FREMANTLE/ALBANY/BREMER BAY/ESPERANCE/KALGOORLIE

We made it across the Nullarbor to Ceduna in South Australia but more about that later. Catch up time!!!



12-18 January
Albany

As we had already seen the coast road from Fremantle while down at Augusta, we decided to take the inland route to Albany.


This road took us through 3 towns for 410kms. The first town, Williams, is a tiny town which services aboriginal communities to the west. The week before we left Fremantle, there was a riot in town after someone shot a gun in the main street. It turned out that there was a funeral which was attended by 2 warring families ... being fuelled by alcohol, things unravelled about midnight. The next town, Kojanup, was equally as tiny, but looked a bit more prosperous in that it services the wheat belt properties. There was a rose maze here that Mary and I spent some time trying to find our way out. The roses weren't at their best, but we could see that it would be beautiful in winter. Fuel 173.9, windy (as usual). The third town was Mt Barker - a bush walkers delight, but not for us!



Arrived Albany, well, Middleton Beach, to be exact, and told that they were full. Panic set in but the lady rang Emu Point, which was located at the southern end of the long beach and they could fit us in, but with the proviso that we move after 3 nights to another site - a bit of a pain, but it was a fantastic park and beach with lots of those "Shell" type shells - ie. scallop shells. Needless to say, Mary and I spent most of our mornings beach-combing before the wind came up. Most of the people staying at the park visit each year at the same time, and all know each other. Each night they would gather in the BBQ area and have "five'sies", sometime not leaving until quite late. One night we heard a commotion and out of nowhere came this lounge flying down the road, complete with lamp! Note the box in the front ... that was an esky full of ice and beer!



Albany was settled about 2 yrs before Perth and the original farm is still there. We didn't go in though because it looked boring. The original gaol is still standing and there is a replica of the "Amity" which is the ship that bought the first settlers in 1826.



For most of it's early years, Albany was a whaling port. There were nearly a thousand whales taken per season and the bay would be bright red with their blood. Ken said that when he lived in Perth in the mid-70's, he remembers the whale station which was still active and the stench that surrounded the village not to mention the sharks opportunistically grabbing what they could get as the carcasses were hauled up the ramp to the men waiting to slice the blubber to put into the boilers. The whaling station is now a tourist attraction and an excellent one at that.


The old gaol was built in 1851 and was used as a convict hiring depot, a centre for cheap labour. It became a normal gaol some twenty years later. It wasn't open when we were there ... just our luck.


The memorial to the ANZACs is beautiful. It is said that when the soldiers sailed out of Princess Royal Harbour, the last thing they saw when looking back was the statue of the bronze horse and soldier. The memorial has since been built and is a replica of one that was built in Cairo of all places.





The boat shed produce markets were only small, but really good.


The World cruise ship was visiting Albany when we were there. What a monster and what a way to live! The cheapest apartment is $2.1 million .... U.S.!


When we had to move sites after 3 days, the spot we were given was down an embankment and the car's behind was in the air and it was really difficult to get the caravan off. Hence another hiccup .... colapse of the jockey wheel. Oh well, at least it's only a $60 hiccup this time.




18-21 January
Bremer Bay
What a magnificent place! Bremer Bay has the most beautiful beaches.

The Town Beach had sand like talcum powder and the water was the cleanest and bluest I've ever seen.

Many surfers come to Blossoms Beach at Bremer Bay for the surf. It is, however, only for the adventurous, as it's difficult to get to without driving over sand dunes and through bush. We're completely over that! We decided a long, long time ago that we would stick to the bitumen!


The caravan park was a mess - a lot of vans with no proper sites, just park wherever you can fit. It was just dirt and dust and the wind picked up the second day we were there. We had a wonderful time the day we arrived but the rest of our stay was cold and very windy.

The fishing can be good though!

We discovered an abalone farm at Bremer Bay, and after sampling them at Pat and Colin's at Christmas in Augusta, we decided to see if we could buy some. The farm is huge, on about 50 acres, and the sheds that house the abalone are just those rounded army-type sheds. The gate was open so in we went and found 5 big burly blokes enjoying some cold beers and sitting around a 40-gallon drum full of empty beer cans. They said that they couldn't show us around because of the bio-diversity regulations for commercial fishing, but they opened the door to one of the sheds so we could just take a look. How amazing! There were flat racks on the ground as far as we could see in the dark with salt water rushing over them and millions - well, trillions of small abalone.




The fellow said that the sheds held progressively larger abalone and when they reached the last shed, the abalone were ready for "harvest" and export. They did have frozen ones in packs of about 50 for $25 so off we went with our haul. Yum.

We visited an old farm that has been in the same family for generations. Unfortunately the owner is now in his late 70's and his children have all moved away. He has left the property to the National Trust so hopefully it will stay as it is for more people to see. It is in a magnificent setting and they have a great museum attached to it.






At Little Harbour Beach, there is a really unique idea for divers. They have placed signs underneath the water so that divers can follow this rock wall and read about the different marine animals that live there.


Unfortunately the weather changed for the worst while we were at this beautiful spot and, like everywhere, this can spoil your trip. We did our best though but each time the wind and the rain squawls drove us home to the relative warmth of our caravan. In such wind you feel like you're on a boat because the van shakes with the wind and the awning, well! If you put that up in such wind, we'll fly home!

Off tomorrow for 380kms to Esperance. Fuel 165.9.

21-30 January
Esperance




About half way between Bremer Bay and Esperance is a turn off to a place called Hopetoun. The turn off is from a small town called Ravensthorpe which is where we stopped for lunch. The caravan park is worth a mention .... have a look. Friends that we met at Derby up the top of WA, stayed there and took these photos ... priceless!









You would have to give the owner an A+ for originality!



About 20kms south of Ravensthorpe is a town called Hopetoun which is right on the south coast and the site of a huge nickel mine once owned by BHP Billiton - until recently, that is, when they closed the mine and everyone, but a few, left town. The houses were just left empty as is the town. The houses are beautiful brick homes with landscaped gardens but every one of them is empty. Amazing. A Canadian mining company has now purchased the mine and expect to have it back up and running in 12 months or so.


Esperance is a port and service centre for agriculture and pastoral lands. The scenery is the most magnificent I've seen and the Le Grande National Park with its spectacular beaches is just so beautiful. Esperance is near where Skylab crashed in the 1970's and spread debris across the area from its flight path.




The sea here is like liquid glass and the sand is so white. The jetty at Esperance goes 1km out to the sea and Sammy the seal sits and waits patiently every day for a feed from the fishermen who clean their catch on the jetty. He is so fat and doesn't move too far. Occasionally a lady seal comes to visit but she only hangs around if there's something to eat.


The Port at Esperance is huge and trains roll in and out like buses in York Street! They are full of grain and ships were in port each day we were there. I don't think I've ever really appreciated how much Australia makes from exporting grain and minerals. Until this trip, I've never really thought about it but it must provide a massive income to our economy. I stopped on my walk to the beach one day and spoke to some Philippino seamen who said that they do a round trip from Japan to Esperance to China, then China to Esperance and back to Japan - all with their ships full of grain.



As mentioned before, the beaches here are beautiful. The La Grande beach in the national park was my favourite - I wanted to stay there but the caravan park is in the bush with no water or power. We could have done it but Mary and Michael, our Maltese friends who we met at Halls Creek back in the Northern Territory, are still with us and they have a deep freezer on board.












Just like all the towns we have visited across the south-west, the wind blows from the south all day and night, but at least we get to swim early each day before it starts. It was in the low 30's each day, but by afternoon it was usually a blustery 28.


In 1802, Matthew Flinders sailed the Bay of Isles, discovering and naming places such as Lucky Bay and Thistle Cove in La Grande National Park. Whalers, sealers and pirates followed, as did pastoralists and miners, keen to exploit the free land and cash in on the gold boom in the gold fields to the north. Esperance is still a small town with 2 supermarkets, a few shops and restaurants. During the summer months, particularly over the Christmas period, you can't get accommodation here because of all the tourists from the north, Perth in particular. Albany and Augusta are much the same.

We were in Esperence for Australia Day - the celebrations were held in the park opposite our caravan park. Sydney Harbour would have been better!!






The west has lots of these "salt" lakes and Esperance is no exception. This was one of the biggest we've seen.

We had some more car trouble here. For some time now, we've had a strong smell of fuel whenever we fill up the tank, so we took it to a mechanic who found that the seal on top of the fuel tank was full of red dust and dirt and was loose. We were lucky in that he said it would only take a day to fix so we took it to him and hired a car for the day. Another job done!

30 January - 4 February
Kalgoorlie




We left Esperance early for the 200km trip to a town called Norseman where we planned to stay the night but when we got there, decided we would continue on to Kalgoorlie. Norseman is really just a tiny town with nothing much going for it. It was once a thriving farming town but not anymore. In fact, most of the shops were closed and the caravan park was dirt and dust. I did find a dolls museum!


As with most of these towns, water is non-existant unless it is bore water.



From Norseman, you can turn right to cross the Nullarbor and drive east, or you continue north to Kalgoorlie which is where we are headed.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder (as it is now known) was a fantastic place. The mining history was so interesting. I never thought I would be so taken in by mining! The road from Norseman to Kalgoorlie is home to many, many mines, some owned by large mining companies and some owned by private prospectors. If you don't drive a white 4-wheel drive with a flag on top of a mast then you stand out as a tourist.



The town of Kalgoorlie has many beautiful buildings from another era. The old hotels and civic buildings still stand tall and proud and the brothels (or bordellos) are still in operation. They also do tours for us tourists!



The largest open cut gold mine in Australia is here at Kalgoorlie and it is absolutely awesome. It is the only "scar" on earth visible from space.

It was Alan Bond's vision for a single open cut mine that started with him trying to buy up all the private mining leases which were smaller underground mines. From the observation deck you can see holes in the side of the open cut mine and these are the old mine shafts. They actually employ contractors just to remove the timber beams from these old mine shafts and pay them $60,000 per annum! We were lucky to be there for one of the mine blasts - we would have been at least 300 metres above the floor of the mine and we felt the ground shake. It was incredible.





Of course, we (I!) had to do the brothel tour.





The Boulder Town Hall was built in 1908, and is typical of a building of the gold rush days. It has been beautifully restored and houses the only "Goatcher" stage curtain left in the world. The stage curtain is like a painted screen that is lowered from the top of the stage by a pulley when the stage is not in use. On the screen is painted a scene called the Bay of Naples.

The name "Goatcher" comes from the artist (Paul Goatcher) who travelled the world to paint scenes on these screens at the turn of the century. I was thrilled to see it .... the others stayed in the car! The preserved historical hall has pressed tin ceilings and wrought iron balustrades ... Dame Nellie Melba and Joan Sutherland once performed there.

Kalgoorlie Town Hall is just as beautiful.


I must say, Kalgoorlie-Boulder is still very much a "man's" town.

These signs were outside every pub and we learnt that the Skimpy of the week is the bar-maid voted most popular (or most whatever) by the patrons of the pub each week and then she has to wear lingerie behind the bar for that week.

In keeping with the "man's town" theme, we visited the old Two-Up shed - also believed to be the last in existence. When we drove along the red dirt road and arrived at the shed, I could really feel the atmosphere.


Just imagine the shed full of men all standing around probably with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth and wearing a hat as they did in those days and excitedly yelling "heads" or "tails" at the top of their voices. The "cockatoos" would have been placed at the entrance to the track in case of police.
There must have been a few ladies amongst the crowd as well.
I just love the "larakinism" of our past. My Grandad was one!!

Underneath the Metropole Hotel in Boulder is a mine shaft. They've put an inch-thick plate of glass over the shaft entrance so you can stand and look down into it from the bar.


There are still a few miner's houses around and people still live in them - whether they are prospecting or not I don't know.


The Miners Museum was really good.



There was a Hall of Fame and a fascinating insight into the life of Lang Hancock. When I get home, I'm going to buy a book on his life ... what an interesting man.


The Kalgoorlie Railway Station was like stepping back in time - much like the whole city.

We loved it here. It has so much history and character.

So there you are. We left Kalgoorlie on the 4th February for the return trip to Norseman then the turn left to cross the Nullarbour. It is now March and we are in Port Augusta, South Australia, heading for Adelaide and .... DAVID JONES!!

I'll fill you in with Norseman to Port Augusta soon ....

'till next time, love to all.