What’s the story of these mysterious rail tracks across a dry salt lake?
Josh Humble was astonished when he flew his drone over this dry salt lake and saw old rail tracks going into the middle of it. Whatever could they be?
Josh Humble was astonished when he flew his drone over this dry salt lake in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt and saw old rail tracks going into the middle of it. Whatever could they be? The answer turned out to be rather curious. If you live in WA in a house that was built in the mid 20th century, look up and there’s a good chance you’ll see a direct connection to these old tracks.
Humble moved to Kellerberrin, two and a half hours’ drive east of Perth, a year ago. It’s a hot place in summer, and the town pool is closed for refurbishment right now, so locals have been swimming in Baandee Lakes – a nearby chain of ephemeral salt lakes. Humble, 42, was there a few weeks ago, and put his drone up to explore a dry lake next to the main swimming area. That’s when he spotted the rail tracks – narrow gauge, with timber sleepers and steel rails – heading from the shore towards the middle of the dry lake. Intrigued, he posted the image on Insta and locals gave him a steer: it’s a relic from an old gypsum mining operation, they said.
Alan Cole of Kellerberrin Historical Society reckons the gypsum mining at Baandee Lakes started in the early ’30s and went on until the late ’50s. Blokes would dig the mineral out by hand then cart it on these rails to the edge of the lake, where it could be trucked to Perth. Gypsum is remarkably versatile stuff – it’s a fertiliser, an ingredient in cement, and a coagulant in the making of tofu, among other things – but its most important use is in the manufacture of building plaster. The Baandee operation was run by HB Brady, the major supplier in Western Australia of plaster; the gypsum that was dug out from the lake bed ended up in plasterboard and the ornate moulded ceilings common in buildings of that era. “The firm had a famous slogan, ‘Bradys for ceilings’,” Cole says. The HB Brady factory in Perth’s Bayswater is long gone but the brand name Bradys lives on.
As for Humble, his next mission it to explore the dry lake on foot – and to find the relics of mining machinery that are said to be still out there somewhere. “It’s amazing that a piece of history like this is still hanging on,” he says.
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