Southern Cross 21 January 2007

Had a look at the remains of the rabbit proof fence – once the longest structure in the world – but now a shadow of itself. Turned off to visit an old gold mining village called Westonia. The old mine there has been closed and opened at least three times since it started in 1901, the last closure being 1991. Well hells bells! It’s opening again now and is a hive of activity! It feels like it is nowhere but a local told us there was going to have a new land release and the blocks will cost $4,000 or $5,000. We were surprised they were not giving them away.
Moved onto Southern Cross, another old gold mining town and camped at the showground. When it cooled down, we went for a walk around the town and had dinner in an historic pub – the owner told us that he had spent $3 million on renovations – given that we were the only people in the dining room, he may take a long time to get his money back!
This town was super green and was pouring on the water. They all source it from the same pipe so we guess some people feel they deserve more. Having seen the source of this water supply in the dwindling dam near Perth, they need to review how they all use water, but unequal water use seems to be the norm across Australia.