On the Yardie Creek gorge tour we see corellas, egrets and a Nankeen night heron. When everyone jumps out of their seats to photograph the corellas the bloke behind us says “they’re only bloody corellas I’ve got a backyard full of ’em.” Continue reading Reminds Him of Home
In 1897 they built a jetty in Carnarvon, WA for the shipping of supplies and live cattle from the inland. The town has an unusual situation on a blind bight beside the river and well behind the dunes and mudflats. Thus to reach deep water the jetty is one mile long and a small train now runs the length of it. The jetty is well worn and rusted but a great walk. When we reach the end we chat with a woman who is fishing for tailor. She tells us that the water which is quite brown is still murky … Continue reading It’s a Long Walk
Our friend Cee regales us with tales of his recent brief foray into politics. It turns out that he took up a petition to stop the tiny, one square mile East Fremantle council from being swallowed up by the much larger City of Fremantle and won. Initially East Fremantle council had sent out a questionnaire asking residents which council they would prefer to merge with, Cee replied “Peppermint Grove” (Perth’s wealthiest suburb on the opposite side of the Swan River). Continue reading Politics
We’ve spent the night in a quiet and spacious rest area called Barradale in the Pilbara. Surprisingly quiet in fact considering the amount of passing motorists and the road crew who are working on the nearby bridge. I wander over to the facilities and meet a young family who have just stopped. “We’re from Pannawonica” says one little girl “and we’re going to New Zealand. It’s so cold here and Dad got us up at four (am). Would you like to see me do cartwheels?” Her two brothers are doing double jointed tricks and their Dad explains that they’re off … Continue reading Roadside Dunnies
Wyndham, WA is remote in fact it is about as far from Perth as it is from Singapore. It no longer gets newspapers. When the service was stopped they were told that they just don’t buy enough. Over dinner I hear a local declare “I watched the News tonight.” Another replied “Oh I gave up watching TV a long time ago.” I guess what happens in the rest of the world or even in Perth, bears little relevance to the folks out here. In Wyndham especially when you live in a tin bungalow in the tropics over 3000kms away and … Continue reading What’s Happening in the Rest of the World?
Fitzroy Crossing, WA is quite small and a good way back from the river but we are later to learn that the town was moved when the bridge was built. We cross the river and stay at the Fitzroy River Lodge which is a charming resort style place offering glamour tents, a hotel and caravan park accommodation in vast expanses of shady lawn. Michael’s 3 Hour Tour The Lodge offers a town and gorge tour and though a little dearer than the Parks tour of the Geikie gorge we decide to take it and our lives are richer for it. … Continue reading Fitzroy Crossing
In the Pilbara, especially the iron ore mining towns of Tom Price and Paradurdoo, everything is tinged with red, roads, paths, walls, floors, cars and even the normally white corellas. Continue reading In the Pink
At Augusta in Western Australia’s south west, boys are cleaning fish in the Blackwood River near our van. Lots of fish in fact and they stand up to their knees in water. The Pelicans jostle for fish heads but the action is below the water. The boys reach down and hand feed stingrays and they are huge. All that I can think of is the demise of Steve Irwin. Continue reading You Wouldn’t Get Me in There!
About 70kms south of Port Hedland, WA and a mere 9kms off the Great Northern Highway is Indee cattle Station. Alison greets us in the cool of the sprawling homestead. It turns out that she’s from Melbourne too and ‘does the season’ up here. We park out back behind the machinery sheds where there are spotlessly clean portable bathrooms. In fact everything seems portable. Dongas for accommodation cabins and a large shipping container makes for a pretty good camp kitchen. Everything is chained or bolted down and the buildings that have conventional roofs have them strapped down and the wire … Continue reading Indee Station
We leave Tom Price and take the road to Karijini National Park. We soon meet up with a large piece of equipment being transported to one of the outlying mines. There are more mines out here than you can shake a stick at. A voice comes on the CB and says “5 metres at the blade, 4 on the wheels”. After we’ve gone past, the escort vehicle has trouble raising our mates on the radio and then we hear “first caravan can you tell your mate to buy a bloody radio!” The truckie then comes back on the radio and says “See … Continue reading Breaker, breaker
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