Day 69 - Sandstone (15 Nov)

Sandstone is a really quaint town with a total population of 150! 50 townies and 100 country folk. The Police visit every 3rd Tuesday, doc and nurse every 3 weeks and grocery supplies are dropped by once a week, so when they sell out that's it and its very expensive. The general store is also the bank and post office and they man the fuel pump. In its peak 1910-1918 the population was between 6000 to 8000, in 1919 it dropped to 250, due to the end of gold rush and men going off to war. However the town existed for the growing pastoralists. Today there exists a gold mine nearby - (Troy mines) and cattle farms. Last night went for a walk at sunset and the colours are spectacular, a fantastic pink sky against the dark red dirt really make for gorgeous lighting. During the evening we had a great thunderstorm with some magical lighting. There is something very special about the outback. We have decided to stay today as well in Sandstone, it is so peaceful here and there are some natural formations that we want to check out called the brewery and London Bridge.  We did the heritage trail walk around town - took about 20 minutes.  Any windmills here are multicoloured, must be a town quirk! They even have a golf course albeit in the dirt.  The flies are really bad here, hence the sign on the shop door.

Checked out London Bridge and the Brewery and decided to go back at sunset to get some sunset shots of the bridge.  The Brewery was built in 1907 on top of a breakaway close to where the cliff drops 30-40 feet. Water was pumped to the top via a well. Beer by way of gravitation founds its way to the coolers and two large vats on the main floor. It was then stored into a cellar which was tunnel driven into the face of the breakaway. It was cooled by a hole bored through the ceiling of the cellar to the top of the breakway. The things men do for a beer!  The brewery was built for the miners working nearby, but was only used for 3 years until the railway line to Mt Magnet was completed. 

London Bridge is a natural formation believed to be 350 million years old.  It was a popular picnic spot for the local townfolk in the early 1900s and at that time a horse drawn carriage could be driven across the top.  Over the years of course it has thinned out and walking across it is not recommended.  While we were there at sunset another thunderstorm was brewing in the distance and by the time we got back to the park it had hit and we had a real heavy downpour, shortlived unfortunately.  It was great as it had been such a hot day that we ran out in the rain to cool off, haven't done that since I was kid.  There really isn't anything to do here once you have seen the bridge and brewery, not even a public pool so don't know the locals do for entertainment or to cool off, however it is a quaint town and certainly worth a visit.  It does get very hot in summer, last summer they had a 57 degree day!  There are a lot of multicoloured hubcaps around the place, some with flowers, dots etc so this must fill someones time.