Experiencing the Midwest

Mines and monks

Experiencing the Midwest, Tours, Travel / /

  • From Geraldton we headed inland from the coast.

Our first stop was Jingemia Cave,a collapsed doline, which proved useful as first a guano quarry and then a mineral repository for the early European settlers. The Aboriginal folk of the area called it “Devil’s Abode” but it was a unique area for the collection of chert, a mineral used in making indigenous tools, and the local mobs mined and used it. I’ve been to this location a few times and I’ve never been able to find any indication of tool making in the immediate vicinity so I can only assume they collected the material and processed it elsewhere. I’ve seen chert tools in areas south so it was probable that the raw material or the formed tools were traded from this spot.

 

Jingemia Cave

From here we travelled onto New Norcia. New Norcia is Australia’s only monastic town and has a unique heritage. Founded in 1847 by Spanish Benedictine Monks, the town has had many purposes; a mission, a monastery, a provider of education and now as a place of spiritual retreat. You can drive around the grounds and get out to explore the beautiful heritage buildings. We did a lap of the buildings and then a guided tour from the Visitor’s Centre. 

Sadly, New Norcia  was our last stop on the tour. From here we headed to the airport and bid our guests a sad goodbye, while hoping we see them again on another tour.

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Flys and Skys

Experiencing the Midwest, Tours / /

Day 3 of our Midwest Tour and we woke up in beautiful Kalbarri. Right behind our hotel was a historic spring which we literally stumbled on by chance. It marks the start of the first inland expedition from a shipwreck. George Grey and his party managed to find this spring when they struggled ashore at present day Kalbarri. They then made their way south 460kms to the Swan River Colony in 1839. http://www.wanowandthen.com/George-Grey.html

 

The site of the spring was dug out to form a well by subsequent visitors. There is enough water in the soak to make it a popular watering spot for local wildlfe.

It’s lovely to watch the boats surge out across the bar, where the Murchison River meets the ocean.

Before it got too hot we headed into the other side of the National Park to walk along the Skywalk. Although it was early, the flies were already out in full force, as were the tourists, so we didn’t linger. Very much worth a visit, though (as long as you bring a fly net!).

 

Great statues along the pathway

 

Cantilevered out over the river gorge

Leaving Kalbarri we travelled across the park to join the NW Coastal Highway. There were still a few wildflowers out in the area, including some grevilleas.

Grevillea leucopteris, also known as old socks or white plume grevillea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading, bushy shrub with divided leaves with erect, linear lobes and clusters of white to cream-colured flowers displayed above the foliage. Locally they call it smelly socks and it really does smell like old feet but only at pollination time. Perhaps this means pollination happens as a result of flies rather than bees – I can’t imagine honey tasting like unwashed toes!

We headed south via Northampton and took the Nabawa road. There was a secret spy station along the way!

We stopped for lunch at Ellendale Pool. We didn’t swim, though. The signs warned of amoebic meningitis and although I usually take the opportunity to plunge in any outback swimming hole, I feel like 2023 is the year I want all of my limbs and brain function.

It was back to Geraldton for the night and this time we stayed in the historic Weelaway on Gregory, the original residence of one of WA’s iconic writers, Randolph Stow.

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History and scenic water

Experiencing the Midwest, Tours / /

History and Scenic Water (Day 2)

Today we travelled from Geraldton to Kalbarri.

We started off our morning with a visit to the Geraldton Museum. The WA coastline isn’t known as the Shipwreck Coast but it should be as there are more than 1600 known wrecks, many of them from early European explorations and specifically the Dutch East India Trading Company (VOC). The VOC was the first business entity to link the East and West and much of their trade was in spices; they determined that they could cut six weeks off their sailing time if their ships sailed a certain distance east and then caught the northerly winds to Java. Trouble was they still hadn’t solved the longitude problem and distances were estimated only: they often came too far east and wrecked upon the shallow shoals of the WA coast.

The most famous shipwreck of them all is probably the Batavia, which stranded on the Abrolhos Islands. A rescue boat went off to Java but by the time help returned the sailors left behind had mutinied and taken over the islands in a bizarre maelstrom of murder, assault and thievery.

The Shipwreck Gallery in the museum has some wonderful artefacts from this and other wrecks (there is a also a Shipwreck Museum in Fremantle, where the remains of the Batavia rests), as well as a great little theatre that plays a poignant 3D film about the HMAS Sydney. This museum is well worth a visit if you are ever in Geraldton.

From Geraldton we headed north to the old hiring convict depot at Lynton.

Can you guess which direction the prevailing wind comes from?

And we found a friend!

Juvenile Central Bearded Dragon

From Lynton it was a short trip to see a VERY pink lake (Hutt Lagoon, actually). They mine salt here and the colour of the lake changes, depending on how much water is let in and out of the channels. Beta carotene in the lake helps give it that pink colour but the presence of red garnet sands in the area also helps. Today was as pink as I’v ever seen it!

Then it was onto viewing stops along the spectacular coastal cliffs of Kalbarri. We stayed overnight in this beautiful town situated at the entrance to the Murchison River.

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Underground, overground…

Experiencing the Midwest, Tours / /

Underground, overground… (Day 1 continued)

From Lake Thetis (home of the stromatolites) we headed inland to Stockyard Gully Cave and a walk through an underground cavern. The whole area is dotted with limestone caves and this particular one used to be a watering/resting point for the mobs of cattle the drovers brought through from Geraldton to Perth in the 1950s. It’s a lovely, cool 1.3 km walk through the cave (open on both ends) but you do need torches and sturdy footwear and it helps if you are not allergic to bees – there are quite a few hives on the limestone entrance/exit points!

Entrance Stockyard Gully Cave (brown blob is a bee swarm)
Stockyard Gully Cave on the inside; it has a sand floor and is home to a colony of bats

From Stockyard Gully, we moved onto Geraldton and our overnight stay. We went to visit the HMAS Sydney Memorial.

HMAS Sydney II Memorial Sunset, Geraldton, Western Australia's Coral Coast

Steeped in symbolism, the Memorial pays homage to the ship’s 645 men who lost their lives off of Western Australia’s coastline during the battle with German Ship HSK Kormoran.

The Memorial’s symbolic elements include the following:

  • The Wall of Remembrance, which bears the names of the 645 men who lost their lives on HMAS Sydney II, as well as the history of the ship.
  • The Sanctuary, the centrepiece of the Memorial which sits on seven pillars to represent the States and Territories of Australia. The silver dome of the Sanctuary is made up of 645 seagulls, representing those lost, and a ship’s propeller sits at the centre of the Sanctuary’s circular floor. The propeller also serves as a ceremonial wreath-laying altar.
  • The Stele, representing the bow of the HMAS Sydney II.
  • The Waiting Woman Sculpture, facing towards the sea, longingly awaiting the return of her loved one.
  • The Pool of Remembrance, which waters symbolically flow ‘down’ circular terracing. At the floor of the pool lies a map which shows the location of the HMAS Sydney II‘s final resting place.

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Limestone Lumps and Fizzy Rocks

Experiencing the Midwest, Tours / /

Kitty has just come back from a 4 day tour of the Midwest. This was a private charter, set up for some clients who had a limited time in WA; we drew up an itinerary that covered some great attractions.

Day 1 saw us travel up the scenic Indian Ocean Drive to Nambung National Park, also known as the Pinnacles. This unique area is filles with amazing natural limestone structures, formed approximately 25,000 to 30,000 years ago after the sea receded and left deposits of sea shells. Over time, coastal winds removed the surrounding sand, leaving the pillars exposed to the elements. The Pinnacles range in height and dimension – some stand as high as 3.5m! There’s a great Visitor Centre and we also took the chance to walk through the desert surrounds and immerse ourselves in the landscape of weird and wonderful shapes.

From Nambung we travelled onto Lake Thetis, one of the five sites in the world where you can see active stromatolites.  To the uninformed, these  look like mere lumps of rock but they were once the dominate life form on earth.

Stromatolites are formed through the activity of primitive unicellular organisms: cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and other algae. These grow through sediment and sand, binding the sedimentary particles together, resulting in successive layers which, over a long period of time, harden to form rock. For at least three-quarters of the earth’s history stromatolites were the main reef building organisms, constructing large masses of calcium carbonate.

However their most important role in the history of the earth has been that of contributing oxygen to the earth’s atmosphere. When stromatolites first appeared on earth about 3.5 billion years ago there was little or no oxygen in the atmosphere.  The organisms which construct stromatolites are photosynthetic. They take carbon dioxide and water to produce carbohydrates, and in doing this they liberate oxygen into the atmosphere. They changed the oxygen percentage of the earth from 1 % to around 20%, enabling plant life to form and ultimately paving the way for animal life, including ourselves.

If you look closely at these lumps of seeming rock, you can see them ‘fizzing’ as they release tiny oxygen bubbles into the hyper-saline waters of the lake.

 

 

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