We left Cue and travelled to Mt Magnet to collect a few supplies (sounds like the Wild West movies!), and turned left to Sandstone. Read a little about it, but not knowing a lot, but it was on the list so off we went.
150 kilometres later the town was in sight.
A good tarred straight road with a few bends, but was a bit tiring. First glance a tidy, clean town and the few shops there are, looked great. Not run down at all like many country towns.
Sandstone has an enterprising small community, and as each one of the buildings becomes empty, the shire takes it over to keep the town kicking – the small number of volunteers here are keen!
Over the years, as they have closed, the community has restored the post office (now a cafe), the primary school with an observatory building, the information centre and there is currently a contract in place to restore and open the pub from hoteliers in Kalgoorlie.
Everyone in the town has a positive attitude and want to please you. The caravan park has around 12 vans in and there were 5 in the main street, either just passing through on the way to Leinster or maybe going to the park.
It’s very peaceful here, no traffic lights and no peak hour, despite either the odd mining truck or supply road trains passing through.
Just wide clean streets. No wonder Sandstone is an entrant in Tidy Towns this year
We lit out to see the sights, taking a drive on the Heritage Trail, unfortunately more corrugations, but not severe this time.
The signs indicated where the old brewery was – nothing there, and a sign pointing down the road to the old state battery, but couldn’t find where it used to be.
We did find Contradiction Well and parts of metal all around. It was the first town water supply and when it was established the town wasn’t there, but was used by the Cobb and Co. coaches and travellers in the area used the water for horses and livestock.
Next came London Bridge. Clear to see and go around, similar to Nature’s Window in Kalbarri. The basalt rock and is to believed to be 350 million years old. The rocks in the area of Sandstone is believed to be around 2 billion years old!
London Bridge was actually over a road that mining supplies on drays were hauled through in the early 1900s.
The Black Range Chapel is a beautifully restored church, starting life as a Catholic Church, St Athanasius. In October 1995 the Catholic Bishop of Geraldton vested to premises to the Shire of Sandstone and is now a non denominational church.
There’s a magnificent stained glass window behind the alter, and other stained glass windows down the side walls remain intact. Most of the pews are original as is the organ. Today it is mainly used for weddings, funerals and special occasions in the town.
We went to the Post Office Cafe for morning tea (as you do), with a good but small selection of eats, good coffee and lots of wonderful district memories there.
The small Visitor’s Centre and Heritage Museum is just brilliant. Exhibits include photos and old farm and mining equipment and items found in houses from the early twentieth century.
The newish general store, only opened in April this year, is an old tin shed, done up really well and doubles as a cafe. Again, super-friendly and enthusiastic owners with a great range of grocery items to be found in a town with a population of 55 people!
We couldn’t go past the neat park featuring old farm machinery and some in security containers with graders, tractors and a wool bailing machine. The archway into the park with picnic tables named it Sandstone Gold and Wool Enterprise Park with information boards on display.
A fabulous place to stay, requiring at least one full day to really explore all the sights.
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