Geraldton to Perth

While thinking we should be inland to get away from the winds, there were still some interesting looking seaside villages that we just had to see on the way.  The coast road is a beautiful drive as it follows close to the sea for most of the way and there are always pure white sand dunes or waves to look at.  From Geraldton we only made it 60kms or so until we called through Dongara, the town, and detoured out to Port Denison, the seaside village with its own harbour, and marina.  The beachside parks are excellent with plenty of good lawn grass, sun/wind shades on the beach, and good caravan parking off the main street right next to the harbour beach.  It really is a lovely peaceful spot for a relaxing holiday.  The lobster industry is evident with cray boats and a large processing facility in the harbour but the locals are mainly made up of wheat farmers and graziers holiday shacks/homes.  The beach is clean sand and the water crystal clear of course.  We both commented that it would be a shame to ever get sick of seeing the beautiful white sandy beaches and clean clear waters.  The sand is hard enough to drive straight onto the beach from the street to launch or retrieve your boat.  We saw one RAV 4 owner drive onto the beach and reverse all four wheels of the 2WD car into the water to load a large boat.  The rock walls of the harbour protect the water so despite the strong winds outside, there are no waves inside the harbour.  

Launching a boat Port Denison style !!

excellent seaside parks and grass

Further south we called into another village at Green Head.  There is a cute little bay that is protected from the winds and has a lookout on the adjacent hill that gives great views of the bay and along the coast.  The grass beds are clearly visible in the water but the beaches are mostly clean.  

Green Heads

The Pinnacles outside Cervantes - love the drive through attractions!

Contrasting sand dune colours

the big one

The coastal dune colour

Purpose built fishing pier at Jurien Bay. The caravan park is right behind the first trees

Jurien Bay is the next seaside town to call us and is the largest along this stretch of coast.  The van park is right on the beach next to a good waterfront picnic park, kid’s playground, and purpose built fishing jetty.  The supermarket/shopping centre is right beside the park so the car had a bit of a rest.  Sunday was a big day as there was a Christmas Market on in the Community Centre and we were up early to set up Carol’s stall.  It was a good market for a small town and while the crowds seemed small, sales were good and now Carol has to sew more dresses etc, for the markets we have booked into in Perth next weekend; all good fun.

Just south of Jurien Bay is another beautiful seaside village of Cervantes, named after a Dutch ship that came to grief on the reef close to shore and whose crew then walked for 11 days and 180kms along the coast to reach Perth.  Outside Cervantes is a National Park containing the Pinnacles. These are an area of scrubby and open sand dunes where the sand has blown away to reveal tall columns of sandstone/limestone.  Some of the area is like a desert and elsewhere the columns appear throughout the scrub where the sand has blown away and the bush has regrown.  We had read about them but were surprised by the number and area covered by them.  

Next we decided to try and get a break from the coastal southerly’s and headed inland to New Norcia.  This is a Spanish Style Monastery village set up to assist the aborigines in the 1800’s and convert them to Christianity.  The founding Monk realised that the Aborigines could not be removed entirely from their culture and while training them in things like agriculture, and construction, allowed for them to return to the bush to live among their own tribes people until they wanted to return.  Unfortunately, when the founding Monk died in 1900, the Government (white people) decided they knew best and incarceration commenced.  The words used at the time were:-  ‘New Norcia was to “absorb” local aborigines’ and subsequently, the aborigines from Perth and the Swan Valley disappeared from their lands as white man’s agriculture and grazing expanded.  

There are still some impressive wild flowers out in December

Very fancy picnic table for a little outback town

New Norcia Monastery - only 8 monks remaining in residence..

An aboriginal married residence - a single room duplex

The impressive 'white' girls convent

Stunning chapels in the boarding schools

Beautiful frescos on most walls of the chapels

Another of the chapel altars

The town church still in use

A pretty local

The hotel built for a visit by Queen Isobella II of Spain who unfortunately died before she made it out here.

Further south there is more and more wheat fields.  Most has been harvested but about 25% of the wheat is still in too wet from recent unseasonal rain.  Northam was our next stay and is a large town on the Avon River and has a very flash Info Centre and Café beside the river.  It is a very busy country town just like Emerald was before the mines came.  Surrounding Northam are several other country towns / villages all maintaining strong links to their heritage.  Toodyay (2-jay) was the first of these we passed through.  The buildings in the main street are very well preserved and presented and the info centre is situated beside a very good display of a flour mill.  All of its original milling machinery is still in place.  The info centre next door also doubles as the local chocolate and lolly shop.  We just had to take one small bag of raspberry nougat.  We will never know if it might have got better with age!!  On the other side of Northam is York and Beverley.  York was the first inland town settled in WA and has a very impressive main street full of well preserved 1800’s buildings.  York also contains a very impressive old mill building but this one contains a restaurant and furniture / art gallery.  The furniture is all made by local tradesmen (artists) and the timber is all local, mainly jarrah.  A dining table took our eye with the top made from a slice of a single tree and is huge seating 12 to 16 adults.  The wood workmanship was exceptionally good and it retailed for only $15,500 – no chairs included but several styles to choose from.  York was also home to one of the best Car Museums I have been through.  It is all indoors and privately owned and the owner has driven every car in the Museum including the first car to travel at more than 100mph although he said that when he drove it on a local salt lake he was shitting himself when he got to 100kph.  The 2 door A9X Torana was a standout along with the hydrogen-peroxide fuelled go kart that set records in the US at 404kph(253mph)!!

Beverley has a bunch of restored buildings from a later era and many from the post war 1945 – 1960 style.  There is a very interesting display of farm machinery in a private yard.  Old mate that has collected all of the items has lived in Beverley for all of his 78 years and has farm machinery and shearing equipment from more than 100 years ago that his great grandfather used.  The display is very well organised and is clean and tidy; not a shed full of old junk as many museums are.  One item in particular is a horse drawn hay mower that even has its original parts manual on display.  He was full of stories and we were lucky to escape inside an hour. Turns out that the museum wasn’t even open that day, he was putting the wheelie bin out and saw us looking in so invited us in.  It was a very interesting place and well presented.  Carol found a good old fashioned haberdashery shop in town and purchased several hard to find ‘vintage’ buttons and ribbons.

Swinging bridge over the Avon River at Northam,  white swans were floating nearby

Flour Mill Museum at Toodyay

York Courthouse

Denis Fire Engine - note the solid wheels

Rocket powered go kart capable of over 400kph

Bill Hodgson A9X Bathurst Ch7 Torana

York main street - Town Hall at left

York Flour Mill now locally made Furniture Store

Beverley Railway Station

Hand powered shearers comb sharpener

Rare Fordson Crawler Tractor - still goes..

Beverley icon

Our run in to the outskirts of Perth and the Swan Valley was very pretty.  The bush thickened up and the grass turned very lush and green as we came down the hill into town.  Being back in among heavy traffic while towing a van was no more fun than the last time but the van park we are at is very nice and the vineyards around us are full of thick green growth and are very pretty after the last few months of rocks and desert in the north west.