Minnivale was our first official stop for our big trip. Minnivale is now a ghost town. We walked around the remains of the town. It was never very big, a siding township mainly. The trains would stop to pick up grain from the farmers along the track. Towns would often spring up at the stops. The stops were about 15 to 30k apart. This is how Minnivale started; the railway siding was built in 1911. You can still see the remains of the farmer’s CO-OP. This was the center of the town life. Most people in the area would get all their supplies from the store. If it wasn’t from the store itself it was from the post office located in the store. (Mail order catalogues were big business then.) Then it is the old story, bigger and better equipment soon the small towns are no longer needed and they slowly dissolve.   There are still family’s living in Minnivale but you wouldn’t call it a town anymore although there is a movement to get the Wheatbelt Rail Heritage Museum to relocate a “S Class Greenmount Locomotive, complete with passenger carriages, a dining carriage, guard van and other rolling stock in the town. Interesting.

The bush camp in on what was the local sports grounds. The toilet and shower are still there. Adrian had a shower and was happy to find hot water. I decided to have one in the morning. Big mistake. The hot water came from the pipes being in the sun all day. When I went to have my shower the water was freezing, Adrian heard me scream and came running to find out what was wrong. For some reason he found it very amusing. Not happy Adrian.

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