Geraldton Part 2: Lobster Tour, HMAS SydneyII and the Old Gaol

I took Rory to the HMAS Sydney II Memorial, which stands proudly over the town. It was sobering to know that after seeing so much battle and receiving glory for their accomplishments in battle in the Mediterranean, the ship was returning after escort duty when it ran afoul of a German Raider in 1941 and just disappeared, with 645 people on board. No one knew what had happened to it. It wasn't discovered until 2008. I found it very sobering to think of all those men, lost at sea with no clue as to what happened, and it made me so much more profoundly aware of all we owe past and current service men and women, and their families who support them and wait for them to return.

The Waiting Woman

The bird is pointing the the exact latitude and longitude that the HMAS Sydney II is resting at

We also did the lobster tour at the Geraldton Fishermans Co-op. We were the only people there for the tour, which was great for us. Anne took us around the Co-op and we got to see so much. We were shown how they load the lobsters for transport to Freemantle, for live shipping overseas. The lobsters are held in tanks of 18 degrees in baskets. They are then immersed in water of 12 degrees, which causes them to hibernate. Once in hibernation, they are loaded onto the back of a truck. Once loaded and closed up, they are irrigated with 12 degrees water to keep them in hibernation. At Freemantle they are packed into styrofoam boxes in pine shavings to protect them and shipped overseas. Once there, they are warmed back up and sold as live lobster. How amazing is that? We also got to watch the lobster sorting tables, which was a great opportunity for us, and learned all sorts of interesting facts, such as the Japanese Market requires only the highest grade of lobster being red in colour, with all 10 legs and no cracks on the shell. For the Chinese market, it's OK if the lobster is missing 2 legs but they can't be off the same side. Tilda found these details particularly interesting. We also got to see the scientific research they are doing to extract lobster urine from the tank water so it can be recycled. At Geraldton, they don't need to recycle the water because the sea water is so clean and pollution free they can just use it, but some of their other depots don't have that luxury so they are looking at ways to recycle water.

 The location of the Co-op is beautiful

We also learned that a pot licence is worth $85,000 and the average fisherman has approx 200 pots (that's $17 million), and that's not even counting the cost of the boat, fuel etc. It is an incredibly expensive business to get in to, obviously, but the rewards are worth it. Lobster is currently selling for $90/kg  and they can catch 100kg per pot (I think it was)... which would be $9,000 per pot per annum and $1.8 million per 200 pots per annum. I think those figures are right but don't quote me on them, as I'm not 100% sure of the 100kg per pot. It really was an interesting tour. It's not something we would normally do, and we only did it because we had read another family's experience and it sounded interesting. I am so glad we did.

We also visited the Old Gaol. I really like what they have done with it. They have rented out the cells (or two cells joined together) to local artists and crafters to set up shops. They have kept the structure original, they have a couple of cells in original condition with information panels and photos to help you learn more about the conditions of the gaol. It seems to me to be a great use of the space. You can explore the gaol and learn its history, while browsing unique and interesting shops stocked with local artists and crafters products.

The old gaol

The stocks

Rory being measured in the room where people were booked. I think he is 93cm. 

He wouldn't cooperate

I loved this story 

Snowflake Obsidian. I could have bought one of these at NT Rare Rocks and I regret not buying it. It is so cool. This one was not for sale

Geraldton Part 1: The Pink Lake, Playgrounds and the Museum

On the way from Kalbarri to Geraldton we detoured via Port Gregory (for obvious reasons). One of the interesting things along the way is the Pink Lake. The pink colour is the result of algae and the lake looks amazing, especially through polarised sunglasses. Port Gregory is a very small but very pretty town.

We were very relieved to see Geraldton, because it felt like returning to civilisation. It is really the first "real civilisation" since Darwin, except for Broome. And while I have absolutely enjoyed a lot of the top of WA, I have discovered I also like my comforts and a much more reasonable price for groceries. I would say, on average, our grocery bill has been $20-50 more per week shopping at the more remote towns and I truly feel sorry for people who have no choice. Their grocery bills must be horrendous. There is quite a lot to do in Geraldton, from the pretty great foreshore, which has a long pathway along the waterfront and multiple playgrounds and a water park, to the (donation requested) museum, the HMAS Sydney II Memorial and the lobster tour at Geraldton Fishermans Co-op. There are also beautiful blue beaches complete with very white sand. It was too cold and windy for us to enjoy the beaches but I could imagine living there.

The Foreshore has a long path along the waterfront. I'm not sure how long ago it was completed but it is a fantastic outdoor space. It goes from a walkway/esplanade which takes you to a lookout over the harbour, where you can see the working port and sea lions lazing on the rocks, all the way to the marina and residential areas a couple of kms away. As you walk you pass a couple of different playgrounds designed for kids of all ages and a water park. The big slide on the big kids playground is so much fun!!! It goes pretty fast and is pretty awesome. I loved it. I am such a child still.

This is the awesome slide

Rory climbed the rope ladder up into this to get to the slide. He has no fear

The Museum entry is by donation. It showcases the area's natural and cultural heritage. The kids were fascinated by the shell collection and pearls from the Abrolhos Islands.

It also houses a room dedicated to the shipwrecks of the Batavia, Zuytdorp and Gilt Dragon. The way the information is presented, and the way the stories are told, makes it so incredibly interesting and I could have spent quite a long time in there. The Batavia was carrying massive sandstone blocks in its ballast. These were going to be built into a grand portico for a castle at Batavia once they reached the shores. These rocks were rescued from the bottom of the sea and the arch has been created as the massive centrepiece of this room. It is an awe inspiring sight.

The stone archway is stunning. This photo doesn't show just how amazing it is and I can't believe they were shipping it. 

A cannon from the Batavia

Some beautiful metal detail on the Batavia canon

The suspected layout of the inside of the Batavia

They had a temporary display called Rough Medicine. It is all about medicine on the ships voyages from the 1800s through to recent history. There was a wonderful collection of items, from doctors tools to a book donated to a young boy for his good behaviour on a long sea journey, and all sorts of things in between. One of the facts I read that stayed with me was that many babies died between the ages of 6 and 36 months, which is when babies do most of their teething. There was a belief that the teeth coming through somehow caused many of these deaths and so it became practice to lance the gum above the teeth to enable them to come through. In the age when medical equipment was not sterile, I'm sure that practice caused even more deaths. I am so glad I live in an age where we know so much more. And I can't help but wonder what people 100 or 200 years in the future will think about our current medical knowledge? Will they think we are ignorant and stupid?

Rainbow Jungle, Kalbarri

Rainbow Jungle is a tourist attraction and is Australia's Parrot Breeding Centre. It is filled with many native Australian parrots, as well as some exotic species. Tilda loves birds, and we took hundreds of photos, hence this gets its own blog post. If you are ever in this part of WA I thoroughly recommend spending the money ($44/family) to check out this place. We spent 3.5 hours there, enjoying a lovely lunch at the onsite cafe, as well as all the birds. About half of our time was spent in the open aviary where around 100 native birds are free to fly around. There are nesting boxes and bird-built nests scattered  throughout the space and if you take your time and look carefully among the plants you are rewarded with so many different birds, doing what birds do. There are bird feeding dishes filled with seeds and fresh fruit pieces, and you can see lots of the parrots on these. They are not tame, by any means, despite having people visiting regularly and I like that because it feels much more natural. I got to see some birds here that I had hoped to see in the wild, but that we hadn't seen, like the Princess Parrot.

The photos are a mix of Tilda's and mine and I am so proud of how well she did. I think I have the bird's names right, but some may not be.

Blue and Gold Maccaw

Superb Parrot

Red Winged?

King Parrot (foreground) and a Mulga Parrot (background)

Red capped

Superb Parrot

Eclectus

Gang Gang

Red Capped

Princess Parrot

Scarlet Maccaws

Rainbow Lorikeet

Scarlet Maccaw

Princess Parrot

Red Capped

Green Winged Maccaws

Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos

Red Tailed Black Cockatoo

Red Tailed Black Cockatoo

Port Lincoln or 28 Parrot 

Our favourites were the Superb Parrots (they truly are 'superb'), the Maccaws (the scarlet ones said hello) and the Princess Parrot.

Kalbarri National Park and Wildflowers

Kalbarri is another one of those places I have wanted to visit since doing research before we left home. The National Park photos I had seen always looked so interesting. What we hadn't planned on was getting there while the wildflowers were in bloom and oh my! They are beyond beautiful and so hard to comprehend. In the National Park, and on the roadside, everywhere you look there is an abundance of blooms in white, red, cream, pink, yellow and orange.

We stayed at Murchison House Station, a working station that has been in operation since the mid 1800s. I'm not sure if they run cattle or sheep, as we saw signs of neither, but it was a nice place to stay and a welcome change from caravan parks. For $27.50/night we had a lovely riverside campsite with a nice view and access to fairly old and run down, but clean, showers and toilets. It wasn't luxury by any means, but it was lovely to be away from people and not staring at other caravans, and the showers were hot! They had alpacas and goats in pens near where we camped and the kids loved them, especially the goats. Rory now wants a baby goat that says "maaaa maaaaa" to him, as there was a baby goat that would call out to us when we went near the yard. At first he was scared of them all but he soon overcame his fear, even of the ones that got out of the yard. He would walk up to them and pat them happily after the first day.

There aren't a lot of walks to do in the Kalbarri NP. There are a couple that are 500m - 1.2km and then there are a couple of longer walks and a 2.4km gorge walk to the Murchison River. Everyone but me is over gorges; Tilda even going so far as to saying she never wants to see another gorge again. Rory would have done the gorge walk with me because it involved climbing down ladders, but I'd have never got him back up again without carrying him. So we stuck to the top, shorter walks. The flies were horrendous and walking was almost hazardous with so many trying to get up your nose or in your mouth or ears. Quite a few people were sensibly wearing fly nets and the rest of us just suffered.

The wildflowers were spectacular! None of the walks took you through wildflowers really; the best ones were along the roadside on the way in. We stopped frequently to take photos because it is so foreign to us to see so many wildflowers blooming together like that.

There were just fields of and fields like this

These amazing flowers were white or purple, or in this case half and half, all on the same plant

This pretty plant is called Stinky Socks... for good reason! At night the smell it puts out is disgusting. We had to shut all the windows and vents to keep the stench out of the van

A close up of Stinky Socks

The walks were to lookouts over various parts of the Murchison River, WAs 2nd largest river. It was a bit of a surprise to see water in it after seeing nothing but dry rivers for the past month or two, apart from the Ord River.

West Bend Lookout  

Z Bend Lookout

Z Bend Lookout

Z Bend Lookout

One of the key photo opportunities at Kalbarri is Nature's Window, a rock formation that perfectly frames the river. This was by far the most popular, and populous, walk of all. It is an interesting phenomenon but not especially beautiful. I think, if the wildflowers weren't blooming, it would have been an OK experience, but not a fantastic one.