It is some time since I ‘blogged’ – have been busy with our friends Rene
& Bruce in Perth, have chatted till our tongues nearly dried up, & been
chauferred on all sorts of little jaunts, had a family birthday party for
Bruce’s 66th, Mother’s Day breakfast at a cafe by the water at the marina, gone
canoeing on the Murray River (not THE Murray River), & generally had a fun
time. Then Rene & Bruce packed up their tent & camping gear & dog
Billy, to accompany us in their own car for 6 nights further north. En route
on a glorious morning we quickly lost the traffic & the highway was very
quiet. The landscape was shrubby, lots of pink banksias starting to flower.
Lovely green sheep farms were evident, in gently rolling paddocks filled with
‘pimply’ white rocks, so that it was difficult to tell the sheep from the rocks
as we sped past. Could have been the Sth Island of NZ. We followed the Indian
Ocean Drive, with quite a lot of wind turbines harnessing the abundant sea winds
for power to these little towns. Along the way we separated so that Stu & I
could visit ‘The Pinnacles’ – dogs not allowed. These limestone pillars rise
mysteriously from the sand dunes, some up to 4 mtrs tall, & an eerie
contrast to the surrounding heath. Some are jagged , & sharp edged columns,
others resemble tombstones. There is a 1.5km walk or it is possible to drive
the 4km through them. We found them very photographic & interesting. We
soon met up with the others at a little coastal fishing village for morning tea
& then continued on to another small fishing place called Leeman where we
were to spend the first two nights at their daughter’s bach, We in our van
& they in the bach. Billy insists on us all walking a fair bit which is
good for all, & one day we did an hilarious off-road trip to some caves in
the Landcruiser. The road was really rough in places, quite narrow & very
sandy in others. It reminded me of the song “ All shook up!” Stu thoroughly
enjoyed throwing us all around. Not always a lover of caves myself, I must say
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was very large & was used by the drovers
in the old days to keep their cattle overnight. A riverbed runs right through
it which of course was just sand at present, but I’m sure it roars through at
certain times. There were also two other caves but one we couldn’t enter &
the other was a lot smaller. We discovered an alternative road out which was
much more comfortable for the return trip home but it really was a most
enjoyable outing.
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Fishing boat at Leeman
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Day 3 it was off to Geraldton, a large town about 200kms further up the
coast where Bruce was the ships’ pilot for many years. We were fortunate to
convince the caravan park that we could all fit on one site instead of the two
we booked, so after settling in Bruce was keen to show us his old workplace
environment, so there was much talk about the sea & ships etc – two old
sailors who haven’t seen each other for many years. They are like twins – not
identical but oh so..... alike! One of the interesting things was a one of the
many refugee ships which manage to reach Australia. It apparently appeared
right in front of a waterfront cafe one day in broad daylight with a big sign
saying ‘help us to get to NZ’.
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Refugee Boat
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Naturally they were held here. It was a very
rough looking small boat, overloaded with about 70 people – hard to imagine
where they all managed to fit. An emotional place to visit was the Memorial to
the naval ship ‘HMAS SYDNEY II’ which disappeared with 645 servicemen after a
battle with the German raider ‘HSK Kormoran’ in 1941. Although the Kormoran
was also lost, many of her crew survived the ordeal. The main focus of the
memorial is a large silver dome of 645 seagulls, representing the 645 lives
lost. The second part is a wall which shows photographs of the ships & the
names of the crew of the Sydney. The third element is a bronze statue of a
woman gazing out to sea as she awaits news of the ill-fated Sydney. The
remains of the Kormoran were finally located on 12th March 2008 approximately
207 km from the west coast of WA. The Sydney was finally found on Sunday 16th
March 2008 also 207km from the west coast after 66 years. The other famous
shipwreck here was the Dutch merchant ship the ‘Batavia’ which was wrecked on
the Abrolhos Islands just off the coast here in 1629 after a murder &
mutiny.
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| HMAS Sydney II Memorial at Geraldton |
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