Cararvon

We arrived in Carnarvon the afternoon before Tilda's birthday. Her request that we didn't travel on her birthday played a big role in deciding when to leave Coral Bay and how far to travel, but I figure it's a reasonable request. As we approached Carnarvon we hit the growing region, where bananas, mangoes and tomato plants are pretty prolific. Rory was very excited by the banana trees and promptly yelled out “banana” at almost any tree we drove past. Carnarvon is a nice little waterfront town, well the main street runs perpendicular away from the waterfront, but it is still quite pretty. The foreshore has been beautified with palm trees, grass and a nice pathway and there is a pretty good kids payground, although it didn't quite work for Rory. There was stuff for slightly older (or taller) kids and for little (or less competent) kids but he was in an in between patch where the little kid stuff was too dull and the bigger kid stuff had rope steps just that bit too far apart for his legs.

The main attraction at Carnarvon, for us, was the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum. This is a great little museum, filled with a lot of interesting information and some great interactive displays. I would have enjoyed it more and learned a lot more without Rory, who basically ran around and kept touching stuff, but it was still very good. Carnarvon was an integral part of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. There is (or was) quite a lot of space communication technology in the area, including the now retired 29.5m diameter “dish”. There is a mock up of the capsule from the Apollo 11 mission that you can sit in, an audio simulator of the Apollo 11 rocket launch where you got to lie on your back in the capsule like astronauts do for launch, and some of the monitoring equipment and command consoles from the Gemini and Apollo Missions. I found it quite awe-inspiring, and almost haunting, to be standing at the command console used in Carnarvon for the Apollo 11 mission. There are a couple of different rooms and a theatrette where they play various mini movies and documentaries about all sorts of things space mission and communications related.

I think this was the command module for one of the Gemini Missions. I don't know how I didn't get a photo of the one from the Apollo 11 Mission

Old radio broadcasting control desk

In one section they have a “typical” 1960s lounge room set up and played a mini movie of the first satellite transmission from Australia. It happened from Carnarvon in 1966. A satellite was launched which didn't reach the intended height but the specialists realised that there would be a period of time where a transmission from Australia to the UK could be made. TV crews made the 900km trek from Perth to be there for it and a recording of this was played. I got to sit in an old lounge chair and watch while the TV anchor man spoke to the Mayor of Carnarvon and one of the station owners and then 2 families were able to speak to their families back home in the UK. It was pretty cool.

While I enjoyed the 1966 "movie" the kids were fascinated by an old dial telephone and played with it for about 20 minutes!

In the phase 3 display there were a bunch of interactive displays that taught you more about space. In one of them you pulled a lever to create a vacuum and the water in a glass then boiled. (Apparently at certain temperatures water will boil in vacuum... I had no idea, or perhaps I once heard about it in High School science but promptly forgot!). Another display let you chose different environmental requirements for habitation on Mars and others gave you the chance to pretend to control a space suit on EVA to hook on to the Hubble Telescope, land a shuttle on return and launch a shuttle to the moon. These were fun ways to learn some interesting facts and experience a little bit of space related stuff. It made me even more keen to go to the Kennedy Space Centre one day (preferably without kids so I can actually see, do and learn stuff!).

I think everyone is starting to feel a bit “touristed/informationed out” as there was a lot more to do in Carnarvon, which we didn't do. We drove to One Mile Jetty but the cost ($10/adult) and the effort to put sunscreen on all of us resulted in everyone pretty much deciding they didn't want to walk along it. So we went to the park which Tilda really wanted to do for her birthday.

I think Carnarvon could be a really nice town, but we didn't really give it a chance or take the time to explore. At the right time of year you can visit many of the farms for fresh produce and there was a nice looking cafe and pub, none of which we did. I think one of the things is, there is a lot to do but most of it is a bit of a drive away. There's a permanent waterhole for swimming about 55kms away and the Quobba Blowholes, which can spout up to 20m high, that are 75km away. Something else was “only” 155km away – I can't remember what it was that the lady in the Information Centre recommended. The distances in northern WA are just soooo huge!

I hope the disinterest in getting out and doing stuff goes away soon as there is still so much more to see and do here in WA. We just might need to stop somewhere for a week and not do much, although I don't feel like we've been doing heaps, but I think we've had lots of 1-3 day stops and driving, which does get a bit wearying.