If you’re heading to Wooleen Station, the sunset tour running several days a week is a must-do. Informative, educational and fun with a cheeky wine as you watch the sun going down.

We rolled into Bruce Rock a week ago, with no plan, just as the Wheatbelt’s long dry spell was broken by a heavy downpour and storm. The sleepy town centre has a row of maybe a dozen shops on one side - one shop is a cafe, as well as the butchers and the bakery. 

Worthy of a five star rating on Trip Adviser, the Kulin Bush Races in WA’s Wheatbelt is so much more than just a day at the races. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, it takes place over the first weekend in October and is an event for all the family to enjoy, with live music, good food and spectacular scenery as festivities are nestled between a granite outcrop and a salt lake.

Jim, a retired farmer, was born and raised in Lake Grace. He described himself as deaf, with one bung eye and the other doesn’t work at all. Walking slowly now with his frame, he’s still living at home at 88. We arrived at his farm to find him sitting in his ute, door open, old sheepdog beside him on the passenger seat, Radio National playing full blast, and pleased to discover he had visitors.

As coast huggers used to the background white noise of the ocean, we’ve been acutely aware of the silence and any sound that breaks it. At sunrise it’s the rowdy galahs perched in the salmon gums, shouting at each other and the world, and at sunset as the wind picks up it’s the rustling of great strips of peeling bark and leaves of the trees around us.

At last! We’re almost ready to hitch up our camper and set off on an adventure through Western Australia, from small country towns of the wheatbelt and goldfields and up into station country in the north. A meandering road trip with no set route and no set time frame.