On the last hour of the last day of our double crossing of the Nullarbor Plain, Padma and I drove real slowly. We had no hurry to reach the dumpy motel room in Norseman that awaited us. The sun was getting low in the sky when we encountered a significant change in landscape. The scrubby, treeless Nullarbor Plain was transitioning into the Great Western Woodlands.
In a country of superlatives, the Great Western Woodlands stands out as it is the largest intact temperate (that is, Mediterranean climate) woodland remaining on Earth. Everything in Australia is big but these Woodlands are huge. At 16 million hectares it’s bigger than England and Wales put together or twice the size of Tasmania. With more than 3,300 flowering plant species, there are more native plants in the Great Western Woodlands than in all of Canada. It took us the better part of the next day to finally emerge from the Woodlands on our route to Perth. A bit more than half the Woodlands is unallocated crown land and other big chunks have pastoral leases or managed by the WA State Government. A section of the woodlands is being developed into the Helena and Aurora Ranges National Park which hopefully will conserve its enormous biodiversity.
Padma drove as I gazed out the window and admired the endless parade of gimlet gums (Eucalyptus salubris) as we entered the eastern edge of the Woodlands. The tree is endemic to Western Australia and the wheatbelt and goldfields regions where it grows isn’t exactly on the main tourist route. The sun seemed to be setting their copper-coloured bark on fire.
We stopped the car and I sauntered into the woods. I enjoy capturing the beauty of the places I visit to share with those unable to travel, but in this case my camera failed me. There was no way I could record the late-afternoon splendour of that magnificent forest. I took a few snaps then put the camera away and just enjoyed the beauty and recorded it on the emulsion of my memory.
We moved on and found a room in a motel in a once, but no longer, flourishing goldmining town. The next day we arrived back to the bustling city of Perth but with a twinge of sadness. Padma and I were at a loss for words when we tried to explain the draw of the Nullarbor but the vastness, the emptiness, the loneliness and the quietude grew on us and we knew the wild areas of Australia and the wide open road would beckon us again in the very near future.
