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Beagle Bay Church
The church has the altars covered with mother of pearl10th June to 14th June Dampier Peninsula
At last the road is open up to Cape Leveque and beyond. The road is corrugated and sandy in parts but with the skill of the driver (me!) we arrive safely onto the sealed section just before the turnoff to Beagle Bay. Here there is a church with 3 altars all inlaid with mother of pearl. Even the floor has some shells inlaid. Quite a pretty church. The whole community looks clean but there is no accommodation of any sort, so we had lunch and moved on to Middle Lagoon.
Middle Lagoon
Whale Bay Café and Camping Ground had a turnoff a few kilometres from Middle Lagoon so we turned in and had a look. The people were friendly and we went to have a look at the campground. It was quite dusty and set above some cliffs. It was about a kilometre walk to the path, which would take you to the beach. There is an outdoor shower, which is quite unique and fun. Thought we would have a look at the Middle Lagoon Campground which we had been told was excellent.
Arrived in Middle Lagoon just in time
to see the sunset over the small beach.
Middle Lagoon is a beautiful area with pristine beaches and trees for camping, although there is an area just above a small beach, which has no shelter. A lot of people from Perth and other parts of WA come up here for holidays and stay for a couple of weeks, fishing, swimming etc. There doesn’t seem to be crocodiles here although they have been around occasionally. Everyone seems to swim around the Broome/Peninsula area. Stingers can be a problem but as the water gets colder through winter they disappear. Still warm enough to swim in.
Met up with Jo, she has a Canon 5D (I think) and was having problems with over exposure. I went through all the possible problems that I could think of from exposure compensation, to various metering options but couldn’t find anything obviously wrong. I suspect she has been pushing the extremes in the middle of the day. It certainly went OK when she came over which was earlier in the morning. She has been using either Program or Manual but nothing in between. I talked to her about using aperture priority and the use of
Gambanan Sunset
Sunset over the mud flats at low tide exposure compensation. She said she would give that a go.
Here we also met Rick, a pilot who trains pilots for Cathay. A very interesting gentleman. Another fellow arrived for a chat from the camp next door. By now it is after 9.30am and we still haven’t managed to have breakfast.
We walked down the long curving beach with its layers of sandhills and crystal clear water down to a creek, lined with mangroves, which is quite deep, clear and cool and had quite a lot of water running out to the sea. There were many rocks on the opposite side of the creek and further back palms growing out of what looked like sandy strips. We had a very relaxing swim here, there were no boats and the only people we could see were back down the far end of the beach near the campground. You can feel that you are almost alone here.
My knee is still playing up so I had a rest back in the camp after lunch while Gordon and Lyle went fishing. Gordon wanted to try his favourite method of swimming with his snorkel and watching the fish go for the
bait. However on this particular occasion there was a strong current and he couldn’t stay in the same position for long enough to fish. Lamb chops for dinner.
Gambanan (near One Arm Point)
This turned out to be a very interesting night. We had tried to book Cape Levique (Kooljamen) as you have to book ahead and we were unable to get a booking for tonight (Saturday) so made the booking for Sunday and Monday night. This left us with Saturday night. Drove to One Arm Point and had a very brief look around, everything being closed for the weekend. Back down the road a few kilometres is Gambanan, the camping area for One Arm Point. The office was closed as we drove in but we saw 2 aboriginal men working out the back of their house polishing off some boomerangs with a bench belt sander.
They told us to drive around the back and camp as there were a lot of people coming for a corroboree that night. They invited us to the Corroboree for $20. Having no real idea where ‘the back’ was we drove until we found some facilities and camped in a beautiful
grove of trees within easy walking distance. The facilities are very new, to the point where neither the hot water and the power for the light are connected. However they were certainly very clean.
Went for a wander around the camp looking at the rocky and mangrove covered foreshore. In the short time we were there, Gordon didn’t find a good place to swim, he went out past the mangroves and rocks.
The manageress came around to collect the camp fees, she is the daughter of the owner (one of the gentlemen we met earlier) and very efficient, friendly and helpful.
Watched the corroboree, which the owner of the campground explained as it progressed. It was about the life of one of the tribe and his journey. This corroboree is taken internationally by the dancers we saw.
After the corroboree, Frank the current owner of the property told us his story.
Frank was born on Sunday Island. He went to school in Derby. While he was still of school age the government or mission closed the Island and moved the inhabitants to the mainland. Frank never found out why. However, instead of moving everyone to
Learning the Dance
The young boys learning the dance the same place people seemed to be sent everywhere from Broome to Darwin and further inland. Family groups were split up and friends lost touch. They were put in communities with aboriginals from other areas with whom they had nothing in common. Their culture, language and diet were different. Until the move to Derby Frank and many of his tribe had never eaten kangaroo. Their diet changed completely. Now they were in Derby there were many more expenses and Frank had to leave school at 14 to help support the family. He worked with an uncle and eventually did jobs from driving trucks and taxis to working on cattle stations and doing anything that would bring in an income. He moved around working inland and out to Broome.
Eventually when grants for further education were made available to aboriginals he went to Adelaide and studied for several years. (By this time he was in his 30’s.) He studied and improved his negotiating skills and was eventually elected to the Kimberly Land Council and was asked to go and help some inland Aborigines negotiate for their land. He was there for a couple of years after which he felt he
should be negotiating to try and get some benefits for his own people of Sunday Island, some of whom, notably his Uncle wanted to return to Sunday Island.
His Uncle had been trying for some years to be allowed to return to the Island officially, without success. One day the Uncle simply left his job, hopped into his tinny,(dinghy) and putt putted the (approx) 10 kms to the Island and set up camp. Eventually a number of family and friends joined him. A larger boat was bought as it was quite risky to travel back and forwards in often rough seas with the smaller boat. This made it much easier to get supplies to the Island. When some supplies were needed they would send smoke signals to let people know they were coming. This went on for some time. However the island remained very isolated with no medical assistance and little infrastructure. One family member owned some land back on the mainland so they moved there, encouraging others from the original Sunday Island community who wished to join them to come in. Gradually the community grew.
Currently Frank is back on the Kimberley Land Council and engaged in
Fish Trap
This is a fish trap which is over 100 years old. It still works, when the tide was out we could see the fish caught in pools left by the receding tide negotiations regarding mining and gas projects which are trying to set up in the area. An intelligent man who it seems has helped the Aboriginals gain some of the what they lost.
Had another stroll around in the morning before we left. Last night was a bit of a challenge with no lights in the toilets and no moon. Finding the way back to bed felt a little like bush bashing with some thorny vines making a grab for you.
Cape Leveque
We were lucky and the first night had a beach shelter. Lyle was originally a little skeptical as we had to let our tyres down to go through the sand and he wasn’t sure it would be worth it, it was. There was a palm frond shelter with water and a shower in the corner. A private fire for each shelter and wood available from a central point. The fire was made from the wheel rim of a truck with a grate and plate attached on a swinging arm, very efficient.
Loved the beach, a lovely view and although it was low tide Gordon & I had a swim. A bit rocky, it
Beach near shelter
A view of the east facing beach near our beach shelter would be better to swim at high tide. Went for a stroll along the beach. The beach faces more to the east so for the sunset you need to be on the other west facing beach.
As all the beach shelters were booked out for the next night we had to move to the campground. A completely different area. Near the reception and restaurant with a drive or walk down to the west facing beach called sunset beach.
This area is also near a lighthouse. There is a boardwalk with information along the way on the lighthouse history and flora that you pass as you descend towards the beach shelters.
We had lunch at the restaurant on both days, a wonderful position looking from the cliffs down to the beach. Very pleasant and relaxing.
Down to sunset beach for the sunset, for a short time there was good light on the Pindan cliffs but there were no clouds for a spectacular sunset.
Tomorrow we head to Derby.
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