Mandurah - Part 1

[maewyn_2]

We've just experienced  Perth's driest and hottest summer on record. Last Sunday we decided to get out of the house for the day and go somewhere a bit cooler.  We caught a train into Perth, then another on to Mandurah (pronounced Man-joor-ah).

Mandurah sits at the entrance to the Peel Inlet/Harvey Estuary, about 80km south of where we live.  It was

Comments

[collpepper]

Looks like you had such a nice day! When it gets hot here we like to go to Fort Bragg, it's about a 4 hour drive to the coast. But so worth it. I love how the bridge has the second structure underneath for fishing. There used to be a main bridge that connected our county to the next, but was narrow and didn't have a solid bottom, they built a new one about 20 years ago, and tore down the original one, I always felt that they should have kept the original one up for bike and foot traffic, but I guess they felt it would not be cost efficient to maintain it. I'll try to find photos if you would like to see them. Thanks for sharing your day, it's like I got to go on the outing with you! :-)

[mechtild]

Sorry for eavesdropping, Collpepper, but "Fort Bragg" jumped out at me. You live in driving distance of the Mendocino coast? Oh, lucky you! I have been there, but only on visits. We think it's gorgeous around there. My sister lives in Willits, about an hour's drive inland over the coastal mountains from there. We always try to visit the coast whenever we travel to California to see her.

[collpepper]

You can can eavesdrop anytime you want hon! Yes, it is where we go when we decide to go on vacation. It's our favorite place to go. Especially during the Summer when it gets so hot here in the Valley. We live near Chico. That road to Fort Bragg after Willits is not my favorite, so twisty and turny....but worth it. How lucky your sister is to live in Willits. It's me and my husbands dream to retire near the coast. It's pretty pricey though...

[mechtild]

Yes, that's a twisty road! Our daughter always had to take dramamene and sit in the front seat to avoid being sick. :) My sister and her husband moved to Willits in 1975, back when it was in inexpensive place to buy. It still is way cheaper than coastal towns like Ft. Bragg. I know where Chico is, but only on the map. Isn't it right near the Sierra Nevada range, or its foothills? There must be some great scenery nearby.

[collpepper]

I totally understand. I finally had to to make a deal with my husband that he could go only so fast on it if we were going to go to Fort Bragg again. He forgets what it is like to be a passenger in a car on those kinds of roads, as he always drives. If we did move, it would probably be somewhere around Willits. Unless we won the lottery, but we have to play first. LOL. Yes, Chico is near the Sierra Nevada range. We live more towards I5 in the flat-lands of the Sacramento Valley. Our main agriculture is rice, trees, alfalfa, dairies and cattle. We are really blessed with pretty scenery. I love to take drives.

[mechtild]

I think California has more beautiful scenery than any other state we've visited. It helps that it stretches down 2/3rds of our Pacific coast, of course, but it really is home to tremendous scenery, and of so many kinds.

[collpepper]

You are so right in that statement. Because it is so long it has many different climates so we don't have to leave to see a menagerie of scenes. But I still would love to visit other states, they all have something special they add to the US. Now the one thing we don't have a lot of, at least around our parts, is Autumn foliage due to there being so many scrub oaks and our mountains have the evergreens. I would love to go to the states that are heavy in Fall Foliage some time.....Can I ask what state you are in?

[mechtild]

We live in northern Minnesota, near Lake Superior. That's all we've got on California: a huge, beautiful lake to look at, and some very nice [if very brief] fall colour along its shore.

[maewyn_2]

It's always a shame when an old structure is torn down. History is destroyed and it will never come back. I'd like to see your photos, if you can find them!

At Mandurah, all traffic used to have to pass over the bridge and through the town to go on to other places north and south. During the holiday season, traffic would bottleneck at the bridge (one lane each way). The solution - they built a new bridge downstream.

Now this traffic can travel smoothly without having to slow down through the old part of town. The old bridge now caters mainly for local traffic.

[collpepper]

I FOUND A LINK ABOUT THE BRIDGE!! http://www.noehill.com/glenn/nat1982004614.asp . I didn't even know the whole story behind it. The Alta California Sugar Beet Company refinery is now. My Dad took photos too, as they were working on the new bridge as he drove over it most days to work. The old bridge was soooo stressful to go over Maewyn. While it had two lanes, they were very narrow 2 lanes,probably because when it was built in 1911 the cars were smaller. I hated that old open slatted metal bottom, that "moaned" when you drove over it. I found it odd that it took so long to build a new one as it was a main bridge connecting counties.....not to mention connected those counties to the main road to to our main Freeway, Interstate 5 that runs completely through CA, OR and WA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_5 . closed. I too am always saddened when old buildings and structures

[maewyn_2]

That would be weird hearing that noise as you passed over the bridge! Sounds a bit creepy if you ask me!

What an interesting history it had. It seems that money talks!

That's a good story regarding the restoration of the old building. It would be interesting to see it. It's easy to tear something down, but sometimes it's important to honour the past.

I'm interested in this sort of thing, probably because I grew up in one of the older houses in the state. Perth was founded in 1829. Our family arrived from England in 1831 and the house was built in the mid 1830's. Members of our family lived there almost continuously until 1975. I sometimes wonder what my ancestors' lives were like living in that house.