When I first heard about Westonia, just after arriving in Southern Cross, I thought it was burdened with the most original name. So imagine my surprise when I was exactly today years old and learned that the place was originally named after Alfred David Weston who discovered gold near here, which later evolved into the Westonia name in 1914. For anyone that wants to read more, the official Shire of Westonia website will help.
Today's exploratory adventure was with Danielle of popular Wheatbelt based travel agency The Road Less Travelled Experience. This photo day had one gigantic hurdle, the almost 40 degree heat and the complete absence of any clouds in the sky. Great to see a blue sky, but we definitely did not want to stay in the sun for too long.
Dotted around the town, at entrances and t-junctions are these small store mockups, of old stores that used to be in Westonia, that are hollow at the back, but still very adorable. There were also a bunch of old-timey vehicles and other photogenic stuff.
On Kaolin Street, there is the cutest little mini silo art project. It's so cute I even added it to Google Maps!
The main street of Westonia is the feature piece. Part of the Wolfram Street Facades project, the plan for Westonia to return to its 1900's aesthetics by replacing the store fronts. For example the town bank, cafe and green grocer are actually the shire offices. Not good news if you're actually looking for those three services. Some of the facades don't even have anything behind them, like a movie set.
If you manage to find yourself driving down Cement Street, you'll realise you've just been taken on a 30m tour of the outback (on bitumen of course), featuring sheep, the rabbit proof fence and reminders of the next refreshment stop.
We did mosey around town and came across a house with a punch of sculptures out the front. We managed to get permission from the resident to take some photos, who told us that in retirement her husband decided he was really good at metallurgy! She wasn't wrong.
It was a great couple of hours exploring and between the two of us, only one of us was sunburned.
