Visit to Wave Rock - York to Corrigin

The day started early as I had to get into Perth for 0730 to start the journey to Wave Rock, which was a distance of about 400Km away. We were not due to return before 2030, so a long day, but I anticipated a good one and also a chance to nap on the coach at some points!! We headed out through the Darling Ranges, a range of hills that are reasonably high in Australia, but are not much higher than Portsdown Hill when you go through them. Blink and you will miss them! This takes you into orchard country where most of the apples, oranges, lemons etc are produced. Australia produces most of its own food, only importing out of season mainly from the Asian countries. From here we made our way to historic York. In 1829 53 ships landed in Western Australia full of people who had been promised land. York is ideally located only 97 km from Perth and it was the first inland European settlement in WA. It is full of really beautiful old buildings. There is little doubt that it is one of the best preserved and restored nineteenth century towns in Australia. It was first surveyed by Ensign Robert Dale in 1831 and named after our city of York in northern England. It was settled in the 1830s by farmers who concentrated their efforts on sheep and wheat with the occasional field of barley. A township did not begin to appear until 1835/36 when an army barracks and store were built and some 50 acres of land were cleared. Another cafe/coffee culture and another flat white coffee for me!
We then moved on to Corrigin about half way to our destination and had a look at the Dog Cemetery which is a tribute to Australian working sheep dogs. On the road to Quairading is the dog cemetery where loving owners have gone to the expense of having quite elaborate headstones placed over the remains of their faithful four legged companions. Thus very human looking gravestones are dedicated to 'Dusty', 'Rover' and 'Spot'. To find such a strange place outside an unassuming little wheatbelt town like Corrigin is both fascinating and a credit to the owners of the dogs.