Exmouth and Carnarvon

Ningaloo Lighthouse
Three nights in Exmouth gave us plenty of time to explore this small town and its surroundings. On one side, the Exmouth Gulf and the other, the Indian Ocean and the beginning of the Coral Coast including the Ningaloo Marine Park. Glimpses of blue water of the gulf to the north and to the south views of Cape Range National Park as we headed in a westerly direction towards North West Cape. The friendly natives here are emus, emus and more emus who wander everywhere, always in pairs, and are right at home with the the two legged visitors in their territory. They appear to be a smaller variety than their eastern cousins. I might be imagining that.

Towards North West Cape & Communications Base

Australia and the US established a communications base in 1967 and Exmouth was born. The facility is a radio relay station passing messages between Australian and US command centres and their respective submarines and surface ships in the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific. The low frequency transmitters' central tower stands 387.6 metres high, weighs 800 tonnes and can withstand winds up to 500km per hour and is surrounded by 12 similar transmitters and its a very impressive sight. Today it is known as the Australian Naval Communication Station, Harold E. Holt, named in honour of the late Australian Prime Minister - and the US Navy continues its involvement.

The coastline and beaches are just beautiful, with turquoise water and miles of white sand - my kind of place. You can swim with the Manta Rays and Whale Sharks who eat plankton, not people. There are also Black Tip Reef Sharks, White Tip and Grey Reef Sharks, and no doubt they are the people eating varieties so I figured it's best to avoid them. The Green, Loggerhead and Hawksbill turtles have rookeries along the coast and come under wildlife protection laws as they are threatened species. Vlamingh Head Lighthouse built in 1912 at the point of North West Cape wasn't built early enough to save the SS Mildura from the reef during a cyclone in 1907. The wreck is still clearly visible from Lighthouse Bay at the point. We drove up to see the second lighthouse called Ningaloo Lighthouse and had fabulous views of the surf beaches up and down the coast and we were also able to watch Humpback whales again.

Almost forgot to mention, Ade finally managed to throw a line in, but the fish must have seen him coming!

Fishing for Nothing

We detoured into Coral Bay on Tuesday on our way south to Carnarvon. Another magic place for swimming and snorkelling on the Ningaloo Reef and more white sandy beach - so hard to take. The coral viewing boats were all lined up loading passengers for an outing and I so wished I was going too.

174 kilometres on we once again went over the Tropic of Capricorn. Definitely no chance of showing off my suntan in Carnarvon with the temperatures much cooler and rain. Delightful town on the Gascoyne River and the heart of the salad bowl where 70% of Western Australia's fruit and vegetables are grown. We followed the Gascoyne Food Trail and stopped at plantations, (they are not called farms here) and bought fruit and veg from the growers. Not only are they cheap but so fresh. Bananas are the biggest crop and mangoes, strawberries, star fruit, melons, citrus, tomatoes, avocados, asparagus, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, pumpkins, grapes, (just to name a few) etc. are grown, but no spuds!


Quobba Coastline

To top off our first day in Carnarvon, we had a feast of freshly caught seafood for lunch - magnifique!. We devoured blue swimmer crabs ($2 each) and king prawns (shrimp to my US readers) and Ade shucked his half dozen oysters, a new experience. The snapper was held over for dinner the next night and that was also delicious.

Point Quobba Blowhole

Day two we took a run north 70 kilometres along the coast this time to see the blowhole at Point Quobba. The rugged coastline and the sea rushing into shore and forcing the water up through the blowholes was spectacular as was the deafening noise.

Next destination is one of the worlds heritage listed areas, Shark Bay.

Point Samson, Karratha and Dampier

Small Road Train

Our trip south to Point Samson covered more of the same desolate country. The only highlight I can recall was a sign to the Whim Creek Copper Mine which explained the deep purple and red colours in the rocky mountains we could see in the distance. High winds again made another day of unpleasant driving conditions and we saw lots of willy willys swirling the red dirt around.

The Cove Caravan Park at Point Samson overlooks the ocean and those gale force winds wouldn't let up. White caps and rolling surf created spectacular views at our back door. This is by a country mile, the best van park we have stayed at with excellent facilities and a great outlook. It's like the "Five Star of Parks"! We were relieved to wake up the next morning to calm conditions which gave us the opportunity to take the woofs for a walk down to the beach and get out and about to explore.


Restored Cossack Court House
constructed 1895


First port of call and just down the road from Point Samson is the ghost town of Cossack established in 1863 to support the pastoral and pearling industries. A cyclone hit the area in 1898 and the pearling fleet then moved north to Broome and in 1950 the town was completely abandoned. A heritage trail tells the story and many of the old stone buildings have now been restored. The historic towns of Roebourne, settled 1866 and Wickham settled in 1840 are nearby.

We took a run south to Dampier and Karratha, approximately 40 kilometres away . Dampier, named after the English buccaneer William Dampier, was established in 1965 by Hammersley Iron. It's aother sea based export location for iron ore and also provides loading facilities for Dampier Salt, Pilbara Iron and the North West Gas Shelf Project. Karratha derives its name from the Aboriginal word meaning 'good country'. It must describe the mineral wealth - not the views and countryside. Boating and fishing are popular around the Dampier Archipelago and given more time and warmer weather it would be great to experience the Montebello Islands off the coast; a designated marine park and known for beautiful coral reefs, sandy beaches and unique marine life.


Friday was time to move on and we are still travelling south this time to a free camp at Barradale. Once more high winds added to our fuel consumption and the car was noticeably running at much higher rpm's to counter the head winds. We encountered more flat and uninteresting country with occasional glimpses of distant ranges. We passed by gas mines and a huge stock pile of iron ore and equipment visible from the road at the Mesa Mine. There are loads of long road trains carrying mining equipment up and down the highway as well as fuel tankers. South of the Nantutarrra Roadhouse the highway is an Emergency Runway - no planes landing or taking off while we were driving - now that would have been something to talk about! Food note: An expensive lunch of a pie and a pastie and sauce $14.80 at the roadhouse. We travellers are a captive audience without other options as there isn't anywhere else for 200 kilometres.

Barradale Free Camp

Saturday morning after our overnight camp at Barradale, (loved the river gums but more horrible red dirt!) we travelled further south, turned west and then north to reach Exmouth on North West Cape at the top of the Coral Coast. Up and down the sand dunes was the order of the day with glimpses of the blue waters of the Exmouth Gulf. Yeah a change of scenery!

Port Hedland

Dampier Salt Stockpile

Our first impression of Port Hedland - it's a wonderful shade of rust! We are now in the Pilbara region of Australia which is known as the 'Engine Room of the Nation' and home to massive resource projects, natural gas and iron ore mining.

As we hadn't planned to stop here, we called into the Information Centre to help us secure a site in a Caravan Park to stay for a couple of nights and organise a mechanic to fix the air conditioning. After the new fan belt was fitted to the air conditioner the next morning, we set off to look around this industrial town. The Dampier Salt Stockpile is a most impressive sight as well as the huge trains carrying iron ore to the port for export. 682 cars and 8 locomotives set a new world record in 2001 here in Port Headland, for the heaviest tonnage and longest train carrying iron ore. Love those world records!!
The Japanese Iron Ore Ship

The port itself is quite a sight and we watched 4 tugs positioning a huge Japanese ship to the dock to be loaded with the crushed ore. I counted 20 more ships out to sea waiting to enter port. The town is almost insignificant compared to the massive crushing machines and equipment all around in the BHP Billiton sites.

Port Hedland Wharves

We toured around the Port Hedland coastline and South Hedland where the main living and retail areas are located. The waters off the coast are well known for fishing enthusiasts but the beaches are uninspiring. I was expecting to see Fred Flinstone jump out of the "Pot Wagon" a Japanese artist's sculpture we came across in one of the parks. It was donated by BHP and it's made of copper, zinc and lead.

Fred Flinstone's 4WD

Marble Bar, the hottest recorded place in Australia,(162 consecutive days of over 37.8C or 100F in 1928) is inland about 250 kilometres from the coast. Newman is further inland where iron ore is also found and like Marble Bar is also known for its gold deposits. Further south east is the town of Tom Price in the Hammersley Range, home to Rio Tinto's open cut iron ore mine, and it is also the gateway to the Karijini National Park. It is interesting to identify the whereabouts of these well known places while we are travelling even though we don't have them on our agenda.

Our unexpected stay at Port Hedland was enlightening and enjoyable. Time to move on down the road.

Barn Hill Station

Adrian Slumming at Barn Hill

35 kilometres east of Broome we once again changed direction and headed south this time on the Great Northern Highway towards our next stop at Barn Hill Station. Flat open plain country with grazing cattle and we are assuming this is probably an area where cattle are kept before live export from Broome to Asia. Then we hit scrappy country and the only interesting view was a low growing bush with a long stalk of bright purple flowers. Nothing else to break the monotony. As we were to learn this is par for the course down the west coast. The road was approximately 10 kilometres east of the coastline and, east of the highway all the way to the Northern Territory Border, is the Great Sandy Desert.

Rocky Pools

The turn off on to the corrugated red dirt road to Barn Hill Station was one of those bone rattling experiences so dreaded by Adrian. The look of absolute horror on his face trying to manoeuvre the car to the least bumpy side of the road had me in a fit of the giggles; the poor dogs couldn't work out what was going on with the car vibrating and me crying with laughter. We had a few stock gates to open and close and speed bumps to slow the hoons down. All in all a wild ride!

Let me say it was all worth it to camp on the cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean. We watched the migrating whales frolicking in the ocean right in front of us and then a magnificent sunset over the water to finish the day. The beach is such a different experience from home with amazing rock formations right to the edge and then wonderful wide sandy expanse at low tide, to laze around sun baking if one so chooses. I managed to do that along with a few dips in the ocean over the couple of days and I also enjoyed exploring the rock pools. Not to bad for shell collecting either.

Beach Side Rock Formations

Barn Hill Station is a working cattle station with 87 kilometres of coastline in its boundary. Its a popular spot for campers, so much so, we were not in a powered site and christened our generator, 'Gennie', to top up our batteries every day. We had toilets and showers, open air. First time we have been able to get a suntan while showering!

Sunset over the Indian Ocean

Monday 9th August returned to the highway to continue south. I promise I didn't laugh this time. Free camp on the agenda for tonight at the De Grey River until the air conditioning decided it simply wasn't going to work. Gale force winds on the road, boring flat country and nothing to see other than the desert and by the middle of the day we were feeling the heat. Made a decision to push on to Port Headland another 100 kilometers to find a mechanic to replace the air conditioner's fan belt. Only stop at Sandfire Roadhouse, refuel and "meat pie " for lunch. Haven't had one of those for a while.

Derby and Broome

Local Residents

We stayed at the Kimberley Caravan park in Derby on King Sound and spent four days enjoying the chance to stop in one place and explore this northern part of Aus. We had great neighbours, Kay and Colin from Bendigo and Sue and Bill from Melbourne and enjoyed a very pleasant time sharing our travel tales over a few drinks. We feel privileged to meet such a wonderful cross section of Aussies travelling our highways and byways like us.

William Dampier was the first to land in King Sound in 1688 though Derby wasn't settled by Europeans until 1879 and gazetted as a town until 1883. The Derby Jetty experiences some of the highest tides in the world of 11 metres and wool and pearl shell were the main exports from the first jetty built in 1884. In 1964 a new jetty was constructed to handle the export of lead and zinc products. The wharf is the most popular place for fishing due to the presence of those lizard like creatures (again) and swimming isn't on the agenda either for the same reason. The wharf is also the best place in town to view the stunning sunsets and tide changes.

A Moving Tribute

The local Aboriginal people have an interesting history here due mostly to the conflict between the whites and blacks. One particular Aboriginal, Jandamaera (Pigeon), a native tracker, was used by the police to track down his own people. He stole a gun, shot a local policeman and he then became the outlaw and was hunted and shot and killed. We followed his story on the heritage trail and visited The Old Gaol, the Boab Prison Tree which was the staging point for prisoners being walked into Derby to jail, and the local Cemetery where the Policeman shot by Jandamaera, PC Richardson was laid to rest amongst both the black and the white people.

We saw beautiful local art at the Mowanjum Centre featuring native animals and people depicted in a different style from the more common dot painting we have seen on our travels.

Our drive to the west coast and Broome on Monday morning was an easy 220 kilometres. Our camp was at what is deemed an overflow as all the van parks were full. So we were in the grounds of the local Police Citizens Youth Club and all the income from campers goes back to the Youth Club. It was a great spot, apart from that never ending red dirt, and we met delightful neighbours, Helen and Kev, Sydney residents (we didn't discuss State of Origin).

Cable Beach towards Gantheaume Point

The must see famous Cable Beach with 22 kilometers of pristine white sand was first on the touring agenda and yes it is a very pretty place but we don't think it is any better than our beautiful Queensland coastline. We had a visit to the beach at Gantheaume Point and could even drive the car on to the beach. WA is very dog friendly on their beaches as well - how civilised.

Broome was also visited by William Dampier in the same year as Derby, and Roebuck Bay named after his ship. Pearling became the main industry after the discovery of the world's largest pearl shell and in the early part of the 20th century produced 80% of the worlds supplies. The majority of the original divers were Japanese and they also came from China and Malay. Many lost their lives to the perils of retrieving these gems with the bends and sharks, and then the development of the plastic button almost brought pearling to an end in the 1950's. The cultured pearl, developed by Mikimoto of Japan, restored the industry and it remains a vibrant part of Broome today producing the worlds finest. I wandered through Chinatown which was once the bustling hub of Broome and home to billiard saloons, entertainment houses, opium dens and brothels. Two of the original pearling luggers have been restored and the Willie Creek Pearl Farm north of Broome takes you on a journey of how the cultured pearl is developed; it takes two years to grow them.

Adrian attempted to start a new chapter of the Sip & Sup Club in Broome with one of his old mates from the Gold Coast, Wayne, who owns the local Brumbys Bakery. I am now obliged to tell tales. After a long lunch downtown, a certain person was a little under the weather. So much so, after a request to walk the dogs he promptly fell down the two steps into the dogs playpen. One could assume and rightly so, he was in the "dog house" where in my opionion he belonged! I think the Broome Sip & Sup Club is more sip than sup and doomed!

The Port of Broome

Had this day occurred prior to my window shopping at the finest pearl outlets, namely Paspaley, Kalis and Linneys to name just a few, it may have turned into a very expensive trip to Broome.

So many places left to visit another time. Particularly Cape Leveque on the northern part of the Dampier Peninsula which I have been told, on good authority, is stunning and well worth the 200 kilometre drive some of it on an unsealed road. Also, the Stairway to the Moon is an event which happens along the northern part of the west coast when the moon is full and with a low tide, it appears there are steps to the moon. Have to return at the right time for that. Interestingly the moon is not visible in this western sky at any other time.