Off to See the Wizard - Kalbarri to Geraldton

Finally, I have a decent internet connection, so can resume our travel tales.  This was back on Saturday, 17 September.  I’m way behind.

You would think that the 147 kms from Kalbarri to Geraldton would not have much to report, but it was an interesting drive.

The first thing of note was Hutt’s Lagoon, which is more well known as the “Pink Lake”.  It didn’t look very pink as we drove beside it down the highway, but once we turned off towards the lookout it did have a definite pink hue.  The photos on brochures, taken from the air, show a very bright pink, but it was a more subtle colour that we saw.  The colour is caused by algae, the same ones that is used for beta-carotene used in food colouring.  They say it is best seen in the late morning, so we were at a good time and we were lucky that it was a still day.

A bit further down the road we noticed an old stone house in the distance.  Just a bit further we came across the Lynton Convict Depot.  I had heard this mentioned previously, when we were at the lead smelter chimney a couple of days earlier.

Western Australia was initially established as a free colony, but a shortage of labour saw them introduce the importation of convicts in 1850.  They were mainly used for the Geraldine lead mine, pastoral work and the making of roads.

The site chosen was close to Port Gregory, but was rather exposed and there was a lack of water.    It operated from 1853 to 1856. 

The main building at the site was the convict barracks and was only completed shortly before the depot was closed.  Up until then, they had mainly been housed under canvas.

The other main ruin on view is the gaol, featuring the remains of a couple of cells, as well as the exercise yard.  

The intriguing thing was all the graffiti carved in the walls.  There may have been some made by prisoners at the time, but most was much more recent.  There was some dated 2022, but I also found some dating back to the 1930s.

One other small building survives in remarkably good condition.  It was the small cottage for the Magistrate.

Adjoining this site is a property where you can camp.  Some of their buildings also date from the time of the Convict Depot.  One is the house of the Commandant, which is not accessible by the public.

The other is the old barn, which houses a small museum that you can explore.

It’s funny, I could walk o the Sky Walk overhanging the Murchison Gorge with no worries at all, yet these stairs were a real effort for me to climb.  So silly. 

However, it was worth it to have a look around and look down on the barn from on high.

You can imagine how harsh it must have been living in tents here, when you see how the trees have grown nearly horizontal from the wind.

What we loved the most as we travelled along was the continuing broad expanse of crops looking so wonderful. They are definitely having a good season in the west.

The next place we came to was Northhampton.  I had heard that their local show was on the day we would be there.  You beauty!  I love a country show.  There was quite a queue of traffic to get into the Showground, so we had a little look around town first.

It has a really large grain handling facility.  I couldn’t get a good photo and this is just a small part of it.

There are lots of decorated sheep around the town.

Can you believe it?  There is a sewing machine museum with a nice array of machines.

It is housed in an old fashioned emporium style shop.

There was even some yarn bombing in the Main Street.

The Catholic. Church was rather attractive and was designed by Monsignor John Hawes.  More on him later.  I didn’t go in, which is a pity.

Next door is the convent, also designed by him.

They have a craft shop in a cute little building.  It is the first we have come across since we left NSW.

Where I bought some “Lemon Glow”, which is like a lemon jelly with cinnamon and cardamon.  It is rather tasty on our toast.

Back to the queue to go to the show.  It was still really long.  We sat in line for 15 minutes and had only progressed one block.  It would take us well over an hour to reach the gate at that rate, so we abandoned the idea.  What a pity. 

Finally, we reached Geraldton.

We settled into our caravan park at Sunset Beach, a little north of town.  We had to check out the beach.

There is a sunset viewing spot, which was rather social and had a good outlook.

As it got dark, the lights of the port in the distance looked very pretty.

The highlight of the day was the Convict Depot, as we weren’t expecting it and it was so interesting.