Model A Restorers Club of WA Inc

In the early hours at Three Ways camp it rained very heavily.  Some were prepared and some not. Colin was seen sitting up in bed with an umbrella to keep the rain off; it didn’t work.  He then got under a tarp and sweated so much he got wetter; needless to say he did not get much sleep. Frank slept in the driver’s seat of his car.

When the sun came up we packed up and headed for the Qld border, running in and around heavy thunderstorms. Smoko at Barkley homestead, very nice property; still in spinafex and open tree terrain. Onto the Queensland border by late arvo; all cars performing well but not liking  a strong headwind. The younger members decided to tune Anthony’s ute, with manual out, in a rain storm. The photos say it all.

With the help of the older club members Col and Reg, the car was tuned and on its way to the border and into Camooweal for the night. Some camping,  some in dongas.  450 kms completed and 2/3 of the trip to Ipswich completed.  Glad’s starter packed it in and she had to be pushed – started all afternoon, easier than cranking. Peter got a flat tyre but all cars going well. Great to be in Queensland; less than 2000kms to go. Will fix Glad’s starter in morning and then to Mt Isa to play tourists and visit RFDS base. Please give generously to www.flyingdoctor.org.au  and thank you again Telstra for supplying the equipment to do this blog.

Grumpy Alan

Barkley Hwy where we cut Frank’s Birthday Fruit Cake – delicious!

The Young Guns

Rain Mechanics

A welcome sign at sunset; note the treeless grass plains

Bob, Peter and Banker Bob

Had cuppa and a happy birthday song for Frank and some songs that are not repeatable. Left Daly Waters for Dunmara Roadhouse where some had a cooked breakfast, especially birthday boy. Day is cool and low cloud, cars are operating with ease in these conditions. Plan a short day [400kms] stopping at Newcastle Waters. Looked around the heritage townsite and Packer’s massive homestead. Water flowing over the road and people fishing on the side of the road. Now stopped at Elliott, a nice aboriginal town.

Daly Waters

Franks birthday party

On to Elliot and fuelled up; weather was cloudy but warm. Reached Threeways early, tidied up cars and had a clean up and rest. We all had a drink to Frank’s birthday and are taking him out to dinner. We all gave him presents and he was silent and appreciative.

Three Ways camp before the rain.

Tomorrow we head east along the Barkley Hwy into Queensland. We are travelling through country similiar to the Pilbara WA; all very wet and green with scattered parkland trees, mainly acacias and some eucalyptus.

Today we had half a day sightseeing in Katherine and working on our cars.  Some went to Katherine Gorge; some had a good look around the town.  We were visited by Ian Locke of the Katherine Veteran Car Club who gave us some pointers in regard to the trip.  We presented him with a club calendar.  At 12.30 we left Katherine for Mataranga Springs.  We all had a swim except Reg.  A beautiful place to visit. The spring flows 5 million gallons per day and is crystal clear water surrounded by very large palm trees.  Then we headed further south down the Stuart Highway to Daly Waters.  [Total 300 kms].  On the way we dodged several thunderstorms and went through some rain.  All the cars ran extremely well and enjoyed a tail wind and cooler weather.

On arriving at Daly Waters’ original pub [est. 1870 – hasn’t changed since] we booked into the Backpackers accommodation as rain was threatening.  At $20 per person you couldn’t get more basic accommodation; it’s bunk beds but a hot shower and good fun.  The frog in the shower is alive and bright green [6 inches across].

We travelled through typical Northern Territory savannah grasslands dotted with eucalyptus trees.  The country is enjoying a very good season.  Bird life fantastic, including emus, ducks, straw-necked ibis, rainbow birds and many many other varieties.  We have all eaten very well at the pub but the mozzies are very hungry.  Because all the cars travelled so well the team is very happy.

Due to poor reception photos will follow.

Had a 6AM start in the cars from Kununara with a large monsoon to the north.  We headed east to Timber  Creek with few problems [GLAD’s senior mechanic changed the carby over in record-breaking time of 3 minutes using gloves due to extreme heat]

Water flows across the road, beautiful country, high cliffs with striated rock formations and green grasses , eucalypts and still boab trees. Water everywhere. We headed across the border into NT and made for Victoria River easily. After lunch, headed into Katherine, through some heavy rain and arrived about 5pm.  We booked into a caravan park; some camping, some in aircon chalets.  Off to the RSL club for dinner.

Another 500kms completed and now half way to Ipswich. Heavy rain tonight and the boys have seen their first cane toads – by the thousands. Colin needs a new manifold, Anthony has a fuel consumption problem, and GLAD needs a carby clean. Also, her Klaxon  horn has burnt out; all good fun. The change in time has put us all out of whack [1 1/2  hours].

TODAY is a maintenance day; we worked on all of the cars and got them ready for an early start for Katherine, 500kms.  Colin is concerned about the vibration in his car; we fixed 2 starter motors, 2 mufflers, tightened many nuts, tail in tail out, fixed tyres, serviced and repaired tyres, adjusted steerings, rested drivers and did our washing.  Cooking Frank’s pattie recipe prepared by Brett should be good.

We all went sight-seeing when we fueled up ready for the early start; must get over the fords [running water on the road] before any more rain; there will be water in many floodways . Could be a interesting day. The proof of the meal is in the eating; all the patties were eaten and none left over, even followed by fruit and icecream. We need to depart early as there is a tropical monsoon close to the north and will be a cyclone soon, need to get inland to Katherine and south by tomorrow or the roads could be closed. Club president Allan Jeffries told us of Ray and Toni Mahoney’s accident with their trailored Model A – bad luck.  Glad they are continuing to Ipswich.

We must thank Direct Drilling for their friendship and access to all of their work shops and facilities; a very impressive drilling company.

We left Fitzroy Crossing at 6.15am after a eventful night for the light sleepers: a noisy drunken party 300 m. away, 10 gunshots at 2am, one road train drove by with 2 flat tyres [very noisy]. Otherwise a great stay.

Heading to Hall’s Creek for lunch stop, country different again, long grasses and spinafex very green with some beautiful granite outcrops. All cars travelling well with minor adjustments, water pump adjusting, starter motor sticking etc.  Allen picked a posie of flowers for Frank [see photo below].

Smoko on the road Colin and Frank.

We saw many animals; brolgas, jaburu’s, dingoes, bastard turkey, frilled neck lizards, and many more. We went through Turkey Creek and past Lake Argyle and over the diversion dam wall holding back lake Kununara [which is technically the Ord River] and into Kununurra townsite by 6pm. Met on the road by Col’s freind Bill who escorted us to a great industrial shed for our use [thanks to Direct Drilling]. Includes showers, kitchen, toilets, and room for the cars and us to camp in the shed. Also, gear and work space to work on our cars tomorrow, which is a lay day. [His work team had a BBQ cooked and ready when we arrived; great hospitality in the north].

We completed over 600kms today; Katherine will be half way. Bob’s car had its starter motor fall apart, hope to fix [he has the crank as a fall back], but all the cars travelled well. Colin is concerned with an engine vibration, will sort out tomorrow. I don’t think Henry Ford used a GPS. Great for speed, distance, time, next fuel [note the aircon is on 2 inches].

Guess who in the photos is the home-cooked bikkie supplier. Reg found a  hammer in the bush. Domestic violence joke removed by Editor.

Frank cooked a great mince spag meal; delicious. Note Eagles scarf. Was useful as air-conditioning device.

It is 7.30am, the timing gear in Peter Eadleys 1928 Phaeton is out. Missing photo id It has stripped the centre, the gear had been repaired with a lot of Araldite, put in a new aluminium gear – amazing!  Looks as though we will be away by lunch.  Weather beautiful,  light breeze to keep humidity down. We are catching up on washing and car checking.

All cars got away at 9.45am.

Left Roebuck roadhouse after installing new timing gear in Peter’s A, heading up to Wilare bridge for lunch, introduced Jack Burton who owns the roadhouse and most of the Fitzroy basin. We are in the true Kimberleys; boab trees and green cane grasses everywhere. The cattle are now all Brahmans for export toAsia/Indonesia. We crossed the Fitzroy river which is running a banker after recent 10 inch rains. All the A’s now have their front windscreen propped open for better air flow in these humid conditions; this actually keeps us cool as the air flows around us rather than in the face.

Anthony  had a water pump problem; we repacked the pump and away we went , then Bob had a flat and Glad had a fuel blockage solved with a exchange carby, all went well and we have reached Fitzroy Crossing . At the roadhouse Peter was offered barrumundi from some aboriginal ladies but he got cold feet as they wanted him to go down the river .

Found a friendly local who offered his yard for us to camp in with toilets and shower and security. We are over 2500 kms from Perth and 4200 kms from Ipswich – over 1/3 of the way. Country is now open grasslands, wet soil , flowing rivers and very humid. The mozzies  are so thick they have carried away all of the snakes.

This is an insectivorous plant; it eats insects.

Hopefully an early start tomorrow.

The Team at Pardoo

We started the day at Pardoo Station.  They allowed us to use the station work shop and pit, so we checked all the cars top to bottom, and effected repairs to GLAD who needed a new exhaust gasket. Colin’s car also needs an exhaust gasket but he likes the sound it makes! Made a new plug for Bob’s carby; he carries a complete spare carby also but did not want to put it on [?]

Then we lined up for a photo shoot for the Pardoo people and off down the wet dirt road  to the hwy. Stopped at Pardoo Roadhouse for fuel and headed for  the Sandfire/Broome turnoff.

Allan wants everyone in the world to know a lot of different wattles are in flower adding colour to the landscape as he thinks most people on this trip have not noticed. Stopped at Pardoo Roadhouse, fueled up  – $2.59 per litre. Then onto Sandfire Roadhouse for a lunch stop via one of Colin’s artesian bores, very interesting.  Pity some members cannot read tracks – had a 10km detour [?????] Now into true Kimberley.  Cane grass country with open flats and miles of green grasses, fantastic flat cattle country. As the sun set we had a true N/W thunderstorm to our north and the full moon rising in the east. Beautiful.

Arrived at Broome turnoff Roebuck Roadhouse and the rain started. Some camped and some moved into dongas 1st class. We all purchased a meal and then found that Peter’s Phaeton would not start; we suspect a timing gear has stripped, will find out tomorrow. We have a spare but if it has to happen can’t think of a nicer place than Broome to have a delay.  Also Bob’s stick is still in the carby, he says it drips a little.

Mechanic Brett [thanks to Colin’s expertise

Bob the Gardener, or carby whittler

The real mechanic Colin, working on GLAD

Reg and Coral are in the red Landy and caravan, he is tail-end-Charlie mechanic and Coral is good for a cuppa anytime,maybe a home- made cookie as well, keeping up easily.  I think Reg enjoys the trouble-shooting.

Cyclone appears to be no threat at this stage.

Picture of chap with arms folded is Bob the Banker [Peter Eadley’s ex- friend; may have something to do with the shower photo earlier].

Roebuck Plains and thunderstorm over Broome

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