Historic Whaling Station

---

We had a domestic morning catching up with washing and shopping, filling water tanks in anticipation of needs for the upcoming week, etc. The weather was still fine and dry with a good wind blowing so we crossed fingers it would all be dry before the predicted rain arrived later in the day.







A quick bite of lunch back at the caravan and then we once again headed out to Torndirrup National Park following the road running by Princess Royal Harbour that would take us to Cheynes Beach and the Historic Whaling Station. As it happened we were just in time for one of the guided tours – we were only a small group; ourselves and an English backpacker. Our guide explained the operation of the whaling company including the use of various pieces of equipment. We saw photographs taken in the early 1960’s when, surprisingly, groups of visitors including school groups stood on the landing decks watching as crewmen winched in their catch of humpback and sperm whale before flensing the blubber and cutting the carcass into manageable sized pieces for the boiling pots. They were quite graphic - apparently the process attracted quite a number of tourists in those days!







In 1963, when the humpback whale was declared a protected species, the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company was the only company in Australia able to continue operation because of access to sperm whale off the Continental Shelf not too far from their base in Albany. They finally ceased operation in 1978, citing the availability of synthetics oils, the cost of maintaining the chaser boats and of course a more educated public opinion as contributing to their inevitable fate. In their 26 years of operation they took 14,600 whales and at its peak were supplying up to 60% of the world market for sperm whale oil.







We watched a 3D movie on whales in general and we were able to walk over the chaser boat “Cheyne IV”. The vats originally used as storage for the whale oil have been converted into galleries or theatrettes and it was interesting to see a video of former crewmen talking about their role back in the day and their thoughts since the company shutdown. A couple of the crewmen are now volunteers at the centre.







As we were leaving a few spots of rain hit the windscreen – we just managed to get back to the caravan park in time to bring in the morning’s washing before the heavens opened up. From the look of the rain radar it is here to stay for a couple of days so I think we are in for a damp journey as we make our way to Busselton. We can’t complain too loudly as it is a month since we left home and aside from a couple of days we haven’t had much rain at all.







Most photos courtesy of the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company.

---