New Norcia- Jurien Bay – 23 to 25 April 2010

We left Perth to drive to Jurien Bay. On the way we stopped at New Norcia a lovely old Benedictine monastery established in 1846 and still in operation today, although down to a complement of only eight Benedictine monks.

It is quite surprising to find an oasis of European culture and art in what early on was a remote and primitive location.

The cluster of chapels, schools and associated buildings include some beautiful frescoes, altars and furniture fashioned from local timber. The founding Monks Dom Rosendo Salvado and Dom Joseph Serra from a Benedictine community in Spain, established good relations with the aboriginal people of the Victoria Plains and the government authorities locally and in Perth.

New Norcia was an aboriginal mission from 1846 to 1900 and later schools for farming families and local aboriginals were operated from 1908 to 1991.

Now, in addition to farming and a justly famous bakery [the fruit loaf is excellent] they provide hospitality for both tourists and residential camps for school children to learn about the past.

The Benedictines maintain their religious schedule and visitors can join them for prayers or services in the chapel with a glorious Munster organ imported from Germany.


A thoughtful and informative tour guide showed us over the many buildings, lamented the habit of the 1960’s and 1970’s to cover the frescoes with white “Dulux” paint and the jarrah floors with linoleum. The only saving grace being that after painstaking scraping of the paint the frescoes beneath are quite well preserved.

From New Norcia we drove to Jurien Bay. This was our base for visiting the stromatolites at Lake Thetis, the unique limestone pillars at the Pinnacles and Lesueur National Park.
On April 25 we attended the Anzac Day service at Jurien Bay.

Like all such services throughout Australia it comprised a large contingent of locals and visitors of all ages come to pay respects to the Australians and New Zealanders who have fought and died in the many conflicts since the landing at Gallipoli. Perhaps if the academic historians, who recently asserted that Anzac Day is unfortunate for its celebration of the militarism of a bygone era, attended more of these local ceremonies they would recognize the very evident strong community desire not to celebrate war but to keep the promise to the fallen Diggers:-

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

 

Lake Thetis near Cervantes on the way to the Pinnacles is home to one of four locations in Western Australia of stromatolites, one of the earliest forms of life to evolve on earth. Samples from them show similarities with fossils over 3 billion years old.

The Pinnacles is an immensely popular destination with a happy atmosphere. There is a babble of different languages and a traffic jam of cars filing round the site. It is fun but not the ideal place to commune with nature alone in the desert.

It is not really known how the limestone pinnacles formed but we prefer the explanation that they are the remains of fossilized tree trunks. Whatever the reason it is an intriguing and beautiful location particularly at sunset.

After the Anzac Day service we drove to Lesueur National Park. On the way we stopped at Dynamite Bay and Desperate Bay. In Dynamite Bay the local shire seems to communicate with its ratepayers through public signs.

The Lesueur National Park is named after Charles Alexandre Lesueur the botanist on the French ship “Naturaliste” captained by Nicolas Baudin which explored the coast in 1801. In the spring it is a blaze of colour and would be standing room only as the WA wildflowers are famed. Even at this time of year there are a lot of very beautiful and colourful flowers. The park has an exceptionally diverse range of Flora. Windblown sand dunes form the shoreline and then the grains of sand aggregate to form limestone. In the Park you can see three different shorelines as the oceans receded and rose. We also visited the salt lake in the middle of the Park.

Perth, Lake Macquarie, Avalon – 13 to 22 April 2010

We returned to Perth to complete some business, enjoy coffee culture and then fly to Sydney to catch up with Chris, Monica and Jeremy, staying with Monica’s parents at Lake Macquarie.

We then visited some friends [Bushtracker owners] in Sydney taking the chance to visit the Sydney Caravan Show. It was amazing how many visitors to the show there were and fun to look at different vans and pieces of equipment.

We returned home to our little pod on site in Perth courtesy of Forestfield staff, and spent a day stocking up for our trip North.

Augusta – 12 April 2010

From Pemberton we drove to Augusta, an attractive fishing village cum holiday town at the mouth of the Blackwood River.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is just outside Augusta and marks the point where the Indian and the Southern oceans meet.

The lighthouse, the second tallest in WA with seven floors and 186 steps, was built from 1895 to 1896 of local limestone.

The light was manually operated until 1982 when it was converted to electricity, replacing the clockwork mechanism and kerosene burner, and was automated in September 1992. It retains the original lens and reflectors.

 

The lighthouse stands on the most South Westerly point of Australia and is where Matthew Flinders began mapping the coast of Australia on 6th December 1801.

Augusta also boasts the “last eating house before the Antarctic.”

Pemberton – 9 to 11 April 2010

Pemberton is a timber town, and given the surplus forest wood, the Pemberton Caravan park  allows campfires. Pemberton is named after Pemberton Walcott who was the first settler in the area in 1862.

We did the excellent Donnelly River Cruise on the Donnelly River through the D'Entrecasteaux National Park to the mouth of the river.  D'Entrecasteaux NP is pristine except for the introduced trout and the squatters shacks, a cause of some dissension.

We visited the Big Creek Dam for a picnic lunch, and watched the black swans feeding, heads solidly down and tails in the air.

We explored the forests, wineries and local farms stopping for coffee at the Lost Lake winery, named after a lake that disappeared as the land was cleared.

Near Fonty's Pool we met Robert Fontinini, a nephew of the Fontinini who as a young Italian immigrant created Fonty’s Pool as the local swimming hole, and was one of  the original orchardists of the area. We bought some fruit and chestnuts from him.

It is sad to see this productive farm land being turned over to tree farms, mostly Tasmanian Blue gums, which are barely viable and then only with a tax concession, while the apples are left to rot on the trees.  A new initiative is truffles, and we visited  the Wine and Truffle Farm and met Lesley and the truffle dogs who find the truffles on the root systems of oaks and hazelnuts. The advantage of dogs over pigs is they don't want to eat the truffles. They are a nice friendly bunch.
For dinner we roasted some of our fresh chestnuts over an open fire.

Rest Point, Walpole – 8 & 9 April 2010

From Albany we drove to Rest Point in Walpole. We stopped for lunch at Peaceful Bay. By now we have got over our fears about driving on the beach and happily join everyone else, even bringing the caravan this time for an excellent lunch stop.

We have been told that Rest Point was one of two original farms established in 1904, remaining freehold when the the National Parks were gazetted in 1910.

Rest Point Guest House and Jetty were built in the 1930's. Today they have a mix of accommodation including a campsite. The site is located on the Walpole Nornalup Inlet which is extremely beautiful.

Walpole is completely surrounded by National Parks. People come for recreational fishing.

While here we revisited the Hilltop Lookout with its views of Nornalup Inlet

We visited the largest Tingle Tree (Eucalyptus Jackmanii). Tingle trees burn out in the centre but can survive because the nutrient supply travels near the exterior of the tree. The circumference of this Tingle Tree is 25 metres. The drive then came to the Circular pool, so named because the current flows in a circle.

Next stop was the Tree Tops Walk and the Empire walk in the Valley of the Giants. These are respectively a walk in the canopy and a walk on the ground in a section of the Karri Forest. The tree top walk is spectacular, having a ground footprint of four square meters and being constructed using only pulleys and hydraulic jacks to minimize the impact on the forest.

When Tricia was a child her bedroom floor was Karri and she was assured by her father that it would outlast the house, itself made of double brick.
After the excitement of the tree top walk we visited the Meadery and purchased some Metheglin (spiced honey wine).

We went to Green Pool and Elephant Rocks at William Bay. Green Pool is a beautiful pool and remains warm to swim in till quite late in the season because it is surrounded by a reef. There is just a little exchange of water, enough to keep it clean. All the locals swim there. Elephant Rocks is a nice little cove.