Merredin, Western Australia
· travel · genealogy · exploring ·
This week my dad and I went to Merredin on a FamilyHistoryWA excursion. It was a very interesting trip, and made me more keen to figure out better ways to link family history and Wikimedia.
Day One
We left East Perth just after 7AM on Thursday, which meant getting the first buses into Fremantle a bit before 6. It was almost drizzling, but not quite. We were both rather quiet and still waking up by the time we got to East Perth and sat down for a cup of tea in the café there — the worst cup of tea, possibly ever. It tasted as though it'd be infused with coal smoke!
The train journey was very comfortable, and I dozed because I'd barely slept the night before. The new wifi service worked well (when it had an outward signal), and I read the news on my phone ("never complain; never explain") because I couldn't be bothered fetching my book down from the luggage rack. Bringing a flask of fresh coffee was a terrific idea, and the sun came out after we'd passed Toodyay. The OSM maps on the Prospector showed their normal red dot which didn't quite keep up — and then failed to move at all after about Doodlakine. (I wonder if Leaflet has a "stick to line" plugin?) As well as wifi, the train has 240v sockets, but of course I managed to forget my USB adapter and so was reduced to relying on my external battery.
The buffet closes a bit before Merredin, and so despite the red dot on the map not moving for half an hour we knew we were close to Merredin. Upon arriving, we headed straight off to the motel to dump our bags and then head off to find firstly lunch and secondly the WAGS group. We walked around the place, unknowingly following in reverse pretty much the same route that the tour was to take later in the day. We peered at the theatre:
The old town hall:
The ('replica' of the) Bills water trough:
And a few other things around the place:
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Communications tower and satellite dish for tracking marine traffic.
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One of the two dog parks, replete with jumping-through hoops.
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Flags at half-mast.
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More flags.
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Interesting brick facade on a building in Queen Street.
The light wasn't great for photos, but I was in the mood for filing in blanks on the Commons and Wikidata maps. The place we ended up at for lunch was nice: a cafe in the old postmaster's residence, with tables on the verandah and built of much finer bricks than many we'd noticed around (pressed not wire cut; there seems to have been a brickworks in the wheatbelt when this place was built, but there was also lots imported from Midland). After lunch, it was off to the library (the regional library, in the old north-side primary school). Got there early, and so got to check out the memorabilia room.
The military historian Bob presented first, talking about his family history in Merredin and the districts (we met him again the following day at the military museum). Then Mal spoke about the natural history of the area — followed by a tour of the Merredin Wildflower Society's herbarium (also located in a classroom of the old primary school).
A knowledgeable local (with a terrific tour-guide voice that had no trouble carrying over the wind and traffic) took us on a tour of Bates Street and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, we were both rather kaput and so gave up after an hour or two and went back to check in to our room and relax for a while before dinner. The news of Patagonia being sold to a non-profit was all over the feeds. I was attempting to catch up on my diary by typing on my phone (in a Nextcloud app), and it was all rather frustrating — but still better than handing over data to the usual companies.
Dinner was at the Grandstand Bar at the sports ground. All fairly much as expected, but one nice thing was that the acoustics were actually not terrible, and so we could talk to each other. The WAGS membership is mostly rather older, and so there's an element of needing to speak clearly!
Sleeping was easy, and the motel was pretty comfortable. The train sounds were fine; the air-con of the next door room was less so.
Day Two
Things dawned quiet, cold, and reasonably satisfied by breakfast in the motel dining room. It's weird that decent toast is such a hard thing to come by while travelling, but I always find it very comforting when it is.
We ambled down the road, sticking to the sunny side of the street, to the military museum where the WAGS group was assembling in the car park. To get there we skirted the landscaping works happening around the base of the water tower.
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We explored the military museum for a while, and then got the call that it was morning tea time at the refreshments' room at the railway museum — so off we went (circumnavigating the old train station, because the eastern pedestrian crossing was closed for the landscaping works). A grand morning tea put on by (the vice-president? president? something like that) of the Heritage Society. Followed by a climb up into the signal cabin and a great explanation of much of its workings by an ex-WAGR technician.
After that, everyone explored that museum for a bit, and then dispersed to drive off to see wildflowers or head home, and we walked south to the old cemetery. That was a lovely place, full of flowers and bush that feels pretty untouched (no idea if that's the case).
Day Three
The motel dining room wasn't open when it said it would be, so we gave up on it and thought Saturday morning would be a good time to try one of the other cafes in town. However, none of the others were open so we ended up back at Dimensions. It had a lovely sunny courtyard, and was close to the railway station, so all was good. It did mean that we had to walk back to the motel to get our stuff though.
The train was half an hour late. It did come though, and it did take us back to Perth. The royal funeral was still top of the news: "…these processes that have been in place for a very long period of time. They began tragically on Friday morning…" — it it really 'tragic' though? Sad, sure, but hardly tragic.
Anyway, all up, Merredin is a lovely town, and there's still lots more that I want to explore!
