Category: News

The area around Geraldton is famous for its wildflowers and they should have been putting on a decent display by now.  Unfortunately, it’s been dry for quite a long time so it was hard to find any.  We decided to take a drive out to Mullewa, 100km East of Geraldton and follow the newly launched Art Drive whilst keeping an eye open for those pesky wildflowers.

There are 20 sculptures in all on the Art Drive and the theme is ‘Old is new again’.  We did the loop back to front and it was a bit of a challenge to find the sculptures.  It was only when we double backed on ourselves that we realised they were all clearly marked from the other direction.  Ho hum.

www.artdrive.cgg.wa.gov.au

There were plenty of other interesting things to see on the drive.

The Leaning Trees of Greenough

River gums that grow horizontally due to the strong winds

Strange critter homes hanging from trees which after extensive research turned out to belong to Itchy Grubs.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtjo3eAA_jk

Alpacas at the Greenough Visitor Centre wondering whether Winston is a very small alpaca.

The Butterabby Graves

In 1864, five Wajarri men were charged with the murder of Thomas Bott, a settler, who had been attacked with a spear.  The men were sentenced to death, hung from a nearby tree and buried at the site.   Other Wajarri men were forced to watch the execution.   The sculpture was erected to provide a place of reflection.

Mullewa

The Church of Our Lady of Mt Carmel.  Designed and built by priest-architect Monsignor John Hawes in the early 20^th Century.

Oh … and a few wildflowers:

 

Well, where do we start in describing our visit to the home of 92 year old Leonard Casley otherwise known as Prince Leonard of the Principality of Hutt River (PHR).  PHR lies 595km north of Perth, close to the town of Northampton and covers an area of 18,500 acres.  The story behind its creation sounds like the plot of an Ealing Comedy.  Mr Casley was appealing against the latest wheat quotas but was getting nowhere so after reading up on various laws, decided to declare his property an Independent Sovereign State.  He submitted a formal notice of secession to the Australian Government on 21^st April 1970 and seems to have caused much debate amongst government over the years as to whether he had a legitimate claim or whether he was just crackers.

The Casley family have fully embraced the idea of a Principality, with overseas consuls, their own currency, stamps, flag and anthem.  We had our passports stamped with PHR visas at the government office – not sure what Customs will make of this next time we fly abroad.  We also sent some postcards with PHR stamps.  Australia Post doesn’t recognise the stamps and won’t allow them to be placed in the normal spot on the front of the envelope so they were stuck on the back and the envelope franked – it was all good fun anyway.

Prince Leonard is still as sharp as a tack mentally but is slowing down so decided to abdicate in February 2017 and hand over rule to his son who is now Prince Graeme.  He still enjoys showing people around and pointing out some of his most treasured possessions and documents.  He is particularly proud of a letter he received from Queen Elizabeth II last year in acknowledgement of the Principality’s 46th anniversary.

Prince Leonard also founded the PHR Royal College of Advanced Research to study religion and pure physics and has devised equations for the universe.  There are several small statues of animals and birds with their ‘Nature’s Spirit Codes’ in the Educational Shrine dedicated to his late wife Princess Shirley.

If you would like to read more about the Principality or Prince Leonard’s mathematical discoveries their website address is: www.principality-hutt-river.com

 

Hutt Lagoon

The pink colour is caused by algae.

Humpback whales are migrating along the coast and you can usually be sure of spotting at least one every time.

The only trouble is I seem to have a bad case of whale watcher’s neck.

A quiet seaside town on the edge of a National Park.  Again, the caravan parks are completely full by the evening.

We’re now exactly level with Brisbane and have also been on the road for five months.

Pelican feeding on the foreshore which was very comedic.

Pelican fact: The brighter the yellow ring is around the eyes, the older the pelican.  Juveniles have white rings.

The first rain we’ve seen for many, many weeks.

The good news is that the wild flower displays should be fabulous after winter rain.

Coral Bay, WA.  What a beautiful place to spend our anniversary.

Twenty Years is ‘China’ so we were hoping for a Chinese takeaway but it’s either pizza or fish and chips.  State of Origin decider tonight too at Suncorp!!  Go the Maroons!!

 

We’d had a lovely week at Point Samson but it was time to move on, and next we spent a couple of days in Dampier.  It might not seem an obvious place for tourists with its huge oil and gas plant, salt works and 24/7 port operations but it had some hidden treasures.  The town overlooks the islands of the Dampier Archipelago and is particularly popular with boaties and fishermen.  Humpback whales can also be seen off the coast as they migrate north between June and September (haven’t seen any yet though).

Everywhere is dog friendly: the caravan park, the beachside markets, and the Mermaid Tavern even allows dogs on its courtesy bus.  All the beaches are dog friendly, including the beautiful Hearson’s Cove where the beach is made entirely of sea shells and will eventually form limestone (see I do listen to geology facts Jonathan).

Dampier’s most famous resident was Red Dog, a kelpie/cattle cross who travelled round the Pilbara region during the 1970s.  His story has been made into a film (have plenty of tissues handy if you watch it).

Just outside of Dampier, is Deep Gorge which is recognised as one of the most prolific Aboriginal rock art sites in Australia with over 10,000 images.  The images are called petroglyphs which are those made by removing the outer surface of the rock.

 

Point Samson is a small coastal town with a tavern, bistro, small general store, some holiday accommodation and not much else.  We booked into The Cove Caravan Park for three days and soon decided to extend for the week.   The weather is perfect, there’s a Woolies a few kms away in Wickham, the beach is only a short walk from our van and there are plenty of good fishing spots nearby.  A lovely place for a relaxing break.

It was also nice to finally have a break from the red dust of the past few weeks.  Everything in the van, including Winston has taken on a red tinge.

A few kms from Point Samson is the ‘ghost’ town of Cossack.  It was a major pearl diving centre from the 1860s when over 80 pearl luggers operated out of the town.  Once the pearl beds had been depleted towards the end of the 19th century, the pearling industry moved North to Broome. When Point Samson became the main port, Cossack gradually declined and was eventually abandoned.  Some of the main buildings have been restored and also house a museum and you can follow the Cossack heritage trail around the town.

 

Nearby Settlers Beach was a lovely place to stop for lunch and a bit of a dig.

 

 

Heading South again down the WA coast.

Pardoo – no can do

We had planned to spend the next few days at the beach at Pardoo Station which is 13km off the highway down a very well graded unsealed road.  What no-one had thought to mention in the information was that the beach could only be accessed if you have a 4wd vehicle.  The campsite looked very nice but not nice enough to spend a few days with no beach.

Port Hedland

An industrial town and port and although it has some caravan parks, not really a place for tourists unless you’re interested in touring the BHP facilities or learning about the history of the town. We stopped to look at the Dampier Salt Works.  The huge salt mountains dominate the skyline as you drive into town.  The salt is produced by the evaporation of seawater and exported to customers in Asia and the Middle East.  It is mainly used by chemical companies but also as food salt.

Sandfire Roadhouse

Thank goodness Winston was in the van when a white peacock turned up.