Dongarra - Port Denison walk

14th July 2014

Absolutely tipping down with rain early this morning but once it had mostly cleared we ventured out on a long walk up the coast to Dongarra and back.  We are in Port Denison which is a twin settlement to the south of the Irwin river, Dongarra is to the north.

Big lobster at Dongarra [on his own sailboat!]

Dongarra proved to be disappointing.  They have a heritage trail around the town but the information centre charged for a map and information about it - first time we have come across that!  So we went without.  They also claim to be 'the lobster capital of the world', but the processing plant is closed because all the lobsters are now taken to Geraldton or Fremantle.  A big lobster greets visitors on the main road though.

Irwin river near the river mouth

There is a pleasant board walk along both banks of the Irwin river with a lookout facing south.  Two days ago there was a king tide due to the full moon and the sandbar across the river is now a lot lower. We just got across before the tide came over it.

Sandbar on Irwin river

Renewable power - Ellendale pool and Walkaway village

13th July 2014

Lovely sunny day again.  We drove to a local beauty spot called Ellendale Pool.  This is in fact a deep waterhole where the Greenough river runs under some limestone cliffs. There are a series of water holes in the dried up river this one being the largest at about 1km long.  Very pretty.

Ellendale pool on the Greenough river

On the way we passed a wind farm.  The mid west coast is one of the windiest placed in the country [as we have already experienced] so this is an ideal spot.

Wind farm near Walkaway

This particular group of over 50 windmills in conjunction with a PV solar plant further to the east generate almost 100 mega watts which is a substantial contribution to the grid from ecologically sound sources.

Check out the size of the blade!

We returned to Greenough to see a few buildings we missed yesterday. The now ruined temperance lodge was the scene of many a wild party and all without alcohol!

Temperance lodge circa 1870

After this, we visited Walkaway to look in the fusty little museum housed in the old railway station there.  As usual with these country museums, the buildings contain an eclectic mixture of donations all of which are in need of proper display and cataloguing.  I particularly enjoyed a tattered 1972 magazine entitled 'Home Ideas' or some such. It was full of photographs of the latest luridly colourful ideas for bathrooms, shag pile carpets and decorating in general.  They were all hideous.  I can't believe we had so little taste in those days.

The settlement of Walkaway supposedly got it's name because the first would be farmer in the area sowed paddocks of wheat too late in the season and they could not be harvested, so he walked away from the investment.  A couple of years later a new would be farmer came along and found a beautiful self seeded crop ready to harvest.  Hmm, not sure how much truth may be in that story.

Greenough heritage village - Geraldton to Dongarra

12th July 2014

Greenough was founded in the mid 19th century as an agricultural community.  The settlers were delighted to find a wide flat area on the river with excellent fertile soil situated between the ocean sand dunes and limestone cliffs.  They gave no regard to the original inhabitants who had been living in a settled community in the area for thousands of years.

Greenough village houses

For a while there was great success with wheat and other crops and the population soon grew to over 1,000.  However, the settlers failed to notice the area was in fact a flood plain, so soon suffered devastating floods.  This combined with over cultivation of the land and diseases in the crops led to disaster and many people left.

The community struggled on but was eventually abandoned.  The stories of the hard work and entrepreneurial skill of the settlers was once again very interesting.

 
Many of the buildings up until the late 1860's were constructed using convict labour.  WA continued to take convicts from England long after NSW had stopped and was trying to distance itself from the convict heritage.  WA wanted cheap labour to develop the infrastructure of the state.

St Peter's Catholic church 1908

The National Trust took over most of the buildings in the 1970's and many have been restored as an example of a farming community.

Gray's store and residence 1861

The Greenough river is currently completely dry but the soil in the area has been rehabilitated and irrigated so the area is again productive.

Maley's bridge over the Greenough river 1864

The prevailing wind in the region is from the south west which causes the river red gums endemic to the area to bend in the direction the wind blows.  There are many examples on the plain but the most spectacular is known to be over 750 years old.  Where the trunk has touched the ground new roots have grown which is why it has lived so long.

This tree is over 750 years old

A day in Geraldton

11th July 2014

Our first stop today was at a rock lobster co-operative to see how the process works. John was hoping to get a free sample but alas, at $96 per kilo they were not handing any out.  In fact there were very few lobsters being processed as WA has moved from season based catches to a quota and most fisherman have reached it for the month. Enormous quantities of the crustacean are caught each year and 97% of them are sold overseas.  Most are shipped live to Asia within 30 hours of being caught with a few going to the US and Europe.  The lobsters vary in colour from almost white to red and the flesh reflects this colour.

On the fisherman's wharf there are two boats which have been seized by customs off Geraldton in the last year or so.  One of them is a fishing boat which contained over 60 illegal would be illegal immigrants.  The boat had been provided by the German Deutsche bank to Aceh following the 2004 tsunami to help get the local fisherman back to work. Sadly, some of them decided there was more profit in people smuggling.

People smuggling boat from Aceh

Boat used to smuggle cocaine

The other boat was masquerading as a fishing boat when in fact it was carrying an enormous quantity of cocaine.  Looking at the state of the hull I am suprised it was even seaworthy.  This boat is now a costly problem for the WA government as it has to dispose of the hulk.

After lunch at the beach, where a cormorant kindly posed, we spent the rest of the day in the Geraldton Regional Museum which was very interesting.

Local resident

Ghosts of settlements in the Chapman Valley - Geraldton

10th July 2014

The Chapman river reaches the sea in the northern suburbs of Geraldton.  We followed the river inland today to explore the Chapman valley, which is quite extensively cultivated and very green at this time of the year.

View of the Chapman valley, the crop is canola

All the little towns and villages that sprung up along the valley100 to 150 years ago have disappeared, sometimes without trace and sometimes a few old relics and buildings remain.

Dilapidated old railway bridge at Nanson

These towns were founded on mining [lead and copper] and agriculture.  There was a railway serviced the valley to take the goods through to Geraldton port.  This boom and bust seems to be typical of so much of WA.

The enterprise and industry of the early settlers was amazing.  In one of the little towns, Yetna, a blacksmith moved in with his large family in the mid 1800's, built a homestead, planted a citrus orchard then built a bake house to service the community.  Next he set up a school, housing the teacher in his own home.  Meanwhile his wife became the post mistress, later adding telephonist to her duties.  She also accommodated travellers from the mail coach.  Quite a busy pair.

Back in Geraldton we walked along the marina which has been constructed where the old railway yards were located.  The railway terminates closer to the port now.

Replica of the Batavia longboat

In the marina is a replica of the longboat on which 37 of the survivors, including the Commander, from the Dutch ship the Batavia sailed to Java to seek help. The Batavia was wrecked on a reef off the Abrolhos Islands in 1629.  Meanwhile a mutiny took place amongst the remaining survivors back on the islands and the mutineers murdered over 120 of them.  When help eventually arrived over three months later most of the mutineers were hung, but the two youngest were left on the mainland to fend for themselves.  These original convicts may be the first documented Europeans to live in Australia.

The scenery is so green - Kalbarri to Geraldton

9th July 2014

A fairly short drive today which is just as well as we booked the caravan into Beaurepaires in Geraldton to have all  four tyres replaced.  One was very worn but the rest did not have much tread left.

'Pink'  Hutt Lagoon

We drove the coastal route as much as possible which took us via Port Gregory which is set between the ocean and a 'pink' lagoon.  The lagoon looks pink due to an algae that grows in the super saline environment.







Northampton is where the coast road rejoins the main highway and we stopped here for a break.  The town was founded by a Mr Hampton in the 19th century and was originally a mining town as both copper and lead are mined in the area.  Mining is boom and bust however so the mainstay became agriculture as pastoralists moved into the surrounding areas.

St Mary's Catholic church, Northampton

Quite a pleasant little place but it looks a little as if the world has left it behind.  There is an old fashioned 'Family General Store' on the main street with a wide verandah over the footpath.  The window display was interesting, it featured ladies flannelet pyjamas and an advertisement for a gun case which can hold three weapons!







We arrived at the caravan park quite late after the tyres were done - another lovely spot right on the beach to the north of the city, which I believe is the 2nd largest in WA.

Sunset over Sunset Beach

Another gorge or two at Kalbarri

8th July 2014

We are 2 months into our trip today; sometimes it seems a lot longer as we have packed so much in.

View from the top of Z bend gorge

View from the bottom of Z bend gorge, lookout just visible on left

Today is also our last in Kalbarri, the weather a bit iffy all day but we did manage to explore the Murchison river gorge again in two places, one known as Z bend due to the shape of the river at that point and the other was an easy access from higher up the gorge.









The climb down to the gorge at Z bend is very steep and follows a cleft in the rock, which is a watercourse when it rains.
We met some abseilers on the way.

Canyon walk to bottom of gorge [abseilers]

The climb up and down was well worth it though with some beautiful scenery and interesting geology and flora.

Horizontal tree trunk, still growing

On our second walk into the gorge further upstream it was wider and the sides much less steep.

Murchison river at Ross Graham lookout

Whilst by the river we saw a small flock of Ringneck parrots.  The male was putting on quite a courtship display with tail swaying, wing flapping a great deal of chattering!
 

Ringneck parrot at Murchison river

We finished off the day with a beach walk and a walk up to another coastal lookout.