Mandurah to Harvey 1977

Mandurah to Harvey, day 2,Tuesday 22 November 1977.   After a fitful night I went down to the dining room which didn’t change much in the next 20 years or so until the hotel closed. It had big sash windows with shrubs pressing against them, and wallpaper on the walls and the ceiling. There were quite a few other guests. There were several different cereals that you could help yourself to, also toast and tea and coffee, and they came in and took my order for a cooked breakfast as well. It all seemed quite sumptuous, and I always enjoyed it every time I went back to that hotel.

Afterwards I had a shower and prepared to get away. I paid and retrieved my bike from under the fire escape where I had left it. I left the hotel some time after ten in the morning of what was obviously going to be a hot day. I turned left at the old bridge (noting the sign that said ‘Bunbury 100km’, and thinking, I would never be able to do that) and headed down the Pinjarra Road.

I reached Pinjarra after 19 km and was already very hot and uncomfortable. I pulled the bike into the public toilet and refilled my water bottle and had a long drink and a splash. I wet my towelling hat, which I was to wear on all rides until the early 90′s when helmets became compulsory.

While I was there a man came into the toilet and said ‘What’s this? The Pinjarra express? Ha Ha Ha!’ We had a brief discussion about my adventure.

I hadn’t been to Pinjarra for years and that was only a brief drive-through with the family and I had no memory of the place. I noted the old hotel, near the bridge, for future reference. I bought a drink in the town and proceeded down the main road and out of town.

The day became very hot, but with that there was a north-easterly blowing, a tail-wind, though I didn’t take much account of such things in those days. My water-bottle bouncing around in the basket became very hot, almost too hot to drink comfortably. I passed a man walking along the road through open country with a back-pack. We waved at each other.

My inadequate map seemed to show a town called Coolup on the way, but I never passed through it. It was actually a bit off the main road and was only a small locality. I kept going to Waroona, by which time I was very sore and stiff. I stopped at a shop and bought a drink, and found it hard to get going again afterwards – I was stiff and sore and could hardly get on the bike or sit on the saddle. But I kept on. I noted another old hotel on the main road on my way out of town.

Once again the map seemed to show a town called Yarloop further down the road, but that too was some way off the main road and I never passed through it.

At last I got close to Harvey, but couldn’t ride any more and walked the bike down the dip and over the bridge until I came to the turn-off. I was unaware that Harvey too was off the main road. I mounted up again and rode the last kilometre into town. The old Harvey Hotel, still there but since damaged by fire and repaired and tarted up, was a welcome sight. I went in and got a room. I didn’t note the time but it was late afternoon.

The hotel was old and gloomy with a smell of stale plumbing and cooking, of fags and pesticides. The floorboards creaked. I had a shower and washed my riding clothes and put on my T-shirt and thongs. I must have been very dehydrated but didn’t take sufficient account of that and didn’t drink enough water. There was a lawn beside the hotel building, inside a fence, where I locked my bike and hung my wet clothes on the rotary hoist.

There was time for a look around the town, though I didn’t feel like going much beyond the immediate area. On the other side of the tracks, facing the hotel, was the Harvey Guesthouse, a ramshackle timber building with an iron roof. I could have stayed there but naturally prefer a proper hotel if one is available. Next time I visited Harvey the Guesthouse had been demolished. For a long time nothing was built on the site with its weeds and sealed-off utility pipes poking out of the ground. Now there is a nice modern housing development.

On the other corner was the Harvey Post Office. I didn’t know how to make STD calls in those days so I just sent a postcard to Janet. The Post Office is now located in the newsagency in Uduc Road and the building has been put to other uses, the latest being a bridal shop. Now that business has closed down and the building is derelict.

Next to the hotel was a farm machinery business with an area of gravel in front of it. This has been paved over but the business is still there.

Dinner was served in the ornate creaky old hotel dining room, and several other guests were there. I was served a huge pork steak. There was plenty of iced water on the sideboard and I felt thirsty and drank plenty of it.

I watched a bit of TV in the guest lounge. It seemed that Perth had had its hottest November day on record – 42 degrees. I didn’t sleep well again – I was troubled by mosquitoes but managed to find some Mortein in a cupboard. I was hot and sore and restless.

There was a thunderstorm in the night and the sound of rain on the iron roof was comforting.

Charles A Pierce

Other Days on this Tour:

1. Cottesloe to Meelup Beach Tour 1977
2. Cottesloe to Mandurah 1977
3. Mandurah to Harvey 1977 (This post)
4. Harvey to Bunbury 1977
5. Bunbury to Busselton 1977
6. Busselton to Cottesloe 1977
7. Busselton to Meelup Beach and Return 1977

Places Mentioned in this Post:

Related posts:

1. Harvey to Bunbury 1977
2. Harvey to Mandurah 1998
3. Cottesloe to Mandurah 1977
4. Pinjarra to Harvey 1991
5. Pinjarra to Harvey 1996

Tags: Harvey, Mandurah, Perth, Pinjarra, Pinjarra Road, Waroona