Thursday, October 11

As our last blog post was written in Geraldton about Kalbarri, it is now time to fill the gaps and tell you about Geraldton itself.

We arrived there last Wednesday, October 3, after travelling down through the wheatbelt areas between Kalbarri and Geraldton.  We had been amazed that we had encountered grain farms north of Kalbarri – it seems like such a dry area to be trying to grow crops.  Called in to Port Gregory, another popular holiday town on the coast on the way south, as well as Northampton, one of the oldest settlements in WA.  Discovered the best general store here – was straight out of the 1950s and had a telephone and cash register to suit.  None of this had been done to be trendy – it had just never changed!

Sacred Convent, Northampton

We thoroughly enjoyed our four nights in Geraldton as it was quite a while since we had been in a place as large as this (it even has traffic lights!), so the opportunity to visit some more ‘urban’ sights was terrific.  We found Maureen and Rex – they were camped just around the corner and we were then surprised to encounter Elke and Eberhardt, a terrific German couple we had met first at Nanga Beach (Shark Bay) and had run into a couple of times since.  This provided more opportunities for evening catch-ups.

Heff, Rex, Maureen, Eberhardt, Elke

Geraldton is a regional city of some 39,000 people, with a huge port area and white sandy beaches.  Like so many towns we have visited, there was lots of amenity redevelopment going on  in the city centre and the foreshore area is very appealing, with lots of opportunity for walking, cycling, sitting and playing.  We enjoyed wandering through the retail area too, before starting on the serious ‘tourist’ attractions.

 

The Freemasons Hotel

The visitor centre is located in the historic Bill Sewell Complex, which was formerly the Victoria District Hospital and later the Geraldton prison, was constructed in stages from the mid-1850s.  It also houses the Old Geraldton Gaol Craft Centre and the Yamaji Art Gallery and I loved talking to the ladies who were painting in here and was very impressed with the quality of the art work.

 

Next stop was the HMAS Sydney 11 Memorial, which honours the 645 Australian servicemen who died when the ship sank after a battle with the German raider, HSK Kormoran, in 1941.  The beautifully designed memorial features a silver dome of 645 seagulls and an incredibly evocative bronze statue – The Waiting Woman.  As happens every time we stand and read the list of names on such a memorial, the futility and utter waste and despair of war is graphically brought home to us.

 

 

We spent a most enjoyable morning at the Western Australian Museum, which is next to the Batavia Coast Marina, in which a replica of the longboat in which a small group of survivors of the Batavia made it to Batavia (today’s Jakarta) is moored.  How 48 people fitted in this boat and then survived the 1,500 nautical mile trip is astounding! 

 

The Batavia was a Dutch East India Company ship which ran aground at the Abrolhos islands in 1629 and a fascinating exhibition in the museum ‘uncovers the murder and mutiny’ which resulted from this ship wreck.  There are also excellent exhibitions on the Yamaji people, the influence of European settlement and the flora and fauna of the region. 

 

Geraldton’s St Francis Xavier Cathedral was designed by Monsignor Howes and completed in 1938.  Even though it is regarded as one of his finest works, we weren’t really excited by it and the strange orange-striped ceiling of the interior struck us as somewhat odd.  Maybe atheism and a lack of architectural appreciation go together!

 

Tracked down some Geraldton Wax plants in the garden of the Lighthouse Keepers Cottage - couldn't leave Geraldton without seeing some of these in their namesake area!

 

I was looking forward to a visit to the Regional Art Gallery and as is usually the case, the exhibitions ranged from an excellent exhibition of the work of Elizabeth Durack and a fascinating collection of jewellery made by some 80 Australian women jewellers for 80 famous Australian women to others which we found less than compelling.  But, that’s what art does, isn’t it?

In between all these visits, Murray cycled round Geraldton and spent much time at the port, chatting to security guards and finding out all about what is exported.  Turns out that it is grain, iron ore, talc, copper sulphate and mineral sands.  Of course, he also investigated the ins and outs of the local fishing industry and we laid in a good supply of fish from the wonderful fish shop.

 

 

 

 

This submarine was one of two invented and built by a local, who had been commissioned to invent a prototype cray fishing submarine for a local company.  After an inaugural launch in 1969, the sub never entered operational service as gas emissions from the batteries caused major 'technical problems' - probably code for them poisoning the crew!  The sub was restored in 2007 and painted yellow after the Beatles famous song.

 

We left Geraldton on Sunday, October 7 and travelled south 25km to Central Greenough, the historic settlement on the Greenough Flats, which form the flood plain of the river system close to the mouth of the Greenough River. 

One of the best-known attractions in Greenough is the 'leaning' trees.  Buffeted by the prevailing southerly winds, the trees have developed very obvious 'leans'.  This River Red Gum has had the branches so effectively removed ( a process called 'flagging') on the windward side for the whole of its life that this is the result. 

The buildings and altered landscape of this area provide a valuable example of colonial expansion in the mid-nineteenth century - an expansion which, of course, dispossessed the local indigenous people of their resource-rich land.

Central Greenough developed as the administrative centre for the surrounding farms and is now owned by the National Trust , which began reconstruction and preservation works in the 1970s.  We enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the site, followed by an excellent coffee at the store - luckily the new cafe adjoining the original store comes with the now-necessary espresso machine! 

Central Greenough School, built in 1865.

 

I loved this - life was a much simpler and more straight forward affair in 1865!

Goodwin's Cottage, built in 1890 by the Catholic Church for Ned Goodwin, a retired policeman and his wife.

 

Greenough Roads Board Office, built in 1906. The Roads Board, which was a predecessor of the local shire and was the centre of local government admininstration for the district, had just one staff member - the secretary.

 

Police were first stationed in Greenough in 1863 and a Resident Magistrate was appointed two years later. Work began on the construction of the police station, gaol and court house in 1870, at a cost of 1,500 pounds.

St Catherine's Church, built in 1913 to replace the original iron and timber church shipped complete from England. It is still in regular use.

Greenough Convent, constructed in 1898 to house a group of Dominican Sisters from NZ.  The building was then taken over by the Presentation Sisters, who ran a boarding school for boys and the convent until 1951.  My Balnarring mates will know of the Presentation Sisters who own a large property on Balnarring Beach Road which provides holiday accomodation for disadvantaged members of the wider community - the connections we continue to come across still amaze me

 

Convent sisters' accomodation

Convent chapel

Last but certainly not least - the store dunny!

We then continued on our first foray away from the coast for some time.  In a much-anticipated opportunity to see some of the many wildflowers for which this area is so well known, we were making for the Western Flora Caravan Park just north of the tiny town of Eneabba.  It was only about 100km on from Greenough, so you can see that we are making only slow progress in a southerly direction.  I will give this four days its own blog post though, as it turned out to be pretty special.