2 Geckos Travelling Australia: Tues, 24th Oct, 2017 Geraldton 24hr RV Reststop to Ellendale Pool, WA (Geraldton walks & museum)

7.30am 21 degrees & overcast.

Headed off early to do the Waterfront Walk. Lots of plaques to read on the way.

I love the old homes.

Continuing the walk.

Past the Geraldton Primary School, established in 1878. Lots of additions over the years.

Next is the Catholic School near the big Cathedral.

More plaques to read – the buildings are gone.

Bricks from the old post office have been used in the wall nearby and the clock is still ticking. Interesting to note that in 1931 the world record was set for a land-line telephone call from Geraldton to Cairns, a route of 7662 km.

Town mall with the Freemasons Hotel on the left.

The sky has cleared. Ended up at the Museum but it wasn’t open yet. Checked out a big wheel off a bucket reclaimer used to load the first iron ore shipment from Australia.

Around to the marina where a replica of the long boat from the Batavia is moored.

Info about Champion Bay and a great aerial photo.

Continued along the boardwalk checking out the ‘nice’ boats.

Nice view over the bay to the port area.

Tricky looking toilets.

Nice walking along the foreshore. The railway jetty is no more.

Artwork.

We didn’t do the flight over the Houtmans Abrolhos. Reminds me of the coral cays at home.

The Gregory Jetty has gone too but the foreshore has been recreated to a great family oriented esplanade. Lots of playgrounds.

Back to the van for a cuppa. I think it is going to be hotter than the predicted 24 degrees today. Said bye to Claude and Trish – will see them again at Green Head.

Around to the Museum for a look and to hear the highlights tour of the Shipwreck Gallery. Great displays of nature and history. Lovely wildflower display. Took photos of a few interesting items.

Into the Shipwrecks Gallery where the guide told us of the 4 Dutch ships that were wrecked off the WA coast. Very interesting. A lady commented that they have looked into some blue-eyed aborigines from the area that could have been descendants from those shipwrecked people.

A map showing the route the Portugese ships took and then the one the Dutch took coming straight across using the Roaring 40s to reach Australia. They could do latitude easily but longitude was still a problem so they had to guess when to turn north hence the shipwrecks on the WA coast.

The Batavia, one of the VOC fleet, was going to collect spices from Jakarta (known then as Batavia) and took over woollens and silks to trade. The ship was as high as it was wide, 50ft, therefore it needed a lot of ballast. This shows how it was all stored.

Rocks etc were used and then these were used to create archways and buildings when they reached their destination. These rocks were recovered from the wreck of the Batavia and would have been for the archway into the Castle at Batavia.

The silver used for payment of the spices was kept under lock and key in the Captain’s quarters – worth a lot even back then. The Captain had returned after the mutiny with divers and managed to collect most of the silver. These are the real coins and most of the markings have been worn off from all the years in the sea but you can still make out some markings. The coins weren’t laying on the bottom like this but were encrusted in coral.

The story of the ship and people of the Batavia.

The survivors who were then murdered were on Beacon Island, one of many low coral islands of the Houtmans Abrolhos. Rock lobster fishermen built shacks there for when they are at sea for the season. Someone found a skull and after time it was agreed to preserve the area and they moved all the shacks to another island for the fisherman and continued to look for skeletons. Amazingly they found the missing bit from this skull where the poor man was killed with a sword.

The first 17^th century shipwreck was the Vergulde Draeck off Ledge Point.

We had read about the Zuytdorp at Kalbarri. Amazing to think they discovered this glass unmarked after all these years.

The fourth ship was the Zeewijk.

Outside the room was a bronze cannon off the Batavia. You can see how it has worn after being in the sea for hundreds of years.

About the long boat we saw in the marina.

Back to the other exhibits – the fishing section. Lovely pearls.

There are 122 islands in the Abrolhos with 20 having fishing shacks on them.

Guano mining – bird poop!! Rich in nitrogen and phosphorus – a great plant fertiliser.

Sammy seal.

The white-tailed black cockatoos we saw recently are actually called Carnaby’s Cockatoo.

We joined others to watch a 3D video showing the wreck of the HMAS Sydney II, 2.5km below the surface. Amazing and so very moving – to think of all those lost lives. It was amazing to that after all these years it is still so recognisable. I would have thought it would be covered in barnacles, coral etc and big just a big mound but you could see everything clearly. They had photos of the ship beforehand so you could see what it looked like compared to what it is today. It also showed the German ship, Kormoran, but only its bow is intact and the rest is scattered after being blown up when they scuttled it. The rear was full of mines – you could still see one on the bottom of the ocean.

They had some photos on display from the video. So sad to see the lifeboat on the bottom. It said that one life boat was found with one deceased sailor and another was found which was empty. Obviously there wasn’t time for anyone to save themselves.

Back to the van for a late lunch then we headed south through Greenough – history to check out there. East to Walkaway, through the Wind Farm. We have seen a lot of these in our travels.

Down a dirt track to our camp spot for the night at Ellendale Pool. A beautiful spot with the high sandstone cliffs on the other side. The pool is one kilometre long.

I read the history etc while Steve went looking for a place to park the van. He found the couple from Townsville (will have to get their names) we met at Hutt River. They are parked on the high cleared area.