The town of Hyden, which is the home of Wave Rock, is a fantastic example of how the residents of a small country town have banded together, using their imagination and resourcefulness, to develop new ways of generating tourism and income. Since 1964, when a photographer won a major photographic competition in New York for his image of Wave Rock, there has been increasing visitors to Hyden. The Hyden Tourist Development Company now employs over 70 people - supporting the 150,000 visitors to the area each year! Pretty impressive numbers for a town that was supposed to die. A host of tourist attractions and accommodation options have sprung up over the past few decades...some good, some a little kitsch like the 'Lace Museum - largest collection of lace on display in the Southern Hempisphere'! We gave that one a miss but I'm sure it has a special place in someone's heart.
We all enjoyed exploring the 'wave' part of the rock as well as the interesting formations above it. A small dam abutts the rock on one side, which kind of detracts from the 'naturalness' of it, but i guess the giant caravan park where we stayed at the base does too! Staying so close allowed us to visit at sunset and early morning to see the way different light changes the colours of the stone. It was quite beautiful.
Other key attractions we visited in Hyden were the Mulka cave and the Humps. The Humps were more rock formations but the Mulka cave was an ancient Aboriginal rock art site. It didn't seem to impress the kids much but i thought it was pretty incredible. The story of 'Mulka' was perhaps more interesting to 7 & 8 year olds than hundreds of hand prints on the roof of a cave. Mulka was born illigitimately to a couple who, according to the strict tribal and ancestoral customs, were prohibited from marrying. Mulka was severely cross eyed and although he grew into a tall, strong man, his 'disbility' prevented him from being a proficient hunter. He was taunted and ostracised from his community so became an angry, disconnected outcast. To stay alive, he began to hunt small children, who clearly weren't as quick or cunning as native animals. This didn't go down so well with his peers and when his mum tried to tut-tut him about his antisocial behaviour, he killed her too. (although there's no evidence he ate her!). This was too much for his community so they banished him entirely. He began living in a cave - the Mulka cave. He was finally hunted down and killed. Deciding he was too naughty to be honoured with a traditional, respectful burial, they left him for the ants to eat. Like many 'stories' from ancient peoples, this provided important oral lessons that could be taught from one generation to the next. The key messages in this story were;
you must follow the laws of marriage (or you could have horrible kids like Mulka)
children shouldn't stray from the campfire at night for fear of being eaten by crazy giants!
Perhaps the most quirky attraction in Hyden was the collection of welded statues that depict the town's history. They were fantastic and showed the ingenuity of local tradespeople. It sounds like it's always been a fairly hard slog for the residents of Hyden. From the early years of man and horse power clearing land and harvesting the sandlewood trees, through the 1900's when farming was introduced and women were raising dozens of kids in houses with no floors or running water, trying to school them and cook for hoards of hungry shearers whilst wearing layers of ridiculous skirts and high necked blouses. All the modern comforts took until the 1980's and 1990's to arrive, including TV, telephone and town water!
We visited Hyden twice - firstly on the way to Kalgoorlie and again on the way back. Surprisingly, there was enough to do for a few days! We were presented with a few options to get to Kalgoorlie from Hyden. We chose the off-road route, which was much quicker and allowed us to see some spectacular outback scenery. It was a also a good test for our camper. We wanted to see how much dust infiltrated the van. With plenty of dirt roads to come, we knew we'd need to do some modifications to reduce dust entering and we weren't wrong! Let's just say we'll have some work to do preparing for the long dusty northern australian leg of the tour!
From left to right
Jesse & Bodhi at Wave Rock
Wave Rock at sunrise
Wave Rock at sunrise
The kids at Wave Rock - sunset
Gemma 'surfing' the Wave!
'faces' in the rocks at the top of Wave Rock
Boulders at the top of Wave Rock
Inside the Mulka Cave (look for hand prints on the roof)
Walking around 'the Humps'
Looking over at the 'Humps'
Some of the sculptures depicting the town's history
more sculptures
another sculpture
The Emu Fence Road (it's like the 'dog fence' but for emus) The stunning dirt road we took between Wave Rock and Kalgoorlie (didn't see any emus!)
A random intersection along Emu Fence Road - hilarious. We saw 1 car in the 170km we drove but maybe it gets busy from time to time! It is used by road trains so you probably want to know who should give way when one of these monsters is hurtling towards you at 100km/hr!