Eucla, population about 20 (96 in its heyday of 1888) was a real gem. The township seemed to consist of the roadhouse and caravan park but some enterprising owner had created a oasis out the back of the roadhouse with a wonderful garden and ponds and an extremely tidy swimming pool. Situated high on the escarpment, it looked out over the western end of the 100ft high Bunda Cliffs which form the Great Australian Bight.
Eucla used to be a port with the township much closer to the sea. It was moved back to the escarpment when a plague of rabbits destabilised the dunes by eating all the vegetation and the sand began to encroach on the township. We drove down to the old telegraph station, a sandstone ruin half swallowed by sand and decorated with other visitors carvings. A handsome flowering gum behind provided perches for a flock of Major Mitchell's cockatoos, their shell pink under bellies contrasting sharply with their snowy white backs as they took off over the saltbush. We ventured a little way into the old settlement but only found the remnants of one other building. It was quiet, no other people around and it became apparent to me that just as in 1800s, this was still a barely populated frontier land.
Back at the roadhouse, we had a wander through the pretty garden and a swim in the refreshing pool. A chat to the bloke behind the counter revealed that the newly renovated forecourt had only been completed last year, the decking and pool revamp, 8 months before that. The current owners had been here for years, apparently, which killed off my theory about a new owner investing some cash in the place. Interestingly, Ned won a book from Canarvon Library which was about Eucla. It was called Bordertown and was the true story of a family that moved here. Ned said that the lady running the roadhouse today, had the same name as the daughter of the owner in his book. We wondered if it could be the same person as it would have been a fantastic coincidence. It was unresolved still by the time we left as we had managed to lose 2 hours here. We met a fellow homeschooling family from Busselton in the home made playground as well, which meant a bit of a mad scramble to get the requisite miles for the day under our belt by dark. In fact, our destination was Cactus, the surf reserve made famous by John Witzig and we still had 450km to go. So we drove out from Eucla and 12 km later, cruised over the border and abruptly, just like that, left WA and the last year and a half of our lives behind.