Thirty eight members and friends of the Busselton Naturalists Club visited Boyanup and Wellington Mills on Sunday.
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A highlight of the visit to the SW Rail and Heritage Centre at Boyanup was a talk by author and speaker Philippa Rogers about the use of trains to aid the war effort during the second world war.
Whereas the first war did not directly impact on West Australian shores, the second war saw submarines off our coast, bombs dropped on northern towns and the threat of invasion taken seriously.
Trains became an essential means of transporting materials and troops around Australia and around the state.
Trains were also essential to service the agricultural industries of the South West to assist in food production which sustained our troops and was exported overseas to help England during its time of need.
Troops were moved on rail in both directions across the continent, with the different railway gauges requiring the transfer of men and equipment from one train to another at Kalgoorlie.
However, very quickly, the military authorities realised that Kalgoorlie was not a good place for troops - all of whom were male - to change trains, as the lure of local pubs and other attractions resulted in intoxicated soldiers returning late or some completely failing to return!
A train transfer station some kilometres west of the town was soon established and visits to Kalgoorlie were rendered impossible.
Among the Naturalist Club visitors was 90-year-old Brian Winchcombe from Dunsborough who served in the military in the second world war and vividly remembers the train trip from Perth to the eastern states.
He confirmed Philippa stories of trains stopping every few hours so that the troops could be fed from the kitchen carriage and six soldiers sleeping in compartments designed for daytime travel, requiring that the two shortest men had to sleep on the luggage racks.
In the afternoon, retired forester Don Spriggins from Bunbury took the group on a walk through the Wellington forest block east of Wellington Mills.
An area of logged forest containing many blackbutt trees - Eucalyptus patens - was visited to show how a well managed forest could recover after logging.
Don then took the group to the Wellington Discovery Forest, an area of jarrah forest where thinning had been carried out in 1992 and again in 2016 to allow the public to see how a thinned forest allowed remnant trees to regrow more vigorously.
This re-invigoration of forest after logging resulted from the increased amount of light and rainfall that could then be used by the smaller number of remaining trees.
The Busselton Naturalists Club holds monthly meetings and excursions, with the May 21 excursion featuring an 11km walk along the Bibbulmun Track east of Donnybrook to visit to an unlogged section of virgin jarrah forest.
The May 11 meeting has Dr Nikki Mitchell from the University of WA, talking about the world's rarest tortoise - WA's western swamp tortoise - and its release in secret locations along the south coast to protect it from the predicted impacts of climate change.
More details about the Club's activities from president Bernie Masters on 9727 2474 or bmasters@iinet.net.au
