Central Greenough

We booked into a caravan park in Geraldton for a few nights and decided to stay on as we need to have the van looked at before we travel on to parts unknown and more to the point parts where services are limited. At this stage we will move on on Wednesday all things being well.

Whilst we have been here in a park right beside the ocean (we really do fluke this rather well now!) we’ve enjoyed some lovely walks along the beach although nothing compares to Cape Le Grand yet.

We have had mixed weather, although not as bad as home we realise but still not great, so we spent an afternoon exploring Greenough which was fascinating. Greenough is a historic settlement located 25km south of Geraldton and became a thriving agricultural settlement during the 1860’s but the threat of rust on the wheat crops combined with drought, flood and poor prices for agricultural products led to the area’s decline.

What remains is now restored and maintained by the National Trust and comprises eleven buildings. We visited the Greenough Store, Central Greenough School, Police Station and Gaol, St. Catherine’s Church, Greenough Road Board Office, St. Catherine’s Hall, Hackett’s Collage, Presbytery, Goodwin’s Cottage, St. Peter’s Church and the Greenough Convent.

Of note was the Police Station and Residence in which the story is told of how the police sergeant lived there for quite a number of years with his wife and eleven children. In the bedroom as pictured four children slept top and tail in each single bed, in the master bedroom there was a trundle in which three slept when the last outgrew the cot! Presumably the sergeant also kept the numbers up at the school and the Catholic Church. In fact he was such a good parishioner that the nuns gave him a house to live in for his retirement which ironically was much larger than the police sergeants’ residence!

It was a wonderful place to visit and to marvel how the women coped with their lot. The pictures from the school room certainly didn’t indicate that the children had a lot of fun, at least not the day the photo was taken.

On the way back into Geraldton we took a photo of one of these remarkable leaning trees which we seen a number of times in this area. They are red gum trees, and it is easy to see how much consistent wind they had in their formative years.