When I emerged from the van there was a last quarter moon high in a cobalt blue sky. You can see for miles across the Nullarbor Plain, the lights of the roadhouse were shining in the distance and there was a red glow on the eastern horizon warning of the day to come. I was but a speck in the universe.
It was 8°C, the van and car were dripping with dew. I was glad that I would not be dealing with wet canvas.
Last evening our little dog had been very restless and overnight some dingoes had been howling. We had been careful not to leave our shoes outside.
After breakfast we were on our way. It was the reverse process that we’d experienced in the few days prior, Nullarbor Plain giving way to mallee woodland and then wheat fields. The biggest difference was flocks of Starlings once we hit the South Australian wheat belt. Once we reached Ceduna we added House Sparrows and a Blackbird. WA is not entirely without introduced species but around Broome it’s rare to encounter them and it’s never Sparrows and Starlings, it’s the odd Muscovy or Peafowl.
Our destination was Streaky Bay for a couple of nights at the wonderful Islands Caravan Park which is beautifully planted, well maintained and run by some very nice people. It’s right on the beach …
Newman’s Rocks was very kind to me. A parrot flew and landed close by. For a brief moment I was treated to an intoxicating splendour. Small, bright scarlet breast, blue face, green back, a jewelled bird – ruby, sapphire, emerald. A male Scarlet Chested Parrot Neophema splendida. A tick but no photo. It was gone too soon.
Ready to leave Newman’s Rocks
The day started in the Great Western Woodlands, 160,000 square kilometers of mallee and other eucalypts located between Australia’s moist, cooler south-west corner and its desert interior. As we traveled east the woodland was interspersed with open saltbush patches which slowly came to dominate until we were on the Nullarbor Plain. No trees here. Our first camp site was on the cliffs looking out at the Southern Ocean and the Great Australian Byte.
The next day was a short one to camp in the vicinity of the Murrawijinie Caves. The Nullarbor Plain is limestone. There is no surface water but plenty of deep caves. The low scrub around this area is home to the Nullarbor Quail-thrush. Gayle and I have put in quite a few hours on a previous visit trying unsuccessfully to find this bird. So on this occasion we set aside a full afternoon and a full morning the next day. It took about 10 minutes to find the first one and then we found at least five more. Unfortunately they notice you at the same time you notice them and then they’re gone, hiding under bushes or simply flying away.
Our first stop after leaving York was Merredin. Back in 2019 we spent a week here awaiting repairs to our camper trailer. It seemed a long week at the time but we couldn’t resist a short visit.
That night we camped at Karalee Rock. In this part of Western Australia harvesting water from large rocks has been elevated to a fine art. Surface water is scarce here. When steam trains were the way to move goods and people water had to be available at many points along the line. At Karalee Rock and many other large rocks water was directed using low walls to a dam. Last time we were here it was pouring with rain which gave me an opportunity to see and film the process in action. You can find the movie <HERE>. This time the weather was fine.
Towards the end of the first century Juvenal, the Roman satirist, was wont to say “Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno.” Which translates as “A rare bird in the lands, and very like a black swan.” which is as polite a way of saying “bullshit” that I have ever come across. Every European knew that all swans are white so someone claiming to have seen something as rare as a black swan was clearly lying.
Willem de Vlamingh put an end to that fallacy in 1697 when he came eye to eye with Black Swans on the river now known as the Swan River in a place now known as Perth, Western Australia. He grabbed a few but sadly they died on the way back to Holland.
Most Australians grow up seeing only black swans. They might well turn Juvenal’s saying around “A rare bird in the lands, and very like a white swan, mate” but they would probably just say “Bullshit”. However there is in WA not far from Perth a colony of white swans. A brief history can be found on a sign on the banks of the River Avon at Northam …
Mute Swan
Just how naturally they live there is a moot point. The River Avon extends in a very similar fashion up and down stream but for some reason the swans rarely travel far from Northam.
Our journey today took us from Cervantes to York, the oldest inland Town in WA.
That concludes our exploration of the west coast for now. Tomorrow we will bush camp at Karalee Rock then it’s onto the Eyre Highway bound for South Australia. Updates may be scarce for a few days.
Time to leave Shark Bay and continue south along the Western Australia coast.
The 8 hours of driving was split into manageable segments by stopping for two nights at Murchison House Station near Kalbarri. The journey took us from coastal heath through arid scrub then trees became taller and more numerous until we reached wheat and sheep country. Not far from a roadhouse called Billabong we traveled through a long section of mallee. For non-Australian readers that’s vegetation dominated by multi-stemmed eucalypts with lignotubers that will survive fire, usually on sandy soil.
Murchison House Station is a cattle property that also supports, whether they like it or not, a large population of goats. They are just about to commence the muster. The camp site is on the banks of the Murchison River which unlike a lot of rivers in the west has water in it. We enjoyed some four wheel driving and winching ourselves out of some deep sand. There were Red-tailed Black Cockatoos by the hundred and some other rather splendid creatures.
A short drive from the station takes you to Kalbarri a beautiful town on a limestone coast. The rock pools are a haven for small fish and Blue-ringed Octopus. A large lagoon turned up some nice birds for us.
Caspian Tern
Shark Bay and Kalbarri are the absolute jewels of the west coast (along with Broome, of course) but too long in paradise would overpower the senses so it was on to Cervantes, a small coastal town named for a shipwreck. Cervantes was an American whaler that ran aground near here in 1844. The crew were obliged to walk more than 200km to Fremantle.
The reason to break the drive at Cervantes was Lake Thetis and its famous stromatolites. The lake is about one and a half times more saline than sea water and without tides or large waves. The structures that form are again the interaction of cyanobacteria and inorganic particles for which conditions must be just right. They are less impressive than the marine stromatolites at Hamelin Pool but hey, you can’t turn your nose up at a stromatolite.
They are modern living examples of an ancient process, Lake Thetis only formed about 3000 years ago. Fossil stromatolites in the Pilbara date back about 3.5 billion years, the oldest known evidence of life on earth. They formed in hot springs.
After the 45°C of the first day out the mercury hasn’t got much above a balmy forty. In fact since we crossed the tropic we have found the mornings and evenings decidedly chilly. Add to that the wind chill, it’s been blowing a gale the last three days. It was a mere 16°C overnight. Life is tough.
The last two nights have been spent at Denham. Dirk Hartog Island is off to the west, Shark Bay to the east and Monkey Mia a hop step across the peninsula to the northwest.
Towards the southern end of Shark Bay is Hamelin Pool home of the stromatolites. They are produced by the interaction of sand and microorganisms and are modern examples of one of the earliest forms of life on Earth – three and a half billion years. In their day that had it all their own way, these days they are found in only two locations in the world. They are protected of course. Given that they are on the bucket list of everyone interested in life on Earth, there is a boardwalk out to see them. And given that the boardwalk is managed by the bureaucracy in charge of Australia’s parks it’s closed. It was damaged by Cyclone Seroja in April 2021 and so far bugger all has been done to fix it. Plans are in hand – give it another couple of years. In the meantime take a very long lens.
Look carefully at the toque shaped structures beneath the Pied Cormorants …
Visitors to Denham should be sure to stop at Eagles Bluff on the way for spectacular views. The aquarium is another must. It is staffed by biologists and by the end of the tour you will be an expert in serial hermaphroditism and Batesian mimicry ready to sit your exam in marine biology. Little Lagoon is also not to be missed.
SquidLionfish(photo G H D’A)
Yesterday was Monkey Mia day. The Dolphin Experience starts at 7:45am. A few dolphins will turn up on cue for a handout a meter or so from your feet. But the real stars of Monkey Mia are the Western Grasswrens that hop about in the carpark. We saw our first one within minutes of our arrival and spent several hours later in the day trying to find and hopefully photograph another, to no avail. That is typical Grasswren in my experience.
It was a day of highlights. The next was the Aristocat ll cruise in search of dolphins, turtles and dugongs which it delivered in spades.
I’ve managed to not see Dugong in the Torres Strait and in Roebuck Bay. Now at last. Their beauty far exceeds any mermaid. Peaceful creatures that browse on seagrass, a dangerously low reproductive rate, hunted for their meat and in the past for their oil. They are given a measure of protection in Oz but next time you hear someone carrying on about Japanese whaling remind them of this. Dugongs can legally be hunted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as can turtles.
They are Sirenians not Cetaceans. Their nearest relative was Stellers Sea Cow which had slipped from this mortal coil by 1768, hunted to extinction. The other extant Sirenians are three species of manatee. Dugongs grow to as much as 3m in length and may weigh 500kg or more. Adorable.
Yet another reward on this wonderful day, on the way back to the van a Malleefowl browsing on the edge of the scrub.
This morning I stood on the beach at Denham and watched the full moon sink below the western horizon. Behind me the sky was reddening with a new day ahead. Life is remarkably precious. My cup runneth over.
Anyone visiting Shark Bay should take a cruise on the Aristocat. Not only do they do a remarkably good job on the cruise they are also giving back to the environment by regenerating seagrass meadows. You can watch it below and there is a gofundme link on their home page.
It would have been good to explore the canyons of Cape Range National Park but the dog is not welcome there. So south we go from Yardie Homestead, a fine stopover, to Wooramel Station.
En route we stopped by Coral Bay, a huge caravan park with an arid landscape on one side and an impossibly blue sea on the other. A little too commercial for my liking but I must return in Whale-shark season (April – June).
Coral Bay
We stopped for lunch where the A1 crosses the Tropic of Capricorn. I was just standing there minding my own business, a muffin in one hand a drink in the other, when my leg was gently nudged … by a goat. How appropriate, an extremely tame goat the totem of Capricorn.
Next came Carnarvon, a town with about 5000 inhabitants. Here we found the first signs of horticulture on our journey south. The fertile soils of the Gascoyne delta with water from aquifers beneath the usually dry river enable production of a wide variety of fruit and vegetables.
Leaving that oasis behind it was back into the arid zone and on to Wooramel Station 356,000 acres or 1,430 square kilometers in area with 60km of coastline. The camp site is on the banks of the Wooramel river, dry most of the time. There are no powered sites but to compensate for that there is an artesian hot pool open 24hrs a day. There are a couple of 4WD trails on the station and not too far away Shark Bay can be reached at Gladstone.
Arriving at Wooramel we were greeted by the calls of Australian Ravens, the first ravens since leaving Broome. Australia’s corvids are a challenging bunch because they are all much the same size, shape and colour. Fortunately their calls, geographic ranges and a few visual cues help in sorting them out. Crows have white down under their black outer feathers. On a windy day you can get a glimpse especially around the neck. Aussie Raven is the only one of the three native ravens that are present in this region and it differs fro the crows by having a beard. I took these photos today about 30km apart. Click on the gallery for the full picture – it does have a beak.
Onslow is 81 arid kilometers off the A1 which has to be retraced on the way out. It’s nice but I may not ever return. The beach is productive for shore birds, there is a fine board walk through the dunes. A salt works can be seen piling up salt at a remarkable rate. The facilities at the Sunrise Caravan Park are superb.
There is an ANZAC memorial. At dawn the sun rises through an arch, a stylized interpretation of the Australia Defence Forces Rising Sun cap badge. Just to make sure you are moved by the experience the sprinklers come on just before the sun rises.
Purple-backed Fairywren
One night in Onslow then back across the plain, passing the termite mounds, still wondering what they find to eat, to the A1. Then south again heading for Exemouth where we stayed at the Yardie Homestead.
It is turtle nesting season and we saw several turtles reasonably close to shore, not so close that photography was overly rewarding but you can at least see it’s a turtle! In another photo it is a double decker turtle combo (either modesty or the fact that the image is soft prevents me sharing. It’s the photos you don’t publish that make you look like a decent photographer).
Woke up to the song of the Magpie. Not many of those at home in Broome. Yardies is quite productive for birds.
Point Samson has a magnificent beach with some fine reefs. Migratory waders feed along the water’s edge, turtles come ashore to lay their eggs (and to take a rest from the attention of male turtles) and terns roost on the reef and nest above the reach of high tide. It is precious.
In an effort to keep it precious dogs are forbidden on the beach. There is no way to avoid the signs that are at every access point to the beach. It’s an opportunity for the entitled to mount a little act of defiance …
Heading south. The first day’s drive took us from Broome to Pardoo Station. We left with clear blue skies but soon were traveling through a very smoky atmosphere. The Pindan scrub was on fire in many places. Smoke was everywhere but we only saw flames by the highway in a couple of spots.
Just north of the road house at Sandfire the scrub gives way to more open country and the atmosphere cleared up considerably. The next road house is at Pardoo. This was knocked over by cyclone Ilsa in April earlier this year. It didn’t look as though rebuilding had made any progress since we passed it last. There will be no fuel at Pardoo for a while yet. Our first night was at Pardoo Station. Ilsa seems to have snapped the tops off most of the gum trees but they are sprouting nicely.
Top temperature for the day was 45°C (113 in the old money).
There is some nice country to explore beyond the caravan park. Birding was good. Australian Bustards were the star of the show …
Day two took us on to Point Samson where there are two caravan parks. I am typing this in a shady corner of the boutique one. We stopped for fuel at Roebourne where the lady taking our money declared that it wasn’t hot til it hit fifty.
Western Australian pearling began at Shark Bay in the 1850’s. The Pinctada albina oyster was collected by dredging and as well as pearl shell yielded some small straw coloured pearls. Cossack followed and it was the where commercial exploitation of Pinctada maxima began. That is the oyster that later made Broome famous.
White settlers arrived in what became Cossack with their stock in 1863 after favorable reports of the area by the F T Gregory expedition a couple of years earlier. In the early days the settlement enjoyed various names probably because there wasn’t enough there for anyone to notice until pearling commenced in 1866. The name Cossack was adopted in 1871 and by 1875 there were 57 licensed vessels operating out of the town. The next few years were about pearl shell, wool, a gold rush and cyclones. In 1886 most of the pearling fleet sailed off to Broome. After that Cossack entered a slow decline. In 1910 the town was dissolved and was eventually abandoned.
The National Trust rode to the rescue, Cossack was classified in 1970. Some restoration was carried out over the next couple of decades. Today it’s on the WA Heritage Register. There is a court house, the old school, a museum, some accommodation, a cafe and a couple of store houses. It can be seen well from the Tien Tsin lookout.
Outside the court house there is a horse trough. Not a lot of horses these days but the birds approve …
Brown HoneyeaterZebra FinchMore Zebra Finch
If you head north east from the court house the road takes you to the cemetery and to Settlers Beach.
These days it’s mining that brings the big bucks to the Pilbara. Rio Tinto’s Lambert Project (iron ore)is close by Point Samson. At Wickham you can star in Honey I shrank the Kids with a Tonka Truck or play with a train.
In Sams Creek road there is an oyster hatchery that you are told not to enter so there may still be a little pearl farming going on.
bobmcgee 