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Saved: December 21st 2018
The Rig
Our first free camp near RavensthorpeThe van was packed and we set off at 0730 heading out due east to Armadale and the Albany Highway. We got held up at the service station as we queued to put air in the van tyres. A man on a push bike was trying to pump up a tyre then proceeded to sit on the ground in front of us and use his phone…… He had to be spoken to!! All went really well and we made it to the Meridian Rest Area 4kms west of Ravensthorpe and were joined by three other vans for free overnight stop.
The 120 E longitude meridian passes through the rest area. It is the base line for Western Australian Standard Time. Along this line at ‘local noon’ when the sun is at its highest – occurs exactly 8 hours before local noon at Greenwich, London, 0 longitude
Local noon at 120 E occurs 16.6 minutes before local noon in Perth.
8th November 2016 – 342kms Very Windy We went into Ravensthorpe. In 1843 this area was surveyed by Surveyor General John Septimus Roe who named the nearby ranges Ravensthorpe Range
after which the town was named. Alluvial gold was found at Phillips River in1892. We then went down to Hopetoun a lovely little town. Apparently an accidently lit bushfire was threatening the town the following weekend after we left but no homes lost.
Hopetoun is located on Mary Ann harbour named in 1865 by the sealer James Sale. The Mary Ann, a cutter, owned by John Thomas of Cheynes Beach, Albany and named after his eldest daughter.
Hopetoun was established in 1900 as the port servicing the Phillis River goldfield and named after the first Governor General of Australia, John Hope, 7
th Earl of Hopetoun. It was the terminus of the Hopetoun to Ravensthorpe railway, opened in1909. The town became fishing port for the mining industry. The railway closed in 1925 and the port in1936. The jetty was destroyed in 1983.
It was too windy to stay any length of time to do any fishing so we moved on to Lucky Bay 55kms east of Esperance in the Cape Le Grand national park and named by Matthew Flinders in 1802.Stayed two days at the caravan park there ($27.40 for the two nights – no power or water).
The most beautiful white sand and turquoise water like the whole of this area.
On the way to Lucky Bay we passed Stonehenge in Esperance made of pink granite with a total of 137 stones weighing 25,ooo tonnes. Originally commissioned for a Margaret River millionaire who ran into financial difficulties and was subsequently bought by a farming couple in Esperance near the quarry. Stonehenge replica has been on show since 2011 and it costs $10 per person to visit!!!. We took pictures out of the car window whilst driving slowly. The monument is now for sale along with the farm for $5m
The car and van, which had been beautifully cleaned ready for the trip, were covered with mud as we had to follow the water truck on the miles and miles of road works….. Not a good start.
9th November 2016 - 169kms Windy and Rain Went to explore Esperance, we had planned on leaving the van in town and going to Cape Arid and Israelite Bay beach fishing but the weather was too bad, sadly.
Esperance Eurpoean history of the region dates back to 1627 when the Dutch vessel Gulden Zeepaert (Golden Seahorse)
skippered by Francois Thijssen passed through the waters off Esperance and continued across the Great Australian Bight.
French explorers are credited with making the first landfall and naming the town and other landmarks whilst sheltering from a storm in 1792. Esperance being French for ‘hope’.
British navigator Matthew Flinders sailed the Bay of Isles discovering and naming many places. Whalers, sealers and pirates followed as did pastoralists and miners keen to exploit the free land and cash in on the gold boom to the north.
The town jetty was built in the 2890s after the discovery of gold around Coolgardie and a railway was built between the two town in 1927. The mallee area approx.. 100kms north of the town began grain production in the 1920s and by 1935 the second jetty –Tankers Jetty was completed.
Agriculture was introduced to the Esperance area by an American syndicate in partnerhip with the state government in the 1960s after the discovery that adding superphosphate fertilizer containing trace elements to the poor soils made them suitable for cropping and pastoral activity. Despite early difficulties the project eventually became a success and large area were cleared at this time.
In 1979 pieces of the space station Skylab landed on the town. The municipality fined the USA government $400 for littering.
10th November 2016 - 491kms. Very Windy It rained on and off from Lucky Bay to Norseman. We started our trip across the Nullarbor from Norseman, the last major town in Western Australia before the South Australian border.
The quest for gold led to the establishment of Norseman. There are still a number of small gold mines in the area but only the Central Norseman Gold Corporation can be considered amajor producer. Gold was first found in 1892. In August 1894 George Sinclair and his brother Lawrence and Jack Alsop discovered a rich gold reef which Sinclair named after his horse Hardy Norseman. Once Norseman was the second richest goldfield in Western Australia behind Kalgoorlie’s Golden Mile.it is claimed that since1892 100 tonnes have been extracted from the area. The Norseman Goldmine is the longest continuously running goldmine in Australia. . It has been running for over 75 years (2015) producing 5.5 million ounces of gold. The population is now around 1000 and relies on mining and tourism. We found it to be a lovely little
town which has wonderful streetscaping. We topped up with fuel and headed East.
Balladonia Roadhouse is the next stop 265kms away. Aborinal for ‘Big rock by itself’ the area was settled in 1879 from then to 1929 Balladonia was a station on the Perth-Adelaide telegraph line due to the previous coastal line being shorted by sea spray from the Southern Ocean. The climate and lack of water prevented the towns growth.
It is here that a 4x4 track goes to the base of the Baxter cliffs and it is possible to drive back to Esperance along the beach.
We drove to Woorlba Homestead Rest Area where there were already a few vans spread over a huge area and more followed us in. There are toilets shade and tables so is very popular. We sat outside having a drink when a lady approached and invited us to join her and husband at one of the tables. It ended up being six couples and a great Happy Hour was had by all, swapping yarns and experiences. This is why we do this as we meet many interesting people.
11th November 2016 - 490kms. Very windy Just out
of Balladonia towards Caiguna is the longest stretch of straight road in Australia. ‘The Ninety Mile Straight’ 146.6kms
We stopped in at Caiguna for a look. This is an aboriginal word possibly meaning ‘spear track’. In 1841 Edward John Eyre’s party consisting of a man named John Baxter and three Aboriginals one named Wylie travelled across the Nullabor leaving from Fowlers Bay in South Australia. On 29
th April two of the Aboriginals killed John Baxter and ran off into the dessert taking most of the supplies. Due to the terrain Baxter could not be buried so his remains were wrapped in a blanket and left behind. Eyre and Wylie pressed on for another month after which they were rescued by a French vessel off Thistle Cove, Cape Le Grand national park. There is a memorial to John Baxter at Caiguna.
The tiny town site was established in 1962 to assist traffic across the Nullarbor for the Commonwealth Games in Perth.
We drove on to Cocklebiddy Roadhouse and stopped to see two caged Wedge Tailed eagles who were recovering from injuries. This bird is Australia’s largest bird of prey with a wingspan of up to 2.74 metres. We
did see two wild ones feasting on road kill later in the day.
The roadhouse is known for its underground caves and lakes. Cocklebiddy cave is 6kms long and 90% is under water . In 1983 a French team set the world record for the longest cave dive, which has since been broken twice. It is no longer possible to visit the caves. Cocklebiddy started life as an Aboriginal mission station. The Eyre Telegraph Station 49kms south operated from 1897 to 1929. Unlike most other it remains relatively well preserved as it is sheltered from the ocean. In 1976 the Eyre Bird Observatory was established there and to date over 230 species of birds have been spotted. The starlings from the Eastern States are trapped here and there are no starlings in Western Australia.
The next place of interest was Madura, (528kms from Norseman and 183kms from Eucla) at the foot of the escarpment next to the Madura Pass down from the Nullarbor Plain. It was settled in 1876 as a place to breed quality cavalry horses for the British Indian Army for use in the Northwest Frontier region, now part of Pakistan. The horses were shipped from
Eucla. (Cervantes north of Perth was also used for breeding). The site was chosen as one of the few places with free flowing bore water. The surrounding area is part of Madura station (1.7m acres) currently a sheep station but in the past used to graze cattle, horses and camels.
Mundrabilla was the next stop, 67 kms from Eucla. This was the first sheep station on the Nullarbor, established in 1872 and one of the largest meteorite sites in the world, spread over 60kms.
We stopped at Eucla (pop 96) , the only Western Australian location on the Eyre Highway that has a direct view of the Great Australian Bight. In 1841 Eyre and Baxter were the first European explorers to visit the area. In 1867 a port was established and in 1870 work commenced on a telegraph line from Albany to Adelaide. Land was set aside for a manual repeater station and when the line opened in 1877 Eucla was one of the most important telegraph stations on the line. The station was important as a conversion point because South Australia and Victoria used American Morse code while Western Australia used the International Morse code that is
familiar today.
A jetty and tramline were constructed and the town proclaimed a township in 1885 and reached its peak in the 1920s prior to the construction of a new telegraph line further north alongside the Trans-Australia Railway. In the 1890sarabbit plague passed through and ate much of the sand dune vegetation thus destabilising the dune system causing large sand drifts to encroach on the town site. The original town was abandoned and a new township established higher up the escarpment..
Eucla is the largest stopping point between Norseman and Penong. Border Village is 11kms further east and a quarantine checkpoint for travellers going west. There are very strict rules as what can and cannot be taken into Western Australia. The quarantine post for those going east is in Ceduna.
We crossed the WA/SA border at 14:37 western time, 16:07 central time and had travelled 2013kms up to this point.
We had travelled 720.5kms from Norseman to Border Village on the Eyre Highway.. We stayed overnight at the 13km Peg Scenic Lookout. 13kms into South Australia overlooking the Great Australian Bight, windy but fabulous views of the ocean. There were 3 other vans parked but it
was a huge site so no problem.
The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic open bay or bight off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of Australia. The coastline is characterised by cliff faces up to 60 metres high, surfing beaches and rock platforms, ideal for whale watching during the southern hemisphere winter. (Southern Right whales). For $5 each we went to stand at the Head of the Bight on Aboriginal land, hence the payment! The lookout has been recently improved and they have done a good job.
The Nullarbor Plain, which borders much of the length of the Bight’s coastline is a former seabed uplifted during the Miocene, consisting of limestone.
12th November 2016 - 360kms. Very windy still! Today we drove down to Fowlers Bay Caravan Park from the abandoned Aboriginal Roadhouse, for a two-day stopover and to clean up and do some washing.
The managers were on the road in an old bus and had come from Longreach to manage the park for two months. They laid on a dinner for $12 each consisting of BBQ sausage and chicken burgers with various salads, bread and two huge salmon
and roasted vegies cooked over an open fire. The fire was built up again after the cooking was finished so we could all sit around and chat. There were about 10vans in the park mainly people who had come to fish or just rest over for a few days. Too windy to fish really.
13th November 2016 - 26kms. Very windy We drove along tracks to Scotts Beach (4.5kms long) where people had brought vans down a bad gravel road. Only four people on the entire beach, who were way off in the distance. It seems people bring quad bikes to drive along the beach to find fishing spots. The salmon were running here yesterday but we didn’t mind we missed it as they are not a particularly tasty fish.
On our return who should rock up but the lady from Woorlba Homestead rest area and husband who had also come to do some washing.
That evening the managers made chocolate chip damper over the open fire for free!
There were also a group of young guys come to do some serious fishing. One of whose brother works at the largest sheep station in Australia
and the world at 2 million acres and 65,000 sheep. There are many cattle stations in Australia bigger than this……
Fowlers Bay, formerly Yalta and once an active port and gateway to the west but fell into decline in the 1960s. There are now only 14 permanent residents.
This area was first mapped in 1627 by Francois Thijssen. Fowlers Bay was named by Matthew Flinders after his first lieutenant Robert Fowler. By 1840 the area was well known by American and French whaling ships. In 1860s the first pastoral leases were established by William Swan and Robert Barr-Smith forming Yalta station. The town was named Fowlers Bay in 1940.
The town does not receive any power or water. Bore water is brought 3kms through sand to the town and gravity fed so little running water to the van. We did get power though from a big generator in the parkrun by solar. There is no local government hence we were able to have an open fire during fire ban season – it was very safe and the area surrounded by super 6 fencing.
The town is dominated by a big sand dune which protects it from
the Southern Ocean. Southern Right wales have recolonised the area and bottlenose dolphins and sea lions may also be found.
14th November 2016 - 148kms Still windy The van had a flat tyre – a screw dad been picked up. Danie changed it and we thought nothing more until we were driving along the gravel road out of Fowlers Bay when there was a bang and the wheel that had been changed was following the an down the road – Danie had forgotten to tighten the wheel nuts as he was distracted by another job. He was mortified as the van sustained some nasty damage to the side panel. Several people stopped to help but all was well and we decided to go to the nearest auto repairer to get things sorted.
In Penong we found the local tyre and auto repairer who sorted the blown tyre for us and I rang the insurance company. There was no caravan repairer to be found here or Ceduna and the nearest one was in Port Lincoln472 km away.
Penong is a small town on the Nullarbor Plain. The area around the town which was established in 1915 with
the arrival of the railway was settled by Europeans in the early 1900s.
There are many windmills here pumping water from the Anjutabie water basin. There is a windmill museum which houses amongst many others, Australia’s largest windmill. Only 15 of the 35 feet mills were ever made. This one, Bruce, has a span in excess of 35 feet making it the largest in Australia and is capable of drawing water from 500 feet and pumping up to 25,000 gallons per day at 4.5 gallons per stroke.
Penong is the closest town to Lake MacDonnell which has rich reserves of salt and gypsum.
We tried to get lunch at the Penong hotel but someone had turned the freezer off and the chef refused to use any of the food to cook. The roadhouse over the road was being refurbished and only diesel was being sold and the food was being cooked in a portacabin which didn’t appeal!.
We decided to head for Ceduna and overnight in a caravan park and also wash the van and car as they were looking very scruffy as well as a damaged van. We stayed at the Airport caravan park, not
Scotts Beach
A little crowded we thought! the best but no permanents and plenty of space.
15th November 2016 - 363kms. Windy After hosing the car and van at the truck and car wash we went to look around town. Called into the bottle shop where we were only allowed to buy one 2 litre cask per person per day and had to show I.D. There is a huge problem with Aboriginals and alcohol here.
Ceduna is on Murat Bay and on the junction of the Eyre and Flinders highways. Ceduna is a corruption of the Aboriginal word Chedoona and is said to mean a place to sit down and rest…… and they do!
Matthew Flinders explored the coast here and named Denial Bay (because they didn’t find fresh water), Smoky Bay and the islands of the Nuyts Archipelago.
French explorer Nicholas Baudin discovered Murat Bay after meeting up with Flinders and named it after Joachim Murat , an Admiral under Napoleon.
The town of Ceduna was proclaimed in 1901and the jetty built in 1902. Ceduna was the site of a major satellite telecommunications facility which was the major employer until made redundant by technological changes. It was built in 1969
and by 1984 almost half of Australia’s telecommunication traffic passed through Ceduna Earth Station.
In 2010 the world’s largest mineral sands mine was opened 200kms North West of Ceduna costing $360m. Aquaculture is the main industry with pacific oysters being farmed and tuna fishing. The port at Thevenard exports grain, salt, mineral sands and gypsum from the region.
Ceduna is the eastern start of the Nullarbor Plain (no trees in Latin). The Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world’s largest single exposure of limestone bedrock and occupies an area of about 200,000 square kms. And at its widest point stretches about 1,100kms from east to west.
The first Europeans to sight and map the Nullarbor Plain were an expedition led by Pieter Nuyts in 1626-7, while the interior remained little known for two centuries.
We took the Flinders Highway south down the western side of the triangular Eyre Peninsula, an area of some 170,000 square kms. of prime wheat growing land, mining and tourism. Our first stop was in Streaky Bay (pop 1625 in
2011) where we bought a dozen oysters to shuck and eat with a bottle of red wine at our free camp later that afternoon.
Streaky Bay discovered by Matthew Flinders after the streaks in the water thought to be oils released by the seaweed. The town was originally called Flinders in 1872 and later to Streaky Bay in 1940. Wheat and bales of wool were exported from here by ship after wheat was first grown in the 1880s.
In 1918 a massive 26metres long blue whale was washed onto local rocks and its skeleton is on display in the South Australia museum.
Farmed oysters and abalone play a major role in the town’s economy as well as tourism and agriculture.
We called in to Venus Bay to have a look. Formerly called Parkin and a small fishing and tourist town (pop139 in 2006) named after the schooner Venus who continued to trade along the coast until 1952.The town was a whaling station originally in the 1850s
We noticed a lot of drystone walls in this part of the Peninsular. Drystone was used by early settlers as foundations, flagstones, in floors and roads, to
line cellars, wells and cisterns, to hold eroding soil, and to strengthen dams.. It is still used in walls and fences. They were constructed of specially selected hard flint-like limestone. The key to Drystone walling is fitting the rocks in a way that eliminates the need for mortar. Drystone waling is believed to have dated back to the 1850s. It was a cheap convenient and preferred form of fencing . Men were paid 10 shillings per chain (22ft) and a good man would do 2 chains per day.
We couldn’t find a free camp that was nice until just before the tiny township of Warrow here we pulled in for the night and had no company.
16th November 2016- 127kms. Windy A short trip to our final destination so we detoured to Coffin Bay a holiday town and big oyster farming town (pop 584 in 2006). It is very picturesque with many islands and close to the Coffin Bay National Park. Coffin Bay was named by Matthew Flinders after his friend Sir Isaac Coffin. There was a whaling station here and in 1966 a private railway line was built between Coffin Bay and Port Lincoln to convey
lime sands, which closed in 1989 and the track removed in 2001.
From here it was a short drive to Port Lincoln where we found John Martin’s caravan repair site and he was happy for us to park the van and camp here using his power and rainwater until he could start the repairs.
Port Lincoln is on the shore of Boston Bay which opens eastwards into the Spencer Gulf. As the crow flies it is only 280kms to the capital Adelaide but 646kms by road. The city is reputed to have the most millionaires per capita in Australia. Port Lincoln was named by Matthew Flinders after his native Lincolnshire in England. Sealers had visited the area around 1828 and the mainly French whaling ships visiting from 1830 to 1840.
The first settlers arrived in 1839 . In 1840 there was a population of 270 with 30 stone houses, an hotel, blacksmith’s shop and a store. By 1936 the population had grown to 3200 and the town had a first class water supply but now it is dependent on bore water.
The economy is based on the huge grain-handling facilities (with a total capacity of over
337,000 tonnes) the canning and fish processing works, lamb, wool and beef and tuna farming for the Japanese market. Home of Australia’s largest fishing fleet, Port Lincoln now has a thriving aquaculture industry that farms, tuna, yellowtail kingfish, abalone, mussels, oysters and experimental farming of seahorses and spiny lobsters. Before the advent of aquaculture the main fishing was for Bluefin tuna.
Makybe Diva, British bred, Australian-trained thoroughbred race horse, winner of three Melbourne Cups and one Cox Plate. She is the highest stakes-earner in Australasian horse racing history finishing with more than $14m in prize money. She was owned by Port Lincoln tuna fisherman Tony Santic, who named her after five of his employees Maureen, Kylie, Belinda, Diane and Vanessa taking the first two letters of their names. There is a statue of Makybe Diva on the foreshore in the city.
We are staying in Port Lincoln until 25th November.
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