Digger,
What a great mate you have in Tom. No doubt he reciprocates this sentiment. There are times when it is good to ride alone and there are surely great times to be had with mates.
One of the things that strikes me about Mount Elvire Station is the apparent lack of any notable shearing infrastructure - given it was a sheep station. If you look at other similar stations in the NE Yilgarn they generally had substantial sheds that could accommodate the roving shearing teams.
You mention water… There is an interesting latitudinal “line” in the eastern Yilgarn north of which there is generally reasonable subsurface potable water and south of which the water is quite salty and not potable. I knew it as the Menzies Line because it roughly bisects Menzies. As a young geologist operating in the northeastern Yilgarn (north of the Menzies Line) in the early 1980’s I sourced all my water from old station mills …after first pushing all the drowned galahs out of the way so I could get a siphon hose into place. Mount Elvire Station may have been in the fortunate position of having potable water from its mills. That water would have been suitable for the cannabis crops to which you refer. Kalgoorlie is south of the Menzies Line, had no sustainable fresh water, has to bring all its potable water to the area (eventually) by pipe from Mundaring Weir… In the early years some of that potable water may have come from Rowles Lagoon (between Kalgoolie and Coolgardie) the only fresh water lake in the region - carrying fresh water for several years after a cyclone pushes into the area. Cyclone Bobby was the last cyclone I recall that brought abundant fresh water to the lagoon.
As you point out, certain of the old sheep stations in the NE Yilgarn do have notoriety - Mount Elvire being one…
To the north of Laverton lies Banjawarn Station - another old sheep station. Right in the heart of my old stomping ground… Banjawarn was bought by a Japanese cult called the Aum Shinrikyo in 1993.
“Before September 11, 2001, when Australians were told to be alert but not alarmed, there was Banjawarn — the birth of our terrorist era.”
“Aum Shinrikyo members experimented with chemical weapons, used drone technology and tried to enrich uranium using a laser process. They believed these technologies would help them survive in a post-apocalyptic world. And to prepare for the doomsday prophecy, they carried out many of their experiments at Banjawarn Station.”
Read the incredible story of how they used Banjawarn as a test facility.
Here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-21/ ... o/12024820
Cheers,
Raider
