Thurs 17 Oct 2013 – Wildflower Farm

After I'd finished last night's blog, Rodger got talking to our neighbours, Wayne and Virginia, and discovered that they're a Christian couple from down South. We enjoyed some time chatting with them this morning, before we all set off.

We rang our friends at Ellel Ministries at Springhill WA to see if it was convenient for us to visit and we're going there tomorrow. As they're to the NE of Perth, it makes sense for us to leave the coast today and travel diagonally across to them. It makes even more sense when I tell you that this is Wildflower country!

As we headed inland, we saw a big wind farm with 48 wind tubines. As we drove past, I was singing the "Energy March" that Cathie wrote for Ecopella, "The wind will drive the fine white sails, of turbines out on plain and hill ...".

Our first stop was Badgingarra National Park, where we followed a walking trail and saw lots of flowers, some of which were new to us. 

Again, we were covered with flies the whole way, they seem to like Wildflowers too! After lunch, we set off again to a town called Moora because it's on the River Moor. It's another old town, with some lovely houses. We headed out of it to the North as we wanted to visit the wildflower farm there.

It's a huge farm, they raise sheep and grow wheat and flowers commercially, it takes 4 hours just to drive around the flower fields! Their flower business is in dried flowers, which they export all over the world.

First we were directed to the shearing shed, where we were able to watch the sheep being sheared and the wool checked and sorted.

Next we were invited to walk around the flower drying and dyeing shed. There were rows and rows of big buckets of flowers standing in glycerine and water, so that the petals are soft after drying. 

There were hundreds of bunches of flowers, especially Everlastings, hanging from the ceiling and more wrapped up for sale. Rhonda, the owner, served us cups of tea and put on a DVD for us about their farm and the flowers typical to the area. This was great for us as it meant we could see the names for some of the flowers we've been seeing in the last few days.

Rhonda the owner of the Western Wildflower Farm

As we were leaving, we passed one of their wheat fields with wildflowers growing around the edges. 

We're definitely in the wheat belt here, we drove past many wheat and canola fields on our way to Bindoon, where we're staying the night. We also passed a large radio satellite dish just sitting in the middle of a field.

On our way we passed through the town of New Norcia, which is the only Monastery town in Australia with 16 Benedictine monks still in residence.

We set up for the night in a rest area on the main highway, Rodger sitting on his new fishing chair. 

While we were having a drink and cooking dinner, truck after truck drove in and stopped to use the toilets and check their loads, perhaps it's the only rest area for miles - it looks like it might be a noisy night!