So, the idea today was to travel a loop out east to Wongan Hills before turning south and visiting New Norcia. However, a couple of days ago Russ lost a filling – the third one from the same tooth, which was due to be removed when we got back to Mildura.

The edges left behind when the filling fell out are sharp and are causing some laceration to his tongue. Russ decided that it would be a good idea to see if he could get an appointment to see the dentist while we are in Moora.

We had showers and got our lunch things together and headed out. We visited the chemist as planned, but John was on leave which was a bonus as far as I was concerned.

Natalie was the locum while John is away and soon had everything in ship-shape fashion. She needed to ask our Medicare number and address, two things that John did not ask for at all. She also explained that no Prescription Record Form was possible for that script as the item is not on the PBS. How simple was that? Rowena now has her script available to her when she next needs it, and Russ has his things up to date.

From the chemist we crossed the road back to the car and we saw what would be one of the prettiest flowers on a tree ever. There were a series of them on the middle nature strip so I took a shot with the phone and queried Plant ID to find that it is an ornamental tree from the Asian area which does very well in many other places. It is a Bauhinia Variegata and its common names are Mt Ebony or Orchid Tree. I have included the photo for you to see it.

From here we went to re-fuel only to discover that the price has risen by another 10 cents since the other day. We did re-fuel as it was probably not going to be any different in the direction we were taking.

We turned east towards Walebing on the Midlands Road before turning south for a short period on the Great Northern Highway. We then turned east once more on the Waddington-Wongan Hills Road until we came to O’Brien’s Lookout, a few kilometres before the township of Wongan Hills.

And as per usual, the King of all Tinpots (and long may it stay that way) pulled over on the road leading to the lookout as we saw some flashes of colour. I was expecting to find much the same flowers as we had already found in the area around Moora, but I was in for a wonderful surprise.

One of the flowers at the side of the road was a Dryandra Couch Honeypot. I had not expected to find one, so I was a very happy photographer. We also found a few other new flowers that are yet to have their identities confirmed.

While I was out hunting flowers Russ took the opportunity of the Telstra tower nearby and rang the dentist. He spoke with Rita at reception, and she fitted him in at 2:40pm in the afternoon. This meant that we could not spend as much time as we usually would have done.

The weather for the day could not make up its mind what it was supposed to do. One minute it was overcast with a very fine mizzle, and the next minute the sun came out to shine and it got warm. The breeze kept the temperature from being too hot. It hovered around the 20-degree mark.

The views when we got to the top of the Lookout were well worth the effort, but I would not have liked to try and make the trip without 4WD traction. Some parts of it were very steep with a lot of gravel.

We left the lookout and headed towards Wongan Hills. At the time of the 2016 Census there were 898 people in Wongan Hills, of which 53% were males and 47% females. The median age of people there was 39 years.

The history of Wongan Hills is laid out around the sides of the Mt O’Brien Lookout, and it is a snapshot of many Australian towns.

The range of hills known as the Wongan Hills includes Mt O’Brien, Mt Matilda and Mt Rupert. The O’Brien’s Lookout, constructed to mark the Centenary of Federation, is the second highest point in the Wongan Hills at 424 metres above sea level.

Mt O’Brien is named after the family of the same name who were the original leaseholders of the land, and who farmed in the gap between the hills. Large Salmon gums in the northwest of the lookout mark their old homestead.

Mt Matilda to the north is 434 metres and is the highest point in the Wongan Hills. Surveyor John Septimus Roe named Mt Matilda in 1836 after his wife (was she a mountain of a woman?).

At the top of Mt Matilda is a walking trail with scenic views leading to the Speaker’s Chair, named after the Hon T F Quinlan – Speaker of the House of Assembly – who stood on the spot in 1908 looking for an area for the proposed extension of the railway north of Goomalling.

Ninety-three years later to the day on 7 July 2001 the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the Hon Fred Reibling, opened the Mt Matilda Walking Trail.

The far north of the hills is Mt Rupert at 419 metres, which was named after the son of the Hon Charles Sommers MLC – the first person to take up freehold land in the Hills.

The town of Wongan Hills takes it name from the Aborigines as Wongan Katta – the talking or whispering hills for the sound of the wind in the gaps.

The Shire of Wongan is an area of great rural production, especially with regard to cereal crops. The land through out the region is productive and in recent years has seen some diversification from wheat varieties to legumes. The four main crops include Canola, Barley, Lupins and wheat varieties.

For the statistically minded here are some points of interest:

150 loaves of bread from 66 kilograms of flour, 15 bags of flour to one tonne of wheat, 2,250 loaves of bread from one tonne of wheat, which means: 832.853 tonnes of wheat will produce one billion, 686 million, 527 thousand, 325 loaves of bread!

Co-operative Bulk Handling Ltd (CBH) who commenced receiving bulk grain in 1933 handles all of the grains in the Wongan Hills area. At harvest time CBH receives the grain into harvest receival bins until it can be moved to port and then shipped overseas to the export markets. There are two huge receival bins at Wongan Hills.

The Hancey’s were part of the great wave of settlers who came to the country around Wongan Hills between 1905 and 1912. They selected 1,500 acres along the western foot of the hills. The land was dominated by salmon gum and gimlet, knowing these trees grew on good red soil. By 1911 it was said that the only land not taken up was sandplain and scrub country.

1911 also brought about the arrival of the railway line from Perth, via Northam and Goomalling. Despite scanty rain – only seven inches – during the growing season the benefits brought by the railway outweighed the poor crop. However, in 1914 a drought brought only 4 inches of rain which caused ‘much distress’ among local farmers.

The township developed rapidly after the railway arrived and, in 1913 a school opened. A year later the State Hotel was built, and by 1920, after World War 1, the population of the district stood at 659 people.

During the 1920s and 30s the mechanisation of farming was introduced. Practices changed for the better with many adopting a three-year rotational plan – fallow, crop, pasture. This allowed the introduction of sheep, and wool and mutton augmented wheat as the major commodities. By the late 1920s the population had reached 2,000 people, but hard times were just around the corner.

The Great Depression 1929-32 brought considerable distress to both farmers and town folk. Many properties were abandoned. A shortage of water and a flood of dingoes, rabbits and emus caused further difficulties.

The economic tide had turned somewhat by the mid-1930s, and celebrations were held to mark the centenary of the discovery of Wongan Hills by John Septimus Roe.

The end of the decade brought a return to gloom with poor rains and the beginnings of World War 2. The war stretched across the first five years of the period between 1940 and 1960. Petrol rationing made farming so difficult, and it ended in October of 1946.

Around that time war surplus machinery started to filter out into the agricultural regions, and purpose-built machines began to benefit from war-driven engineering advances.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s water shortages were an ongoing issue. In 1943 the Wongan Hills town dam was ‘dangerously low’, while in 1946 many were carting water into the district.

In 1951 rationing of water became necessary, and household washing was taken out to the farms to be done. Finally, a large dam was constructed, and the town supply was reticulated to all houses.

Around this time stock saleyards were constructed on the edge of town, which reflected a growing pattern of integrating sheep into a primarily grain producing district. Wool prices boomed Australia-wide in the 1950s and many farmers ‘rode on the sheep’s back’ to a new level of prosperity.

By the end of the 1950s the junior high school was extended, and a new hospital and nurse’s quarters had been secured.

The advent of machinery was the lead story in the 1960 to 1980 period of Wongan Hills’ history. It contributed to rapid change in farming as new herbicides were released and spraying became widespread. New crops, such as lupins and canola, offered alternatives to wheat.

Farmers changed from using bags to bulk handling of everything. Wool prices continued to do well in the 1960s. Agriculture was in good shape when the 1970s arrived, but more change was ahead.

The election of the Federal Government in 1972 (Gough Whitlam) saw a range of agricultural support mechanisms removed, and the wool market

declined steadily. A ‘big-dry’ was widespread and disease decimated the emerging canola industry.

Modern facilities had come to town in the late 1960s. A new railway station, Shire Chambers, Civic Centre, Bowling Club and swimming pool were constructed, and an ABC transmitter was built on Mt O’Brien.

In the 1980s huge self-propelled machines prowled ever larger paddocks like giant alien praying mantises. The array of chemicals available to farmers increased at a bewildering pace and the buzzwords were ‘precision farming’.

Wongan Hills was a major retail centre for farming equipment with three large dealerships in operation. It is thought that more equipment was sold in Wongan Hills than in any other single town in WA. Servicing all the new and massive machinery generated huge and highly skilled businesses.

Salinity became a spiralling problem and tree planting, and re-vegetation programs, began in earnest. Then, in the 1990s the hay and straw business suddenly expanded, offering another option for land users focussed on cropping.

Dramatic changes in the farming world flowed on into the broader community. Not all consequences were positive ones. Farms doubled in size from amalgamations and economies of scale and, as a result, the population fell as farm workers were not required.

However, in the late 1990s tourism began to bring visitors back to the district which sparked something of a revival. By the year 2000 the population decline has stopped, and the future was viewed with renewed confidence.

From Wongan Hills we turned south until we came to Catabody Road and turned onto the Bindi Bindi-Toodyay Road heading west towards New Norcia. (I won’t even begin to try and tell you how to pronounce Toodyay but let me tell you it sounds nothing like it is spelt!)

We crossed a road named Behanging Road. I would dearly love to know the history behind that one.

Finally, we turned back onto the Great Northern Highway a short distance before New Norcia, which would have to be a very hurried stay if we were to return to Moora in time to see the dentist.

When we arrived there Russ commented that he hadn’t remembered how really big the place was from last time we had a short stop here on the bus trip. He immediately said it would take a full day to do the place justice, to which I could heartily agree.

We had lunch in the car park at New Norcia before heading north to Moora.

The dentist, Dr Faisal, was the nicest and gentlest man I have met for a long time. The biggest compliment I could give him was to say he was in the same category as Dr Wong who removed my wisdom teeth. He was a gem of a man.

Dr Faisal explained everything that would happen for the procedure as he went along. He explained to me, well out of Russell’s hearing due to his anxiety, that he expected some swelling and possible bruising over the next few days, but it was not something he should be unduly worried about as long as there was no infection.

To that problem he supplied a script for a slow-release pain medication, and some antibiotics. Russ has had to have stitches in his gum as Dr Faisal had to cut deep to get the whole root out, and it had to be done in pieces.

Thank heavens we have dental health insurance. It still cost us $342 in out-of-pocket expense, but that was a whole lot better than the grand total of $806 without health insurance.

Back to the chemist we went, and Russ stayed in the car with his numb mouth, and I took his scripts to Natalie for dispensing. Russ is only allowed cold liquid type foods tonight, so I see him having yoghurt and ice-cream before washing his mouth out with cold salty water.