A tale of two tiny towns; canola blossom prequel and a soapbox moment; Day Trippers, yeah! – York Motor Museum; Burnley House and Settlers Cottages – this and other cases of apostrophic abuse; where to eat, if you’re lucky
“You should spend a night or two exploring the olde-worlde historical Avon Valley,” son Carl had recommended – not once but several times. York had a great motor museum for his dad, and we should try to catch the spring wildflowers.
So, eventually, we did. I booked two nights’ mid-week accommodation at York’s Burnley House and Settlers Cottages through agoda.com. I’d fancied three nights, but Roy thought two would be enough. So now, not having seen everything there is to be seen, I have an excuse for us to go back there.
A tale of two tiny towns
York is the oldest town in the Avon Valley, located less than 90 minutes by car from Perth. It’s neither the biggest nor the most prosperous, however. That distinction goes to Northam, which in the late 19th century gold-rush was chosen as the destination for the main double-gauge railway route from Perth’s port of Fremantle. (The line extends east to Kalgoorlie as the single-gauge Eastern Goldfields Railway.)
You’ll notice that the map above shows York, but not its big brother Northam: clearly, it was designed by someone with a greater interest in York than in Northam.
By contrast, here below is a map of the Avon Valley – no doubt drawn by a Northamite – that spitefully cuts off most of York’s name; you can barely see the top of the letters, right at the bottom of the map:
Canola Blossom Prequel
One Sunday in September, we did a day trip with son Carl, Carrie and the girls to a spot not far from York. Spring is famous for wild flowers, and August and September are when the bright yellow “canola*” blooms.
Most of the glowing yellow fields are farmland and therefore inaccessible, but one enterprising farmer makes a particular field available to day-trippers at $5 a head. This included a variety of animals – to the girls’ delight – including a very new litter of piglets, advertised for sale at $200. Ooh, squealed Mia, canwe-canwe-canwe buy one, pleeeeeze? Of course not, said Dad. Bacon costs $5 a packet. They’re ridiculously overpriced.
* Soapbox Moment: Canola is a cultivar of rapeseed, a member of the mustard family (a brassica), and was developed in the 1970s on the Manitoba prairie. Its name is a combination of “Canada” and “oil”. It was developed for its seed oil to be healthier than other seed oils – though you’re far better off avoiding these omega 6-heavy, PUFA-rich (polyunsaturated fatty acid) seed oils in favour of olive oil, coconut oil and certain nut oils.
It didn’t help that monstrous Monsanto started producing a Roundup Ready canola, genetically modified to be able to tolerate toxic glyphosate, the agricultural herbicide in their revolting Roundup. Problem is, we humans are not able to tolerate the stuff, and neither is our beleaguered environment.
What to do in York
On the way there, enjoy the pleasant scenery. However, if it happens to be Grand Prix season and your spouse is determined to pass every other vehicle on the road – by dint of setting the speed control to 113 km/h on the mostly 110 km/h roads – it may be more restful to bury your head in your Kindle.
What you can do in a small town like York depends largely on the day of the week. Since the pandemic restrictions eased, its tourist industry now relies entirely on local Western Australians – so, with zero international or even inter-state travel allowed, and the weekend-trippers coming mainly from Perth city, it makes sense that Monday and Tuesday are the new Saturday and Sunday.
Though we’d expected a cute, heritage-village vibe, we got more than we’d hoped for. As mentioned before, York was bypassed by the main railway line to Kalgoorlie, and so avoided the boomtown effect that has turned nearby Northam into what it is: a succession of Bunnings, Dunnings, Red Rooster restos and those ghastly golden arches. (But more on that later.)
Explore Avon Terrace
Avon Terrace is home to a lovely, long stretch of late-19th-century buildings. Start with a leisurely coffee at Jules Shoppe. The local characters seem to hang out here, and it’s centrally located just opposite the York Motor Museum. From your pavement table, watch the townsfolk and day trippers come and go. Jules and his team serve an interesting menu that includes vegan and Middle Eastern snacks, plus good coffee (of course). Try the baklava!
Avon Valley grows its own olives, so to buy a bottle of 2020 York harvest EVO was a must. The Penny Farthing sweetie-shop man invited me in to take photographs, and seemed inclined to chat – so it would have been rude not to buy some of his ginger covered in dark chocolate. (And devour it immediately.)
York Motor Museum (116 Avon Terrace)
In their own words: “The only community owned and operated motor museum in Australia, we are dedicated towards preserving the history of Australian and world motoring vehicles in our heritage listed museum in York, Western Australia. We are also the home of the Never Never Tours Valiant ute used in the movie Crocodile Dundee and autographed by Paul Hogan on the dashboard.”
York Courthouse Complex (below), right next to the motor museum, is open only from Thursdays to Sundays – so we missed it. Here they say, you can explore the intriguing story of country policing from the days of the first convicts. It is also the Post Office.
York Town Hall, including York Visitor Centre
The Town Hall (1911) has oodles of charm, a plethora of pressed tin ceilings, and just the right amount of judicious information on the town’s origins.
This looked like a town full of characters, I said to friendly South African Laura at the Town Hall Visitor Information Centre. She lived in Perth for nine years before moving here 4.5 years ago. Yes, she agreed – but it’s entirely up to you whether you want to get involved or step back a bit.
Laura also recommended the Residency Museum, open the next day, Wednesday, from 1-3pm; the Flour Mill Café, open 8am to 5pm from Wednesdays to Sundays, and the Imperial Homestead, open from 10am onwards from Wednesday to Sunday. I duly put them on the list.
Just up from the Town Hall, at 3 Joaquina Street, is what used to be the iconic York Masonic Lodge. It was built in 1887 for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows – or for the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows in York, depending on your source, and sold in 1925 to the Freemasons (a similar sort of organisation). The architectural style is described as Victorian Academic Classical. Now it’s an art gallery, today presided over by a miserable looking individual; but you can still see the Masonic emblems on the walls.
The Residency Museum
You need cash for the $5 entry fee – they can’t afford an electronic payment system, said the friendly woman on duty. It’s well worth a visit for its quaint and interesting displays – but again, check opening hours, as they’re sorely limited.
Bridge over the River Avon
Our second day brought unexpected temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius – like an early blast of summer – and so the river beckoned. Two or three families lazed on the grassy Avon foreshore. Complete with gigantic playground, it was recently redeveloped at a cost of $1m, according to a couple of locals, who also acidly opined that the money could have better been spent on roads. Who are we to comment?
Also here is York’s allegedly “famous” suspension bridge, initially built in the mid-1850s by convict labour. Apparently, the reason convict labour first came to WA is that the local agricultural union petitioned the government of the day to bring it in.
This bridge is also the start of the Avon Walk Trail. Roy does not do trails – but I skipped over the bridge and back before he could begin to miss me.
Where to Stay
Review: Burnley House and Settlers Cottages
I’d booked two nights at Burnley House and Settlers Cottages – most Aussies don’t generally care much for the apostrophe, you may have noted.
Burnley House (built in the early 1900s) is the gracious old dwelling where the owners Brenton and Gayle live, renting out the three two-bedroom heritage cottages on the property: Settlers Cottage, Pendle Cottage and Nelson Cottage. It’s exactly 1.5km from York’s main drag, Avon Terrace, so an easy walk.
York has a variety of more centrally located accommodation (Settlers House, the Castle Hotel, etc.), but I’d looked for somewhere with a kitchen. Pendle Cottage is sweetly olde-worlde, from the fireplace and the cottage furniture to the ball and claw bath. It was also comfortable enough; our queen bed had a new mattress and decent bedding. The second bedroom sleeps three. The cottage has most of what you might need, including a washing machine that I only discovered while packing up to leave.
From the back door, you look over extensive fields where a small pack of alpaca eye you inquisitorially each morning. This would be a fun place for kids* – a fenced-off area called Katie’s Kamp akkommodates not only a kindly looking kangaroo, a kovered entertainment space and a kute fowl run (Kluckingham Palace – will the hilarity never cease?), but also a playground.
We never saw our hosts, but Gayle responds quickly to emails and Brenton waited till we’d left for the day before coming in to replace a couple of light bulbs as requested.
Where to Eat
Fortunately for us, we can plan mid-week getaways during the school terms, thereby avoiding the deluge of weekend day-trippers from Perth – especially since travel has been allowed within WA, but not yet freely inter-state.
But you have to plan carefully. Often, as is the case here, nothing is open on a Monday; even Tuesday is iffy. For dinner on Tuesday night, we had just two options: the Castle Hotel and Settlers Tavern. By Wednesday, we were able to book at the Empire Homestead (reviewed below) which was really very good – I would guess the best kitchen in town.
(Don’t bother to look for Alice at the Palace, previously rated #1 on TripAdvisor at the time of our visit to York – it’s now a furniture/junk store.)
Apart from Middle Eastern snacks at Jules Shoppe, you can get good coffee and quick bites at The Flourmill Café, which opened on the Wednesday and presumably remains so through to Sunday.
Review: Settlers Tavern, The Settlers Hotel (125 Avon Terrace)
If you’re looking for “warm elegance”, as misleadingly touted by one of the websites, you won’t find it here. What we found was a bar, a pleasant courtyard, a basic menu of mainly deep-fried stuff, and efficient service.
Sharing a starter portion of fried spring rolls (about $8?) was a mistake – we awoke next morning to MSG-bloated fingers. Happily, the grilled barramundi and salad ($20) was good value, and you could (as if you would! – but the virtuous Roy did) order veggies instead of chips. Our bottle of Bliss Chardonnay ($28) from nearby Avonbrook Estate wasn’t bad, either.
The last-remaining and slightly frazzled staff member locked up and left at 8.30pm after kindly telling us we could leave our wine glasses on the table.
To be fair, the restaurant closes at 8pm – but they could have said so when I phoned to book a table for 7.30pm. But wait! – had we visited on, say, a Wednesday, we could have hung out in the newly socially distanced gaming room, and the front bar would have been open until “late”. Whoop-de-doo!
The Alternative
Settlers House came recommended above the Castle Hotel (which claims to be the oldest still-operational hotel in WA).
I could have sunk a quick beer at the Castle, but the svelte Roy was not keen. Apart from not being a barfly, like me, perhaps the signs below put him off:
Review: The Empire Homestead (83 Avon Terrace)
Located across the road from the Town Hall, this lovely old hostelry was recently restored. You have the choice of a slightly more formal dining room, to the left as you come in, or the buzzier bar to your right.
Seeing such an extensive menu worried me a little, but both the food and the service were great. Smallish oysters ($22.90 for six) proved impeccably fresh and deliciously creamy. My generous portion of pork belly ($33.50) came with utterly buttery mash, broccolini and patty-pan squash. Roy adventurously ordered the kangaroo loin ($31.90) wrapped in prosciutto and served with celeriac puree, veggies and port gravy. Though it’s far more nutritious, and I would say it was done to a turn, his ‘roo was never going to be as succulent as my piggy-wig – but I had plenty to share.
A bottle of Margaret River Stella Bella cab-merlot blend ($40) washed it all down very nicely, thank you. All in all, this meal was an unexpected treat.
- Historical note: Built in 1886, the hotel’s original four units accommodated “second-class citizens”, such as tradesmen or stable hands, who would sleep on hessian bedding on the floor. That’s all changed, of course. Today, the rooms are restored and refitted with modern, en-suite comforts.
Neighbourhood Stroll
One morning, while Roy attended to his beauty routine, I set off on foot with my camera to wander – lonely as a cloud – the streets of York.
Next time, I would stay at the Imperial Homestead – or instead pay a visit to nearby Toodyay, another historical town, and stay at its Victoria Hotel, as suggested by a Toodyay local whom I met at the Northam suspension bridge. (But that’s another story.)
