Fraser Range Station (wikipedia) is a pastoral lease and sheep station located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of Norseman in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.Established in 1870 by John and Alexander Forrest on their expedition to Adelaide the property has a length of 160 kilometres (99 mi) and occupies an area of approximately 500,000 acres (2,023 km²).Located along the western Nullabor Plain the station bears little resemblance to the rest of the Nullabor. It has a dense Eucalypt hardwood forest that dominates much of the area. The trees grow to a height of 20 metres (66 ft) to 30 metres (98 ft) and are surrounded by a dense undergrowth. From the gumtrees the granite Fraser range rises, the highest point being Mount Pleasant which has an elevation of 679 metres (2,228 ft). The Dempster brothers were the first settlers on the station and arrived in 1872.

18^th March, Wednesday (Fraser Range Station)

We were the first van out the paddock this morning, still no clue of what the time is. We have passed another time zone and it says that it has changed again by 45mins, second time this has happened across the Nullarbor but we have to factor in the daylight saving element as well which is what makes it very confusing. We had 350kms to do to Fraser Range Station which is a working sheep station. We were still on the Nullarbor and drove the longest straight stretch of road in Oz. The landscape changes all the time, it goes from low bushy scrub to nothing then to lots of dead trees then changes all back again, it’s like a cycle of landscapes if you know what I mean. We stopped off for brekkie and coffee at a pull off on the side of the road, there are actually quite a lot of them and a few overnighters as well which makes it safe for people to travel, it’s really good. On the South Australian side there weren’t many places to pull over just for a leg rest never mind the overnighters, they are the worst state for travelling in that regard. The Nullarbor road before you get to the WA border is very narrow with no place to pull over when the big trucks pass. Once you cross the border into WA the road widens and there are decent shoulders to pull to the left when the big rigs come past. You may all think that I am being parochial but it’s really true and we have been told by many an interstate fellow traveller that WA roads are by far the best, so a feather in our cap and tax dollars well spent to bring us old farts safely home. Well, with all the talk of the thousands of thousands of camels that roam the Nullarbor plains, let me tell you that it’s not true, we didn’t see one single camel, no camel dung, no nothing, it’s an urban legend. Fraser Range Station is awesome (we love these station stays)….. WE HAVE WATER……yaaaay because we thought the tanks were doing well as I told you all yesterday but the gauge is showing low so it probably wouldn’t have done us for the bare minimum until we left. I got to do some washing, OH, the simple things in life make me so happy. It’s very windy today, we have put the awning up and will see if we need to take it down later. There is a little restaurant here and they just do the meal of the day at dinner time, we need to check what it is for that day and book and pay for it in the morning if we chose to eat there. I guess that being a station and far from anywhere they can’t really do a full a la carte menu and that is the charm of these places. I think that the menu today is Roast chicken and all the trimmings. I am wondering if the chooks that are in the oven are from the chook pen we can see from our van because there are heaps of them running around. There is no phone coverage here so this story will be a few days delayed in getting published. It’s a small world, we met a lovely couple (Mike and Charleen) camping next door to us who are from Canningvale, they have sold their house and are off on the big adventure. Mike is a draftie and Charleen is a hair dresser (wish that she could have done my hair but she didn’t have any colour), it turns out that they are friends of friends of ours – sitting in the outback and you meet people who know the same people as you do, what are the odds?

19^th March, Thursday (Fraser Range Station)

Today is veg out day. Ralph went for a little walk to look for some rocks which Mike and Charleen had told him about, he brought them back and proceeded to smash them all to pieces but there was no hidden treasure inside of them. The rest of the day was spent reading and the odd small chore. We had a snake next door so I put Hugo in the van. He/she was hiding under our neighbours caravan, she went and called someone from the office but in the mean time we watched him/her going into the bushes and climbing up the into a shrub moving very slowly. When the lady from the office arrived she put her hands in the bush and brought it out, it turned out to be a juvenile python, very pretty with lovely markings, that was the excitement for the day. We head off for Norseman (only 100kms from here) tomorrow and Ralph is getting quite excited about the treasures that he might find while we are there.