Off to See the Wizard - Day Trip to Karratha

We were very fortunate for our next adventure, as the weather had fined up to a beautiful day.

On Sunday our hosts played tour guides again and we headed along the coast, firstly calling in at the town of Roebourne.  There is a historic gaol there, but it was closed.

We drove up to the lookout, where there were some great sculptures.

From here we continued out to the historic ghost town of Cossack.  It was the first port in the north west, being established in the 1870s, for the pastoral and pearling industries. Several of the old stone buildings, mostly built in the 1890s, have been beautifully restored.  We started our visit with morning tea at the cafe in the old Custom House and Bond Store.

The Court House now houses a museum and art gallery.

I was intrigued by these textile panels.

There were old relics sewn onto the canvas, which was rustically dyed, I’m assuming with old nails or rusty iron?

A wonderful way to display them.  Sadly, I didn’t get the details of the artist to give her credit.

Galbraith Store is a lovely old building, but not open to the public.

You could have a look at the old lock up.

Reading a timeline, the town started to decline in the 1880s, when the pearling industry moved to Broome, even before most of these buildings were built.  In the late 1890s it was badly damaged in a cyclone and shortly after the harbour wasn’t able to be used, as it was silting up.  The Town was dissolved in 1910 and less than half a dozen buildings remained by the 1930s.  The town was abandoned in the 1950s. It was classified by the National Trust in 1977 and in the 1970s and 1980s restoration began.  It was placed on the State Heritage Register in 2006.  

It is a credit to the people looking after it now, as it is well maintained and a very popular place to visit.

We went to Reader Head Lookout at the coast and could see a lighthouse on a small island.

It is Jarman Island Lighthouse, built in 1888, automated in 1917 and ceased operation in 1985.  It appears to be just painted white now.

Next we drove through the town of Karratha.  It is quite a contrast to Port Hedland, which is something that is quite often noted.  There are traffic lights, for one thing.  Where Port Hedland is industrial all over the place, Karratha seems to have their industrial section built a bit separate.  Also the port isn’t in town, the town is a bit inland, which means that things are cleaner.  The shopping and business centre is larger, as is the population. It was proclaimed as a city in 2014.

Having said all that, you are not exactly comparing apples with apples.  Port Hedland was started in the 1850s and probably grew with very little town planning.  Karratha was planned and built as a joint state government and Hamersley Iron project in response to the discovery of vast amounts of iron ore.  Admittedly, Karratha would be more liveable.

Recently, KFC and Hungry Jacks have opened franchises in the town.  Apparently it is the thing for Port Hedland residents to drive to Karratha just to have KFC.  We cringe at the thought, but remember when it was the thing at home, in the mid 1980s that if ever you were in Sydney, you would call in at McDonalds at Penrith on the way home and not only have a burger, but buy a second to take home to microwave later.  Oh my, how times have changed.  I digress…..

We continued on our way to Dampier, which is the port just out of Karratha.  It has been made famous recently by the book and movie “Red Dog”.  He was a kelpie/cattle dog cross who wandered the Pilbara with on his own or with a succession of owners.  He was beloved by all and became a mascot of the area.

Dampier Port has four berths in one section and three in another section.  Much smaller that Port Hedland.  The sailing vessel looked small compared to the ore carrier.  

It was still a very pretty spot, as it is so much smaller than Port Hedland, with swimming and boating areas.

We enjoyed lunch at the Sailing Club, overlooking the water.

Our next stop was Murujuga National Park.  Remember those hills that looked like they had chocolate icing on them? Well, that dark layer is actually a tumbled mass of rock and this National Park has lots of them, which is why the park is here.

We went for a walk along beautifully made board walks.

There were shell midden from when the aboriginals lived here and used this spot for cooking.  The shells come from the nearby coast.

However, this is the main reason we visited.

The area is considered to host the largest concentration of ancient rock art in the world, possibly dating back 47,000 years. They estimate that there are over a million engravings.

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Just look at the scale of those rocks.  They look like a giant excavator has dumped them there, but it is all natural.  They are made up of granite. Apparently, the original area was granite and another more coarse grained rock and the other rock has weathered away to break down to these piles.

Most of the engravings are or animals, but some are of human figures.  It is requested that they not be photographed.

One of the engravings is of a thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) which has been extinct on the mainland for 2,000 years. It’s a bit hard to see, so I have shown the information board as well.

We had a fantastic day out.  I’m so pleased we were able to enjoy it in nicer weather than the day before.  The best thing is we were not going to be heading in this direction as we continue on our travels, so would not have seen any of these places and we had no idea that all these wonderful destinations existed.

We also saw loads of Sturts Desert Pea flowers, mainly on the side of the highway.  More than we have seen anywhere else.

It was getting late by the time we returned to Port Hedland after a 600kms day trip.  Even gas power plants look good in the sunset.

Thanks to our friends for playing such good tour guides.

The highlight of the day was hard to decide, but both the ghost town of Cossack and the rock engravings were wonderful and unexpected.