5.4.11 – Flowers and Heather (Australind and Bunbury, Western Australia)

5.4.11 – Flowers and Heather (Australind and Bunbury, Western Australia)

As we sat eating breakfast on our little courtyard, a small white Frangipani flower dropped from one of the trees above.  Its five white, delicate, waxy petals fanned out, each looking as if a careful artist had painted a splash of bright yellow in the centre.  Purple bourgainvillea tumbled over the wall above.  A pleasant way to start the day, before getting in the car to travel the long, straight roads again.

Many Australian townships are so embedded in the woodland that you could pass them by and not know they were there.  So as we searched for Heather’s house, we thought it was impossible that we were at the right place – it appeared to be just a leafy forest.  Then a driveway appeared, with the inevitable letterbox on a post, and nestling amongst the gum trees was a pretty bungalow.  Heather is Bill’s cousin George’s daughter, and she and Mark have lived and brought up their three children in Australind, Western Australia, about 90 minutes drive south of Perth.  In the heat of the day, we sat in comfortable chairs, under a wooden garden shade, drinking tea and talking – the ups and downs of emigration; Australia’s way of life; Aboriginal society and culture.  Heather has recently started teacher training, and has covered Aboriginal Studies, which she found fascinating. I relished a chance to explore this issue, with which I have become more and more fascinated.  The trees shaded us and made us feel cocooned deep within the woods.  There are tame possums living in a knot hole in one of the trees; she has also tamed Magpies.  Unfortunately, neither the possums nor Magpies showed themselves while we were around.

Little settlers' church

The 'Milk Carton'

Later, Heather took us out to the centre of Australind, where a tiny wooden church still stood as it has since the settlers arrived about 150 years ago.  Then on to Bunbury, an elegant, low rise town, curved around a wide bay edged with long cream beaches. We lunched overlooking bobbing sailing boats on the blue water.  Previously an industrial town, its former grain silos have been converted into stylish flats, and another somewhat odd building rejoiced in the nickname ‘The Milk Carton’ – and that is just what it looked like.

From the top of the look-out tower

The lookout in this town demanded a bit more of the tourists than the others we have visited.  There, you simply drove up, parked and looked out.  Here, a slender – and slightly scary – concrete and metal tower challenged you to climb its spiral staircase for a spectacular 360 degree view of the town. Adjacent was a nattily painted black and white lighthouse.

Back at the house, Mark and son Andrew helped us demolish a crunchy salad before the long drive back to Perth.  We’d been warned that kangaroos often jump across the freeway at dusk, so it was eyes peeled all the way till we got to the ice cream parlour at Scarborough for passion fruit cones, eaten overlooking the darkened beach on which the waves broke in ghostly white surf.

Andrew, Mark, Meg, Heather and Bill