York, Western Australia 2023

Date: 14-15th April 2023

Travelled: 150 kms from New Norcia to York in Western Australia

Visited: Toodyay and York

Stayed: York RV Stop, free, S31.88696, E116.77122

Budget: days @ $ per day

We depart New Norcia with a loaf of fresh bread and a sausage roll for Ron.

A longer drive this morning having set the GPS for Toodyay. Rather than follow the GPS we take the lady at the roadhouse’s advice and take Calingin Road before turning south on the Bindi Bindi Road to Toodyay.

The first half of the drive is wheat stubble and roadside salmon gums, at Calingin we pass a series of huge wheat or grain storage bunkers. As we get closer to Toodyay the country changes colour to green and we see water flowing along the Avon River.

Historic Toodyay (pronounce the first Y as a J) straddles the Avon river, according to our guide book the town is National Trust listed. We find a long vehicle spot up behind the IGA and go off exploring.

Pam loved the Old Post Office come shop.

Moondyne Joe is the Avon Valley’s version of Thunderbolt. Joe not a charismatic character by all accounts, more of a steal your chook while your not watching type of bush ranger.

Toodyay is not really RV friendly and we don’t want to pay for a night in the local CP so we continue south.

Our route south takes us through Northam. Northam is a big town it’s the junction of several major roads, a rail hub and we catch a quick look at the Goldfields Pipeline. It also has a huge series of silos with completely different artwork at either end.

Probably not the best silo art we’ve seen. Stopping to take a photo where there’s nowhere to stop adds to the annoyance of the truck driver who suddenly appears behind us with his horn blaring.

We finally arrive in York. The free RV stop has a lovely look over the Avon River and an easy walk to everything. There’s only one tugger here so we grab a nice spot on the river bank. In an hour or two the stop is full and overflowing by late afternoon.

Pam loves a suspension bridge particularly if it gets a good wobble which this one does. So we cross the Avon and go for a wander. York was Western Australia’s first inland town being settled only two years after Perth in 1831.

The public buildings reflect the heritage and wealth of York in its day. The Town Hall in particular is a grand building.

The RV stop is only for 24 hours but no one else is moving so we decide on another day.

In the morning we explore the Avon River walk making nearly 3 kms before we turn back for town, crossing the Avon once again and walk another kilometer up the hill to the cemetery passing the Holy Trinity Church as we do.

The cemetery has a heritage walk with headstones going back to the late 1850s.

York has a wonderful motor museum in the main street. I pay my $10 entry and Pam’s goes window shopping which was frankly not true. An hour later she’s standing at the front of the museum giving me a look indicating she didn’t stop at window shopping.

The museum is excellent and a trip back in time for me as I can personally recall either owning something similar or having a friend who owned one. Closest to my heart a Honda 750 K2 in blue, my first big road bike. Reminding me of a couple of very close calls in my more reckless years.