Murchison Settlement…Western Australia

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:06][music] Always ready.

[00:01:07]swings around the sharp corner there.

[00:01:09]See the water over yonder?

[00:01:13]Just going for a wander along the river to the north. See if there's any big pools.

[00:01:34]A lot of green duck around here.

[00:01:37]Must be everywhere cuz there's no cattle here at the moment.

[00:01:54]Yeah, the river zigzags all over the place. Up this way.

[00:02:03]Just heading back to the Y through the scrub.

[00:02:14]Lot of sand fire through here.

[00:02:32]on the road again. Heading further north.

[00:03:01]in a roundabout sort of away.

[00:03:09]Couple of cows up ahead.

[00:03:22]There's that old fence line on the left.

[00:03:46]They're heading back down the river. No fence down there, so that's a little calf will catch up with them. Yep.

[00:03:52]I reckon that is a maroon bush, too.

[00:03:57]It's got flowers and fruit on it. The fruit go black or maroon when they're ripe. And apparently it's known for its healing properties.

[00:04:15]There's lots of these things around.

[00:04:26]Sounds like water's over. Flowing back down the ball.

[00:04:30]That's a high tank.

[00:04:34]It's a galvan wise one underneath it.

[00:04:47]A lot of work went into building this tank. I reckon seen a lot of them around.

[00:04:54]This should be a windmill here.

[00:05:00]Got a tree from the outside with a branch in the tank now.

[00:05:04]Oops.

[00:05:15]It's a female robin.

[00:05:39]This tank must be fed from the one back down the track that was sitting on top of the old tank.

[00:05:48]A decent sort of cattle yards here.

[00:06:11]I was un keen on that hook. Landed right next to me trying to get away from him, I think, but then realized I wasn't a tree and took off.

[00:06:31]It's a rider.

[00:06:43]I saw this thing shining out in the bush over here. Well, there's no bush. Desolate it. Pretty desolate here. Anyway, turns out that's an insulator.

[00:06:58]And don't appear to be broken either, which is amazing.

[00:07:05]My criy, that was close.

[00:07:34]This road's better than Great Norway.

[00:07:46]Another old tank and a trough.

[00:07:54]Main roads are doing a bit of road works here.

[00:08:05]Been concreted out.

[00:08:13]Going to wander over here and have a look. It's supposed to be duffer. Well, bit of glass and stuff lying around here.

[00:08:23]Got some good of a buckle here.

[00:08:33]Beer bottle.

[00:08:36]She's not broken either. Oh, it's got McKay written on it. That's different.

[00:08:43]May trademark the property of May and K.

[00:08:52]Perth WA see that don't know whether it was a beer. I don't know if Mage's made beer but I know they made ginger beer. So perhaps that's what it was.

[00:09:13]Got me bits of tin.

[00:09:18]Somebody must have camped here.

[00:09:20]That one there was used as a bucket. Got a handle on it.

[00:09:26]There you go.

[00:09:29]Pretty sleek looking moth.

[00:09:45]Well, I reckon that was out of a saddle.

[00:09:51]The front part or the back part? The back part. I'd say one of those. Whatever that is.

[00:10:03]Bit of moisture over there.

[00:10:22]Pop fitting couple pipe I think hiding in the bush.

[00:10:49]Ah, one of them again like a vola bottle. I doubt it had fruit or something in it.

[00:11:00]Be a bottle hide in the bush.

[00:11:04]Missouri, you reckon?

[00:11:16]Australian glass manufacturers.

[00:11:20]Looks like somebody had a bit of tire trouble.

[00:11:23]Well, look at the tinder around the place somewhere camped here for a couple of days.

[00:11:30]Here we go.

[00:12:06]Ah, big paper up.

[00:12:09]There you go. Shining over that way now.

[00:12:13]So, it looks like that's where I'm heading. It's like somebody's had a party here.

[00:12:25]Just wondering over to that white sand hill. Little hill of white sand over there. See what that is. Sort of dam or something.

[00:12:38]Looks like this is duff well.

[00:12:46]Yeah, that's what it is. Duffer well.

[00:12:53]Don't think so.

[00:12:56]Looks like this may have been where the old road went through.

[00:13:14]old fence line over there.

[00:13:24]It's pretty old. That fence line still standing.

[00:13:28]The wires are probably all rusted away and tangled up all over the place.

[00:13:49]Welcome to the Merchesen Merches settlement.

[00:14:20]We got a nice caravan park here.

[00:14:37]Nice little oasis, too. Beautiful caravan park. Nice manicured lawns.

[00:14:46]Museum up there.

[00:14:50]Now with this problem that was never a problem. You limited to $174 worth of fuel here, which gives me 49 L.

[00:15:03]Should be plenty to get through to make a We got some good old implements here.

[00:15:13]I've been in the museum. We're not going in today, but it's quite good in there.

[00:15:22]Comes up nice with a paint job.

[00:15:27]Made a work of art. that I bet that's carded some gear around the place.

[00:15:43]It's actually called a camel cart and it is used for wool carton in the merch region with 18 camels or 12 horses.

[00:15:56]It was owned by an F Wood Whitman from Bulardi Station donated by a Rafroy.

[00:16:12]Not sure what station he was from. I think he was on the SH here. Actually, if anybody has know what this contraption is, it was used at Pindar down near Malawa between 1905 and 1940.

[00:16:30]And it was used to shrink iron tires on wooden wheels.

[00:16:44]M pretty amazing bit of gear.

[00:16:47]We've been hard work. I think that's it.

[00:16:52]Polo cross Arena with a few happy campers around the place. Good to see.

[00:16:59]Wait till you check this swimming pool.

[00:17:01]Had playgrounds like that when I was a youngster.

[00:17:05]Check out the swimming pool.

[00:17:08]She's a beauty.

[00:17:12]I'm heading north on the Malawa Canavan Road and then I'm going to turn east on the Barangara Vro.

[00:17:23]That's about as close as I can get to the Merchesen Merchesen River. That is a couple of KS to the north of Merchesen settlement.

[00:17:38]If you look out to the west, you can see Arabetti Hills.

[00:18:07]Unique land formations out here.

[00:18:13]Lots of breakaways around this area.

[00:18:16]Drop this hill behind the car and get a bit of a view. Maybe a better view of them bitty hills.

[00:18:54]Wait for it.

[00:19:01]Nearly there.

[00:19:06]Well done everybody. We made it.

[00:19:08]Somebody's been here before me.

[00:19:17]It's looking out to the west.

[00:19:26]Breakaways and the Arabi Hills.

[00:19:39]Over in the middle of the screen is merch settlement.

[00:19:42]Mount Hope in the background.

[00:19:46]Maui Hill, 345 m above sea level.

[00:19:53]M O W R Y.

[00:19:58]Looks like the kids had nothing to do down there. We'll go and have a look and see what they done. Eh, rocks all over the place.

[00:20:10]Somebody's turned it into a caravan camping area.

[00:20:21]No signs on the road.

[00:20:27]Not sure what that says, but it looks like a map of Australia.

[00:20:32]So there you go.

[00:20:42]Been very busy.

[00:20:56]Quite unique. I imagine it must have been here for a while.

[00:21:05]Yeah, I guess people come and camped here and saw a few of these around, so they add to them.

[00:21:12]It's better up the right way.

[00:21:17]Think there's plenty of rocks out there.

[00:21:33]Amazing. Ah, but there's more coast.

[00:21:58]There's a flying kangaroo.

[00:22:11]Now way back when on this stretch of road between Muller and Gastcoin Junction used to be a hund of these gates you had to open and close. You're driving through. Imagine being a truckucky stopping 100 times. Open gate, drive out, close the gate, off you go.

[00:22:28]Anyway, that wasn't the way for a fellow by the name of Peter Grouchy.

[00:22:34]He was a bo bulky German fell.

[00:22:38]He drove trucks cutting stock across Merchesen. He would just charge through the gate and leave a mangled mess behind him.

[00:22:46]Anyway, he was a strong fell and he was famed for carrying a wool bail of about 150 kilos the length of the main street of Malawa to win a bet. So nobody was prepared to fight him to get him to change his ways.

[00:23:05]A lot of work went into building a fence like that.

[00:23:11]Unbelievable.

[00:23:14]Imagine twitching wire all around these things.

[00:23:18]There's a couple of flies around here.

[00:23:24]Yeah. 100 of these gates. Imagine that.

[00:23:26]I'm glad they're not here now. You probably wouldn't get too many traveling up this way if if it was 3:30. I better look for a camp spot. Got a lot of editing to do today. I have every day.

[00:23:57]I won't get to the river today.

[00:24:00]Stay away from it at the moment. I'll get there when I head down the bear and garro road.

[00:24:12]The waddles are coming out the flower.

[00:24:22]The size of that fella.

[00:24:28]I think that bird's got a nest there.

[00:24:30]Trying to keep him away.

[00:24:33]He's about a meter long fell.

[00:24:39]I think he sensed that nest.

[00:24:54]We're ready.

[00:25:12]A prehistoric monster.

[00:25:21]I wonder what was attached to that fence post. Maybe bit of wire on there tank over there.

[00:25:29]I'll go and check that out.

[00:25:34]Always got to find a bullet shell. Like the tank must have blown here about the same time the windmill broke. This place is called Kury Well, just off to Malawa Canavan Road.

[00:25:54]These old strainer posts finally given away to the white ants.

[00:26:06]Bottle weigh in here. What is it? 26 fluid ounces. I wonder what it was. Some sort of cool drink. Well, don't say no deposit. That's a bit of a bugger, isn't it?

[00:26:19]Not to be refilled.

[00:26:23]All right. Don't know what's on there.

[00:26:25]We'll rub this sand off. See if we can find out what it is.

[00:26:34]Still pretty hard. Just a series of numbers. I look at it.

[00:26:43]Anyway, there you go.

[00:26:45]>> Some donkeys through here. There's a lot of manure over yonder. I must have a favorite patch where they go a dunning.

[00:27:33]Oh, >> what a beautiful night. You can't beat the Mes for the stars.