Secial commemorative 25th Anniversary Dwellingup trip incorporating North and South Dandalup Dams and the Dwellingup POW camp.
Date - 26th
February 2011
Trip Leader -
Peter & Denise Belcher
Trip Notes - Glen
Bignell
Participants:
Rick & Nancy Ellis,
Ian, Robyn and Emma Tooke, Trevor & Rachel Theunisson and family, Guy &
Wendy Lehman, Sam & Pasc Vasile and two visitors, Glen Bignell, John &
Rosalie King, Andrew & Karina Drakeley & family, Stephen & Georgia Kalyniuk
& Donna, John & Lyn Byworth, Tony & Stella Weldon (club historian), Keith
Parker (tail end Charlie), Michael Needham and Martin & Karen Archer and
Lockie.
Sunday 26th February 2011
There
were 15 cars in total we all met at the Pioneer Village Armadale car park at
09:15 for a 09:30 start. Peter welcomed all members and visitors and
carefully explained the planned activities, routes, convoy and communication
procedures.
Peter and Denise did a fabulous job of researching all of the places of
interest along on our journey and informing us as we progressed – a tour
guide could not have done a better job.
We set off south at 09:35 on South West Highway and turned East into Boyd
Road (37km from Armadale) after Peter had some issues with his new GPS. We
followed Boyd road through to Scarp Road, continued on past Hines Road and
over North Dandalup Dam wall and on to the original ‘Pipe Head Dam’ for
morning tea following in the tracks of the original party 25 years ago.
After morning tea, we exited the pipe head dam and continued our journey
south to Whitakers Hill and an abandoned Gold Mine. Apparently there was a
gold rush in the area in the late 1890’s and the remnant of this gold mine
was on display. We then retraced our tracks back to Scarp Road and continued
to Whittaker’s Road and veered right onto North Road. This eventually took
us to the ALCOA access road and conveyer belt where we turned right and
headed for North Dandalup Dam via Del Park Road. Unfortunately there was a
mix-up with marking of corners and the convoy became separated. Strangely
enough this also happened to the intrepid trip of 25 years ago – perhaps it
was meant to be!
We regrouped at South Dandalup Dam car park for lunch all grouped under the
trees as by now the temperatures were in the high thirties.
After lunch we backtracked along Del Park Road to turn left into Edgar road
and again left into Scarp Road, turned right onto ‘North Spur Road’ and left
into the ALCOA lookout area overlooking the Pinjarra refinery. After looking
at the impressive scenery we headed back to Scarp Road and continued south
through Marinup via the power line track to the POW camp of World War 2
vintage.
The POW camp was a fascinating look into our past with interactive
information boards at places of interest – the group scattered wide and far
following different paths and eventually met up back at the cars about an
hour later.
Next we set off for Dwellingup via Scarp road and Pinjarra Williams road to
a café in Dwellingup for ice creams, coffee and cake and our farewells at
16:30.
This was an easy going trip with an interesting look back into our past and
also the present. It was enjoyed by all. Thanks again Peter and Denise for
the thorough preparation, guidance and interesting commentary along the way.
Thanks also to Stella for her historian information along the way.