Tuesday, October 28, 2008

busselton

Busselton is a neat and tidy seaside town on the fertile valley of the Vasse Rive and was one of the earliest settlements in Western Australia.

The early history of European exploration of the area focuses on the French expedition of 1801 which brought Nicholas Baudin, with his ships the Geographe and Naturaliste, to the coast of Western Australia. It was Baudin who named the bay, Geographe Bay, after his vessel and named the river Vasse after a sailor who was lost, believed drowned, in the area.

No one knows what happened to Vasse. He disappeared when one of the Geographe's boats capsized in the surf. However when the area was finally settled by Europeans there was a story told by the local Aborigines of a white man who had lived with the Aborigines until his death and who spent most of his life wandering the shores of Geographe Bay waiting for a ship to return.....poor chap.

The town was named after John Garrett Bussell whose family was one of the first to settle in the region. Bussell's description of the area depicted it as a kind of paradise:

'Here was a spot that the creative fancy of a Greek would have peopled with Dryad and Naiad and all the beautiful phantoms and wild imagery of his sylvan mythology. Wide waving lawns were sloping down to the water's edge. Trees thick and entangled were stooping over the banks.'

He sounds like a verbose and pompous old git who probably bored for England at dinner parties.

His mate George Layman settled in the area in 1837 and established a cattle station, but he was a nervous chap who was never comfortable with the local aboriginals who appeared rather aggrieved by his presence. He described how the area was so dangerous that in 1837 members of his family were afraid to leave the house because of the danger of being speared by the local Aborigines.

'We dare not leave our house to shoot anything. I have 12 head of cattle and I fear before the natives can be made peaceable some of them will be speared as I am forced to turn them out in the bush without anyone to mind them. The natives are very savage.'

On February 22nd 1841 Layman did eventually leave his house and was speared to death by a local Aborigine. Ho hum.

Anyway, Busselton's claim to fame these days is the second longest wooden jetty in the world at 1841 metres- the world's longest being Southend-on-Sea at 2410 metres!( Southend is in England, for those of you reading this in Texas).

From trek phase 4

It is undergoing extensive restoration and at the end there is an excellent underwater observatory which takes you 8 metres below sea level to watch the marine life.


From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4

We left Busselton this morning for Augusta where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet, but the weather is so windy and wet that we have camped out in a sheltered site and will see what the morning brings.

WA weather

For the last couple of days the storms have set in, and it is windy and wet especially on the coast. Our plans to take a whale watching cruise have been thwarted, although we did manage an hour on a boat looking at dolphins.

From trek phase 4

We have moved on to the Margaret River region the reasoning being that a fine thing to do when it is raining is visit vineyards. We should rename this blog 'alcohol and marine mammals' at this rate.

Vanessa did however insist that we take a detour from the coast to go to Dardanup where there is a roadside grotto which is home to over 1000 garden gnomes, complete with all the appalling gnome puns you could ever imagine....and then some. I rather liked the gnomo-sexuals, but thought that Assgnoma Bin Laden ( in a small cave ) was pushing it a bit!

I was reminded of my friend Jules ( now in Sydney ) and the time, many years ago,when we visited a gnome sanctuary in Devon which was equally dreadful and made worse by the eccentric lady who ran the place insisting that all visitors wore pixie hats. At least here headgear was discretionary.
We should have brought Norman, he is so alone in Mudgee.

From trek phase 4

It is supposedly a harbinger of bad luck if anyone should choose to destroy or steal a gnome, but I have to admit that when I saw the line-up below along the side of a small creek I recalled my mother's expression.....' the things you see when you haven't got a gun'. Target practice would have been so satisfying.

From trek phase 4

butter would not melt?

From trek phase 4


Appearances can be extremely deceptive- the above canine may look cute and appealing but 2 days ago when she elected to roll in a very large and very dead lizard and then proceeded to spread the stench ( and flesh) of reptile in advanced stages of decomposition all over the confined space of a campervan she was decidedly unpopular. Words cannot describe the smell.

fremantle

Fremantle just south of Perth started life as a port where convicts were landed and detained but is now an independent city built by convict labour. It is a trendy place with the mandatory antique shops, cafes and art galleries and the port is the busiest and biggest general cargo port in WA. Plans are underway to deepen the port to allow entry to bigger container ships.

A guided tour around the prison was highly entertaining due mainly to Brendan the extremely amusing Irish guide. The prison was only decommissioned as a maximum security gaol in 1991 so was used continuously as a place of incarceration for almost 140 years.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4



From trek phase 4


Many cells and areas of the prison depict prisoners' artwork, including that of the 19th-century forger James Walsh, whose artwork was hidden beneath layers of white-wash for decades.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4

The gallows room was the only legal place of execution in Western Australia between 1888 and 1984, with 43 men and one woman hanged in this period. Not an enjoyable room to visit, there was an aura of extreme unpleasantness.

From trek phase 4

Thursday, October 23, 2008

kings park

Perth City is situated between the Darling Ranges and the Indian Ocean, and along the banks of the Swan River, 12 km from the ocean. The river is named after the famous black swans which can be found along the river. The city is bound by the river to the east and south.

To the west of the city is Kings Park, the world's largest inner city park with over 400 hectares of natural bush as well as walkways and botanical gardens overlooking the city. We could have spent days exploring the park alone- not only is it dog friendly but with free buses into the city centre it became the ideal base for sight-seeing.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4



From trek phase 4

The park's huge plant collection meant that Ness could spend hours taking plant photos and she now has a comprehensive collection of pics of every variety of kangaroo paw.

From trek phase 4

Geoffrey had to spend a day in dry dock having a 'house service' and repairs to a gas regulator and a smashed roof vent ( due to hitting an overhanging tree branch at speed). It is astounding just how many dead flies can accumulate in one air-conditioning unit.

We will probably be leaving Perth to head further south today, as the weather has taken a turn for the worse and we are experiencing torrential rain for the first time in weeks.It is a city we will definitely be returning to in the future- any city where you can sit by the rivermouth having a picnic while watching the boats being chased by dolphins has to rate highly.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4
Fortunately after a trip down the Swan Valley the cellars are well stocked with wine.

From trek phase 4

swan bells

The Bell Tower in Perth is a dramatic building.

Commemorating Australia's bicentenary in 1988, the twelve bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London as well as five specially cast bells were presented to the University of Western Australia, the City of Perth and to the people of Western Australia.

The London diocese of the Church of England and the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields gave authority for the project to proceed.

The additional bells cast in 1988 include two from the cities of London and Westminster, who each gifted one bell to the project, and a total of three bells bestowed by a consortium of British and Australian mining companies.

Completing the ring of eighteen bells, a sixth new bell was commissioned by the Western Australian Government to mark the second millennium

The Bell Tower situated on the Barrack Street jetty overlooking the Swan river was completed in 2001.

From trek phase 4

Climbing the tower offers great views of the city.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4

perth

Perth is a great city, and I promise to update this blog soon.

Meanwhile a pic of the red and green kangaroo paw- the state flower of WA....

From trek phase 4


...... and a Post Office in the centre of the city.

From trek phase 4

Thursday, October 16, 2008

new norcia

From trek phase 4
We are currently in New Norcia, a Benedictine monastery town set up in 1846 by 2 Spanish monks previously exiled in Italy at the tail end of the Spanish inquisition and keen to find a new venue for their devotional lifestyle.

The first fifty years of New Norcia's history are dominated by Bishop Rosendo Salvado (1814 - 1900) and Dom Joseph Serra, the two founders:

'Salvado's original vision was to create, among the indigenous peoples of the Victoria Plains, a Christian, largely self-sufficient village based on agriculture. However, after the decimation of the local populations by introduced diseases in the 1860's, he concentrated his activity on giving a practical education to the indigenous children.'

It seems to be a common theme with the arrival of Christian missionaries that their first achievements when arriving to spread 'the good word' was to bring TB, smallpox and other European goodies to kill and debilitate.

The community spread in the 1800's and at the end of the century they owned or oversaw around 1 million acres of land, and became extraordinarily wealthy dabbling in farming, brewing, horse studs, bee-keeping and collections of religious art works.

The community has dwindled to 19 monks and the schools closed in the 1970's but what remains is a very unusual collection of Spanish style architecture so the whole place feels like a European town and a far cry from Australia. Many buildings have been restored and work is ongoing. The monks still bake a mean loaf of bread and the vineyards are still productive in a smaller scale than their heyday.

From trek phase 4

The chapels are all highly decorated with that gaudy and overwhelming iconography that the Catholic church favours.

From trek phase

The Benedictine monks seem to have religious life sorted thanks to St.Benedict and his book of rules. No self-flagellation, endless vows of silence or starvation for these chaps- three good meals a day, fine wines and their own bakery, tv and internet access, endless foreign travel. Shame about the celibacy and all that praying.

The whole lifestyle is based on St.Benedict ( c480-c457) or Norcia's Book of Rules which the saint wrote during the three years he lived as a hermit in a cave with his pet raven- I guess he had to do something on those cold, dark nights.

I rather liked the following:


THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT-CHAPTER XL-THE RULE OF DRINK


....keeping in view the frailty of the weak, we think that one hemina (approx half a pint) of wine daily is enough for each. Those, however, to whom God grants the capacity to abstain should know that they will have their own reward.

If however local conditions of the work or the summer heat call for more it must be for the superior to decide but he must take care that neither excess nor drunkenness overtakes them. For although we read that wine is not at all a drink for monks,yet,since in our day it is impossible to persuade monks of this, let us agree at least about this that we should not drink our fill but more sparingly, since wine leads even wise men into infidelity.

When however local conditions bring it about that the above mentioned quantity is not available, but much less or none at all, then those who live there should bless God and not grumble. We lay special stress on this that the brethren remains free from grumbling.

...which reads as:

Wine
..You really shouldn't
..Well OK- half a pint a day
..OK ,OK more if it is hot ( we are in Australia)
..BUT no getting pissed
..and do NOT go running to the Abbot wingeing when we run out

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

nambung national park

It has been a while since we featured a rock based point of interest, so onwards to Nambung National Park, north of Perth on the coast to see the Desert Pinnacles, tall, jagged limestone pillars that were buried under sand for hundreds of years before being exposed by the wind.

Currently there are more than 1,000 of them, but new pillars are being exposed to the north while those in the south are being consumed by new sand blows.

From trek phase 4

The weather has been cooler and we were unprepared for the roasting we got while walking around the hot yellow sands. A very arid area which looks odd right next to the ocean.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4

Monday, October 13, 2008

war memorials,wind and wild flowers

Geraldton has a memorial for the 645 sailors lost when HMAS Sydney was sunk in WW 2 in 1941, which is quite dramatic looking out over the ocean. The records need to be updated as the ship is still catalogued as 'lost', but her wreck was discovered in March this year 150 km off the Shark Bay coast.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4
It has been a very windy few days travelling south along the west coast- the south westerly winds are fearsome and many trees are in a permanent bent position although they seem to survive somehow.

From trek phase 4

An ideal location for Walkaway Windfarm, the country's second largest windfarm with 54 wind turbines. They are pretty impressive beasts up close.

From trek phase 4




From trek phase 4


We are spending the next couple of days in wild flower country.Ness was very excited to find her first wild orchid yesterday.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4

Saturday, October 11, 2008

weekend at the beach

Coronation beach is not a bad spot to spend the weekend.

From trek phase 4


Great sunsets, and we even got to see some whales in the distance from the viewing platform.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4

Friday, October 10, 2008

chance encounters

The joy of travelling 'without portfolio' is that unplanned events often turn out to be the most enjoyable. We dropped james dog off at a kennels outside town while we took the van in for an oil change and made the most of being dogless and homeless by doing a large amount of shopping.

The kennels is run by Andrew who also manages and runs Ego Creek Vineyard, a wonderful 20 acre plot on a hill looking out to the ocean. He claims that there is no money in grapes so his hobby is funded by dog sh*t! On collection of the hound we went on to taste his produce and stocked up the cellar with a case of chenin blanc.After much wine and chat we ended up parking in the vineyard for the night, surrounded by curious dorper sheep.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4

The next day we stayed to help out, with Vanessa utilising her veterinary nursing skills helping the dog groomer beautify a few boarders and myself being kitchen assistant while Jane prepared the food for the weekend's wine tasting event.

James dog made a new chum ( well, bullied the poor young lad into submission truth be told)

From trek phase 4


Jane also runs a small cattery which is the most high class feline residence I have ever seen- she is an artist who works in stained glass and the cat lounge area had ( as well as the sofas, wood burning stove, garden areas and sea views) the most beautiful stained glass windows and partitions. We were particularly taken with 'mouse-e -vision', a series of glass mouse houses so the cats could watch the mice scurrying about. The mice are obviously not fazed by the feline attention, and are breeding happily.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4