2 Geckos Travelling Australia: Fri, 22nd Nov, 2019 Roadside Rest Stop, 15km south of Overlander Roadhouse to Hamelin Pool Van Park, Shark Bay, WA

7am 22 degrees, clouds in the east but mostly sunny. Wind still blowing. Forecast is for the stronger winds to settle tomorrow so hopefully we won’t get blown to pieces when we explore Shark Bay region.

Drove up to the Overlander Roadhouse – 158.9c/l here for diesel. Turned off into the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. The brochure lists why it has been classed a World Heritage site.

Continued down the road past the Hamelin Station Stay and turned into the track down to the old Telegraph Station which is now a caravan park. We don’t normally do caravan parks but free camping is a bit limited up the WA coast. It is an open plan style so we don’t feel crowded and as this is the off season we should be fine. There is a walk from here to check out the Stromatolites and we can check out the Telegraph Station museum too. Friendly chap greeted us. His mother owns the place but he and his mate are looking after it for her for a while.

We chose our spot and set up. The telegraph station is the building on the right. Warming up quickly – forecast is for 37 maximum while at Denham it is only 30. Sprinklers are keeping the grass nice and green and there is a pool as the bay is very, very salty.

Rang Mum and Dad. Mum’s knee is feeling good and are settling in to watch the tennis matches she has taped.

A map of the area – we are at the bottom of the first bay. It is over $400 to go across to Dart Hartog Island so we will skip that as we will be exploring all the other area.

Had a cuppa then went for a walk to check out the Stromatolites. They were first discovered by some geologists in June 1954.

I looked up the photos and information I took about the Thrombolites that grew at Lake Clifton below Mandurah. Same but softer and are a different shape to the Stromatolites.

First we read the information about the wool shed that was built here in 1923 so they could load their wool onto the ships. The shed was dismantled in 1968 and used for the polocrosse club.

A long boardwalk takes us over the stromatolites now whereas in the old days they just drove over them with their wagons etc.

Panning left to right – the land in the distance is the Nanga Peninsula.

Walked along the boardwalk reading the signs.

Another couple walked down to the edge then sent up their drone which buzzed loudly over our heads. Then they went back to their car and disappeared – so much for seeing the sights.

The ones with orange showing are Stromatolite fossils.

More signs.

The flat mats. You can still see the indents of where the wagons were dragged out by camels to load the wool bales onto the dingys which would row back out to the waiting Lighters.

The lumpier Stroms that are still growing at a rate of 0.3mm a year.

More signs.

Doesn’t sound to inviting for a swim with extra high salinity and 45 degrees water temperature between December and March.

The tide was out but we did spot a few little fish (little whiting?) swimming around and a cute little school of baby fish.

Back on the beach which is millions of crushed shells.

Now to follow the Boolagoorda Walking Track with more information boards. Interesting fact about the water of the pool as it flows in but hardly flows back out over the ‘sill’.

A lonely grave indeed. Shame they haven’t put a memorial up for his mate even though they never recovered his body. Note the headstone is made from the shell blocks carved out of the quarry on the beach near here.

Interesting information about how the shell stone has formed from all the little shells.

Around to the quarry.

Up the white sand/shell dune to where the old navigation flag pole is. Some brochures call this Flint Hill, others say Flagpole Hill.

Looking down over the caravan park and old telegraph master’s house.

Nice view of part of Hamelin Pool.

Looking further to the east is the main coastline.

Steve spotted two white goats trotting through the scrub.

Heading back to the van park we passed a small white grave. Unfortunately a new headstone had been installed and the wrong inscription was put on – probably because the old one had perished and the person wrote the wrong dates etc. His name was Onslow Thomas Carmody and he died in 1883 aged 8 months.

Some shell bricks at the back of the old Station Master’s house.

Steve checked out the bore hole which is pumped up to the tank. One of the old Telegraph poles is still standing.

Over near the toilet block was a heap of signs. Obviously the old ones that have been upgraded with the ones we have just read and a few about the telegraph station etc. I think these ones explained things better.

I like this one about the telegraph line and the last bit about the swaggie cutting the line so he could get a lift!

Had lunch then I cooked our favourite lamb dish in the Ecopot for dinner.

Wandered over to the museum which is in the old Telegraph Station. The office and café are in the old Station Master’s house.

One of the chaps opened it up for us and turned on the DVD presentation. Very informative about the Stromatolites – explained things well. They have some growing in a tank and you can see the oxygen bubbles on them ready to pop up to the surface. The DVD also talked about the telegraph station.

We wandered around checking out the displays. These are the saws used to cut the shell blocks.

In the next room was all the telegraph station information.

A big picture on the wall caught my attention. Clarence “Adgee” Cross was the last linesman to work from Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station. His wife, Grace was the postmistress from 1948 to 1963. Apparently he was called out to do a repair and had to go across a flooded river so he took off his clothes to keep them dry to put on when he had finished the job. Interestingly though there are two other chaps in the photo – obviously they didn’t mind getting their clothes wet!

Great photo of the wool being loaded onto the dingy from the camel wagon to be rowed out to the ‘Lighter’ waiting in the deeper water of Hamelin’s Pool.

Boxes lined the walls – I think made by school children to depict the various ships wrecked on the WA coast. Above them were posters about the ships.

On the tip of Dirt Hartog Island is Cape Inscription which is the site of the first recorded landing of Europeans in Australia. This is a replica of the plate Dirt inscribed and left there on a wooden post. In 1697 another Dutch explorer, Willem de Vlamingh found the plate and replaced it with another one and returned Dirt’s back to Holland.

We went into the old Station Master’s house (now café) to let the chap know we were finished. I found some more information about the child’s grave we saw before.

We had a cuppa then went for a dip in the pool. Very cold but it was very refreshing after we cracked the ice on top – well it felt like it. The little swallows and bee-eaters were zooming around dipping into the pool too. Three Perth men arrived for a dip too and we chatted with them about fishing etc. They are heading out to Steep Point to try and catch some Spanish and Shark Mackerel using helium balloons to take their lines out from the 15 ft cliffs they will be standing on. Will be interesting to see when we get out there. They said to get prawns as bait to catch the whiting around here – looking forward to some nice fish dinners.

Dried off as we walked back to the beach. Found another couple of tombstones nearby – memorials rather than graves. One was a recent owner – the other just said Ash.

I thought the tide might have come in to under the boardwalk but Steve thinks it had gone further out.

I worked on my blog for a while – trying to keep on top of it now we are touring mode again. Had our drinks as the cool wind blew and some clouds came over the sun.

A couple next to us in a camper arrived back from their day visit to Steep Point so Steve went over to see how the track was.

Walked up the white hill covered in tiny shells to watch the sun set.