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Carnarvon
...part of the fishing fleet that drives the town Carnarvon
5
th – 7
th May 2012
The drive up from Hamelin Pool to Carnarvon we thought would pretty much set the scene until we hit the Pilbara, long straight stretches of road through ‘station country’ of red sand with a few ‘jump-ups’ to cross. The surrounding country was covered in native grasses and saltbush with relief given to the landscape by low brush, mostly acacia. Every now and then we would cross a creek bed or river bed, (always dry), which had stands of low, white trunked gums along its coarse giving some aspect to the unfolding scene. I must say that this semi - arid country looked in good condition after what must have been a reasonable wet season for them up here, we saw few cattle along the roadside but when we did they were fat.
After topping up with fuel at the Overlander roadhouse, we headed north up the NWCH (North West Coastal Highway) passing through Wooramel Roadhouse without much excitement. Reaching Carnarvon we set up at the caravan park to discover that the brake lights were staying on, and after having a quick play with the electronic brake controller they went off, so we
Carnarvon
The Esplanade suspect that the Steep Point adventure and the corrugations we endured to get there had taken its toll. Into town we went to explore…
The Carnarvon area was first settled in 1876 and the town was named after Lord Carnarvon, the then British Secretary of State for the Colonies. Carnarvon is the hub of the Gascoyne Region (Gascoyne River), and grew up as the centre for the pastoral industry that thrived here. In the late 1800’s the growing local population pressured the Gov’t to develop a port for the town. By 1897 the (One Mile) Jetty had been built and wool and livestock produced in the region began to be exported to Fremantle. In 1912 the jetty head was widened because of increased trade and passenger traffic. Carnarvon was the first Port in the world to load live stock on board ships for transport to markets. The One Mile Jetty once boasted a sheep race the length of the jetty from holding yards on land.
Our first thought when we drove into town and along the main street were, there is an awful lot of construction work being undertaken here. The more we drove and wandered around the
Carnarvon
The estuary that will see this place develop and the new housing estate on the channels more construction we found, a new precinct at the end of the jetty which will house a restaurant and information centre, the whole main street is being ‘rebuilt’, literally! New roadhouse, new Govt Offices (Centrelink etc), and housing ! We definitely need to return in a few years as we will not recognise it and it would be interesting to see what has been achieved, where is all this money coming from!
Carnarvon sits on the Gascoyne River which is referred to as the lifeblood of the town and surrounding Plantations. All the water is drawn from bores below the dry river bed. The river is unusual in that the water sits unseen below the riverbed in underground reserves protected from evaporation by the sand. Periodically the river flows visibly after heavy rains in the wet season inland. Most recently in 2010 when the region was hit by Cyclone Lau, the Gascoyne flooded and devastated many plantations and a lot of the town (why so much is being rebuilt right now maybe??).
The Gascoyne Region is home today to over 1200 hectares of plantations and vegetable growing, supplying up to 70% of WA’s requirements. The fertile river delta
Carnarvon
The fruit bowl of West Australia flats produce a diverse range of tropical fruits such as bananas, mangos and paw paws, citrus and stone fruit, table grapes, avocados as well as a variety of melons. Vegetables such as tomatoes, beans, capsicum, asparagus, pumpkins and sweet corn are also grown. Look in your local Aust supermarket for Carnarvon Gold, a small sweet banana, promoted for use in Kids school lunch boxes, we loved them and ate them constantly and still are! We also got stuck into the tomatoes, they were fantastic, and tasted like real home grown ones, as did the paw paw, the avocados, and the grapefruit were to die for ….yum. We did the plantation vegetable and food stall run along South Rd and back down North Rd a few times to purchase fresh produce from the roadside stalls.
A large commercial fishing fleet also operates out of Carnarvon catching prawns, scallops, crabs and scale fish and we stocked up the freezer on fresh seafood from one of the fishing co-operatives as my fishing exploits have resulted in some fresh air and exercise for me, but no fish so far.
Dominating the skyline above Carnarvon is a huge satellite dish, which was opened
Carnarvon
"Carnarvon Gold" Plantation in 1966 but is now no longer in use. It is a reminder of the days gone by when Carnarvon participated in the ‘space race’ and was involved in helping put man on the moon in 1969, it was closed in 1987 after assisting in tracking Halley’s Comet. Australia’s first satellite television broadcast was received from here also.
Peter and Sue and the boys (see Shark Bay Blog) stayed across the road in another park and Pete had a go under the dash at our electrical issue, as the brake lights came on again! This time he felt that more could be involved than just the electronic brake controller but still we did not find what was causing the short to make the lights stay on. Again fiddling around with the wires and disconnecting the electronic brake controller solved (for the moment) the issue, let’s hope so!
Carnarvon is still the hub of the Gascoyne although the focus is now more on produce from the Plantations than sheep/wool or cattle. It has a host of facilities and shopping although restricted through current building works, provides everything you would want. The caravan Parks are very large and have great
Carnarvon
The One Mile Jetty facilities for travellers. We even visited the local vet here to discuss tick programs and get our ‘wee girlie’ checked out, all good and not only that but the Vet clinic has since followed up with a call to ensure that all is ok, fantastic ! Carnarvon was a ‘work in progress’ for us, we enjoyed the town and surrounds and felt it was somewhere that was ‘on the move’, it would be very interesting to come back here in a few years to see what has transpired, an interesting and good town to visit.
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