Melangata station

Fun, Food and Flowers. This would be a fair representation of the club trip to Melangata station. (pronounced M’LAngita). The convoy departed Miling on Saturday morning after a fairly cold night. We picked Charm and Jenny up in Morowa at morning tea time. We travelled onto Yalgoo, stopping for fuel and a quick bite to eat. We then got onto gravel and found the homestead easily. Lisa arrived to make the group complete after we had all set up.

After setting up camp we gathered around the campfire with Jo Clews (accompanied by Benita the orphan Damara lamb) for our first demonstration of damper. Jo made one batch and put it in the camp oven, then asked for volunteers to make another. Kim stepped forward and made more damper, watched by us all. The damper filled with olives and dried tomatoes was delicious.

While it was cooking, we all started getting our ingredients, camp ovens and heat beads organised. Everyone was very well fed. After we had all eaten, there was a large central bonfire lit and most campers on site arrived to enjoy it. The Suburu and Geraldton 4wd clubs were both on site, so it was a very social evening.

On the Sunday we gathered around the campfire again to have a taste of a vegetable frittata that Jo had made from eggs and left over roasted vegetables. There was a guided tour of the homestead, which is heritage listed. It was very interesting, with no external doors, an internal breezeway, a large room with a painted and pressed iron ceiling, a small chapel and a turret. The homestead is the only privately owned property designed by Priest-Architect Monsignor John Hawes.

After the tour we collected to make scones in the camp ovens. Jennifer also made beer bread. After the reticence of volunteers on the Saturday, there were many ready to make scones – plain, with sultanas, with lollies. After we had eaten all we could, we departed to do a tour of the area. We first visited Dalgaranga homestead (abandoned) and the Dalgaranga dam. Then we travelled on to the Dalgaranga crater. We passed an abandoned mine and decided to visit it on the way back. We tried a different track. While we were scouting around for the track to the mine, we came across a large eagle’s nest with one chick in it. The chick kept popping its head up to look at us and Dave climbed the next door tree to get a better look inside the nest. We ended up back tracking the few kilometres covered and explored the remains of the mine, from the nests on top of the old frame to the bottom of the excavation hole. The evening finished with our own small camp fire.

On Monday morning we went in different directions. Some left early to head for Perth, others of us travelled together to Yalgoo before separating. The weekend was a great learning opportunity. The classroom was outside, the teacher was very easy to get on with and we all learnt a lot.