat country that is easily flooded and the tracks damaged by vehicles ploughing through the mud. Then a few years back the property closed entry completely to the whole place because of the damage being done and rubbish being left behind. It took a couple of years of lobbying by the local shire before the property decided they'd re-open access for courteous locals and other clean thinking travellers. And on this latest trip, while we had no luck on the phone ringing the homestead we thought we'd try our luck and just rock up to the property headquarters. The De Grey station, founded back in 1862, is over 12,000km² in size or around three million acres in the old scale. Today it runs cattle and just by driving up to the homestead and its scattering of manager's quarters, staff accommodation, wellconstructed work sheds, solar panel arrays, trucking yards and machinery of all sorts from graders and front-end loaders to road trains, down to lowly LandCruisers, you know this is a well-run and rich property. Still, we hardly saw a cow! After meeting with and receiving directions from one of the managers we headed off on what are pretty easy tracks, when they are dry, across the vast grass covered plains. You pass the remains of the old telegraph office, which helped link a distant Derby with Perth, a few kilometres short of the actual port of Condon. A forlorn solitary telegraph pole today overlooks the site along with a tall date palm and a large flowering scraggly oleander tree. Condon was at one time an important shipping outlet on this far north-west coast of WA, which few people have heard about and even less have visited. Gazetted as 'Shellborough', but rarely known as such, Condon was the first port established along this long deserted section of coast. Situated just north of the De Grey River mouth the area was surveyed in 1872, while the surrounding De Grey pastoral station, then running sheep, had begun 10 years earlier and just a year after Frank T Gregory had explored the area and reported the wide expanse of rich grasslands.

Track and inlet at Condon.

Initially the tiny hamlet provided a shipping point for wool direct to faraway London, but with the discovery of gold at Marble Bar and Nullagine in the 1880s it grew in importance. As well, pealing luggers used the shallow harbour with up to 80 boats anchoring here - it's hard to believe that these days when you are flat out seeing anyone else and the only boat within cooee would be a fisherman's tinnie. By the 1890s the town had a couple of hotels, a stone jetty, a customs shed, a number of stores, blacksmith shop, a telegraph station along with a woolshed and stock yards, and a population of about 200. Due to the huge tides, the larger ships would sit on the mud as far out as a kilometre from the shore for loading and unloading while only the smaller ships and luggers could tie up to the stone wharf. Today the old rock wharf has collapsed (it once stood at least two metres high) and is just a line of flat stones jutting out from the sandy southern shore along the edge of which boats would tie up. The sole timber pylon or strainer post that stood here back 25 years ago when I first visited the site has disappeared, while the only reminder of the custom shed and other buildings is an occasional stump amongst the tall grass nearby. A cluster of tamarisk trees just up from the jetty is really the only obvious marker in the whole area and makes probably the best camp for those who want to stay here. However, while we were wandering around there was another camp on the northern shore of the inlet in a fairly exposed spot with good boat access to the inlet - keen fisherman, I'm guessing.

Little remains of the stores and buildings at Condon today. The remains of Condon's rock jetty where luggers once tied up.

Back at the old telegraph station and from the top of the nearby dune to the east and south, flat grassy plains near devoid of anything taller than half a metre, stretched away to the horizon while to the north a salty flat bordered an inlet of light blue-green water where short narrow strips of mangroves gathered to find a foothold on this remote coast. To the west a series of dunes parallel to the one I was standing on marched their way towards the ocean, which was just a few hundred metres away but was wild and wind-capped by the blustery conditions we were experiencing right at that moment. Almost at my feet, near smothered in the grass, was what we had come to find - an old cemetery, if you can call three or four markers a cemetery, from the long ago abandoned pearling port. All told, there are 11 souls buried here but there's only one headstone and a few rusty steel enclosures to now mark the hallowed ground. With that success behind us we went in search of other treasures and for those who wander the wider area you'll find the occasional rubbish dump, strewn with broken bottles and pottery shards. But for most people it's the isolation, the beach combing (the shell collecting is pretty darn good), the mud crabbing and the fishing which are the main attractions. Remember though, there is absolutely no facilities out at Condon and no firewood even for the most diehard of scavengers, so you gotta bring your own. You can launch a small tinnie off the beach in the inlet a few hundred metres upstream from where the old jetty can be seen, but anywhere else be super cautious with the soft sand and the tides. Also, stay away from driving over the dunes around Condon - it only leads to erosion. From near here, if you know what you are doing, you can head north swinging inland to cross the upper reaches of the inlet and head north to a couple of smaller inlets, the biggest of which is Titchella Creek. Access to here is also possible from Pardoo Homestead, which now offers travellers good camping, accommodation and even a cold beer with well-established facilities. After our Condon experience we headed inland heading to Shay Gap by following the now disused railway line that heads from its crossing of the De Grey River near the overnight camping area. Shay Gap is a deserted, basically non-existent town that closed down in the early 1990s.

Condon cemetery.

Moonie scavenging for old bottles.

It was named after the nearby break in the ranges of the same name which in turn was named after Robert Shea. He was the part owner of the pearling lugger 'Seaspray' and would have almost definitely used Condon as his port for his enterprises back in the 1870s. He had headed inland looking to find some of his indentured labourers, who had absconded and hightailed it inland and he was probably killed by them or their compatriots. No wonder really, Robert Shea and his like weren't particularly nice people, abducting many people and forcing them to dive for pearl shell. Anyway, the gap in the hills was named after him, or so the story goes. It's a good dirt road along the railway line and our journey was only interrupted by the flowering cassia bushes which formed a blanket of yellow and a derailed train that had dumped iron ore and carriages beside the track. As we closed in on the range that acts as a barrier to the shifting sands of the Great Sandy Desert we could see the piles of overburden and the remains of the mining operations that had been carried out here between 1972 and 1993. We left the railway and dodged north around the numerous mine sites to meet up with a bitumen road which took us south towards the dismantled town; the only building still standing is the one at the airport which still gets used by exploration and mining survey crews by all accounts.

The road and railway line to Shay Gap. The De Grey River crossing near Muccano Pool.

That evening we camped in Shay Gap itself, off the dirt road, surrounded by rich red bluffs, buttes and pinnacles of rock and tucked in beside Coonieena Creek that was dotted with the occasional drying pools of life-giving water. Next day saw us heading south, crossing the De Grey River near Muccano Pool, near where ol' Robert Shea was reputedly killed and then the Talga River before we hit the bitumen. Here we turned west for a short distance before finding our way into Doolena Gap where the Coongan River cuts through the range before joining with the De Grey. It's a top spot to camp. For the next couple of days we explored in and around Marble Bar, one of the most famous towns in Australia for nothing less than suffering the longest consecutive time - 161 days - when the temperature never dropped below 37.8°C (or 100°F in the old scale). That was back in 1924 and the record still stands and with the temperature this last summer reaching consistently into the high 40s and mid-50s, the record would seem to be pretty safe. The town got its name from a rock bar across the nearby Coongan River and while the bar isn't marble it still cuts a pretty sight especially when the rock is splashed with water. Attractive and much more hospitable than most first time visitors would guess, we like and enjoy the small town, its setting amongst the rugged rocky hills making it much more than just a desert hamlet.

The hottest town in Oz. Rich colours flash when the bar is wet.

Gold had been discovered here back in the 1890's and some bloody big nuggets of the yellow stuff have been found including the 'Bobby Dazzler' at 413 ounces (or 11.7 kg!), the 333oz 'Little Hero' and the 332oz 'General Gordon'. If they didn't get your heart racing nothing would! Metal detectors are near de rigueur for travellers to this part of the Pilbara and such fields as Sharks Gully, North Pole, TalgaTalga and 20-ounce Gully are just a few of many that can produce nuggets today. If you're a history buff then Ernest Giles', Glen Herring Gorge, south of the town, is worth an explore and isn't a bad spot to camp. Further away, about 50km south of the town, is the remains and airstrips of the WW2 Corunna Airfield, the secret 'hidden' base, where American and Australian bombers flew from to bomb Japanese forces in far away, what is now, Indonesia. With our time in the Pilbara coming to an end we took one last look at the ol' town and headed east to stop briefly at the Meentheena Veterans Retreat, which is, I gotta say, a real pleasant surprise. They not only cater for veterans and emergency workers, but the place is open to everyone and is well worth a few days exploring. Meentheena, once a pastoral property straddling the upper reaches of the Talga and Nullagine Rivers, about 80km east of Marble Bar, is now a conservation park which the Veterans Retreat of WA now operate camping, accommodation and control access, all in a low key manner. Bush campsites along shaded stretches of water of the Nullagine River have been established while rough bush tracks lead to points of interest. For those who can't bear to tear themselves away from our modern world the actual retreat's HQ has powered camping and van sites, a camp kitchen, hot showers as well as internet access. With our time up we vowed we'd be coming back and take a journey from the sea to the mountains once more. You'll do the same.