Unlike many of the towns in WA which were named by the early explorers after various English members of royalty, assorted pooh bahs and other dignitaries, Kalbarri's somewhat unusual name was taken from that of a local Murchison River aboriginal man. This is fitting. The town and the river are strongly linked. Initially the river provided a safe harbour for the large local fishing fleet, and since, as the numbers of boats have diminished in response to the push to reduce fishing quotas and maintain stocks (all managed extremely well here in the west), the river has become a tourist playground...with very good reason.
The development of Kalbarri, which is about 600 kms north of Perth, as a fishing and tourist mecca did not gain real impetus until just after WW2, but the arrival of the first Europeans to the area goes back much, much further than that.
Two incidents of note both involve the Dutch and shipwrecks. The story of the wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman, the 'Batavia' and the subsequent slaughter of many of the survivors, is one I am sure was included in the history lessons of most of you.
What I am equally sure is far less known is that two of the crew, both later confirmed as having been involved in the mutiny which occurred subsequent to the wreck, were not hanged as the others were but were marooned on the coast at a point just south of Kalbarri on 16 November 1629. As a consequence, twenty-two year old Wooter Loos, and Jan Pelgrom de Bye van Bemel, a cabin boy of just eighteen, are believed to be the first European inhabitants of Australia. It is probably just as well they were not carrying a Dutch flag to hoist or our history could have taken a very different turn!
The second unplanned landing on the coast in this area, took place sometime in 1712. Another ship of the Dutch East India Company, the 700 ton merchantman the 'Zuytdorp' had left the Netherlands on 1 August 1711, bound for Batavia (now Jakarta) with 200 passengers and crew and a rich cargo, including 248,000 silver coins. She never arrived.
Based on evidence found in 1927 it is now known that the 'Zuytdorp' foundered against the coastal cliffs near the mouth of the Murchison River. The fate of her passengers and crew remains unknown, but the discovery of coins and other artifacts in the surrounding area strongly suggests that some of those on board managed to struggle ashore where they were give succour by the local aboriginal tribes.
As we shall see in our later visit to the cliff of this area, how anyone could have survived a shipwreck here is extraordinary.
But back to the present and a quick tour around Kalbarri. Let's begin on its southern approaches, where some fine houses have been built on the road into the town to take advantage of the views north over the Murchison estuary and mouth, here seen looking south-east from the 'Zuytdorp' memorial lookout.
continuing to sweep to the left, Chinaman's Beach, the river and the curve of the river front road come into view.
Moving still further left, we can look over the river mouth and the channel out to sea which runs between Oyster Reef and the rocky ledge of the seaward reef.
This closer shot shows the inner edge of Oyster Reef, the sandy spit around which the river curves and, in view just beyond the upper edge of the spit, the fishing fleet moored in the pens of the marina at the northern end of the town.
Once boats are well inside the protection of the sand hills which lie between the western banks of the Murchison and the massive Indian Ocean rollers, they can lie safely in calm waters, but getting there can be tricky. The passage through the mouth of the river is not one for the faint-hearted.
As we shall see shortly, these two boats bashing their way to sea north along the marked passage between the rocks of the outer reef and Oyster Reef (just out of shot to the right) are not small, and this was a day when the seas were as calm as any we had seen during our stay. Even so, the swirling and confused waters of the channel were enough to have the spray flying from the lead boat as it neared the end of the reef line.
The sight of the large cray boats making their way through this passage on days of high seas was something to behold. The skippers heave to at the entrance to the channel judging their run, their boats rolling violently from side to side in the massive swells, before making a dash at full power along the channel. I am particularly grumpy that on the day I watched these feats of highly skilled seamanship I had left the camera at home. One boat I watched lay abeam the swells for over five minutes before being able to make its run. To the accompanying snarl of its powerful diesel motors and with the spray and slop whipped away by the wind from its heaving, urgently thrusting bow, this was an impressive sight indeed. I needed no persuasion to accept that there have been some particularly nasty maritime incidents at the mouth of the Murchison. But as we can see, this was not one of those days.
From the lookout I wandered down past the southern end of the park, past the large holiday apartment blocks
to the point where I could look out over the short fishing jetty, the sandy spit to its left (this is significant) and the dark strip of Oyster Reef in the background.
Beyond the jetty is the War Memorial Park which lies between the esplanade roadway and the southern boat ramp (you know you are in a fishing town when it sports two boat ramps only a kilometre apart).
It was from here that the two large fishing boats I later saw ploughing their way out to sea were being launched as I strolled by.
And they were large.....we had not seen a rig like this since Jurien Bay.
At about this point the roadway curves to the left past, in an area off to the right of this shot,
what for want of a better name, I'll call the 'southern shopping centre'. The river front area of Kalbarri is a town of two distinct parts, north and south. Our caravan park was closer to the southern precinct, although in truth nothing in Kalbarri is beyond reasonable walking distance.
Here we find, in an interesting co-location, the local home of Mr Plod,
and the first of Kalbarri's two pubs, the Gilgai Tavern, famous for hosting the Pirate Night during the Cray and Canoe festival (more of that later).
But a stone's throw away is the Kalbarri Hotel Motel where a large canvas sign at the front proclaims it to be the home of 'gourmet pizzas'.
I can attest to the claims made when we occupied an outdoor luncheon table as we celebrated Rhonda Vogts's birthday during our stay (when we reflected on the fact we had cone the same thing last year....almost as far away in Australia as we could have been...near Atherton). I enjoyed one of the best pizzas I have had for some time.
And of course 'Bob the Dog' was included in the festivities where he watched on in shady seclusion. The 'Black Panther' declined the invitation.
And here we must make a short diversion from the river front.....Finlays BBQ awaits our inspection. This iconic Kalbarri nosh house sits in one of the back streets of the town in all its kitschy splendour. As with most such establishments all over the country, there is a a tale to be found here.
The buildings originally housed the town iceworks until the fishing Finlay family bought the property and used it as a packaging facility for the export of chilled locally caught schnapper and other fine table fish. All went along swimmingly (it's been a while!) until that infamous pilots' strike of 1989. Given that 85% of the Finlay product was air freighted overseas, their export business was crippled overnight. Not a family to give up easily, they decided that "if their product could not be taken to the market, they would bring the market to their product". Finlay's famous fresh fish BBQ was born.
I managed to sneak a peek before the evening rush began. What a wonderful hotch potch of furniture I found, both under cover
and 'al fresco'. This is a decidedly 'no frills' establishment, where diners must bring with them their own cutlery, crockery and, in an unusually rare treat for WA, their grog.
How could I not be right at home at Finlays when the serving area was graced with an old Geraldton SLSC surf boat hanging from the ceiling?
Dining at Finlays even includes a lesson in the Aussie vernacular so those from foreign climes can not only dine in style but leave much better exposed to our slang.
Sadly, for a number of reasons, we did not grace the table at Finlays during this stay, but rest assured that will happen during our return visit to Kalbarri, which is another certainty.
This end of town also provides a reminder of the importance of tourism to Kalbarri. The Edge Resort hotel is one of two large resort hotels which complement the many apartment blocks and smaller holiday rental properties throughout the area.
During any one year Kalbarri will host as many as 200,000 visitors on both long an short term stays. Whilst a large proportion of these are from interstate and overseas, we were again reminded of the extraordinary distances Perth folk will travel at the drop of a hat when a break of three days or more presents itself.
The locals don't miss out either. In a yarn Liz had with one of the town hairdressers (can't have the dark roots showing...that will never do!) she commented that Kalbarri was a great place in which to bring up children. And I have to say that all we encountered on footpaths and in the shops were unfailingly cheerful and polite. A legacy of a great deal of outdoors activity we wondered?
Apart from all that the river has to offer by way of fishing, swimming, sailing and so on, the town has a very good skate park, which was more than popular.
The nearby lush oval and excellent club rooms cater for the older generations. This complex is situated just south of our caravan park and also proved a boon for the dog owners in residence as a great place to let them stretch their legs.
Caravan park dogs were not the only animals to be found here. The bushland in and around Kalbarri is home to a resident group of quite large kangaroos which understandably find the green pick of the oval irresistible. On an evening stroll along the pathway to the oval we came across a couple of the 'locals' enjoying a late afternoon supper. One was a very big boy indeed and seemed quite happy to pose for this photo opportunity.
Back to the river front and another day. About midway along Grey Street we come to the understandably large visitor information centre
beyond which, on the river banks opposite the entry to the Murchison River caravan park is the 'pelican feeding area' where human hopefuls would gather in their droves each morning at 0845 hours to watch these magnificent birds being fed. There was only one slight snag. During the entire time of our stay not one hungry pelican responded to the breakfast gong. They were all upstream at their nesting site busily propagating.
I saw more of these river inhabitants during my ventures on my kayak (yes, it was in the water several times) than all those who warmed the feeding area benches each morning. By the time we left, a few had ventured back downstream, but they were clearly too well fed to bother with a free breakie.
One of the thriving businesses in Kalbarri is the boat hire shack. Even in rotten weather we saw many short term visitors determined to take to the waters of the Murchison in the small tinnies, Hobie cats and paddle boats available for hire.
The chap who runs this facility also provides another very useful service. For $5.00 he will ferry passengers across the Murchison to the western bank of the river. Many take advantage of this to fish in the river or on the beach front on the other side of the sand hills or to take a stroll along the ocean front.
Fine, I hear you say, but how do they get back? Simple. On my first paddle I had noticed a pole on the far side of the river bank with what appeared to be a bell attached to it. Odd, I thought. Not so. A decent dong on this bell will summon the worthy ferryman to putt across the river for the return trip to the town shore. What an impressive service, and one which I noted provided a good little earner to a fellow who would otherwise just be sitting around between hirings.
Looking north from this same point we can see the sandy beach which lines this part of the river bank. This provided a fine launching site for the many of us in the park who had kayaks, or for the land based hopefuls casting a line.
Further north along Grey Street, past the 'northern IGA store', we come to the second of Kalbarri's large resort hotels, the Kalbarri Beach Resort. Whilst we had no need of the accommodation on offer, we did avail ourselves of another of this resort's services,
Jakes Restaurant, home to the Sunday night $20.00 (for seniors) buffet.
Two soups, a roast meat carvery, hot veggies, salads and a fine array of deserts, with as many return trips as one liked, all made this real value for money.
Cheerful service and reasonable wine for less $18.00 a bottle.....could we possibly be in WA? We were, and we were enjoying every moment of this. In fact, Jakes became our Sunday night destination on more than one occasion, along with many others from our park.
As I mentioned earlier, the shopping precincts in Kalbarri are located at the northern and southern ends of Grey Street. The northern group of shops provides real convenience for those resident in the Anchorage Caravan park just beyond it. We could have done without the road works which were on-going throughout our stay, but progress is progress.
the cray boat mooring pens
where one of the original fleet, currently under a refit, lies side by side
with its modern counterparts, the sleek 'Westcoaster' 60 footers of today's cray boat fleet.
And here we have a 'ring-in'....a deep sea 17 metre charter fishing boat which normally operates out of Jurien Bay....yours for a mere $2,000 plus per day.....a good time to have fishing mates...wealthy ones!
Whilst I was pottering around the fleet area, I did take the opportunity to snap what I considered to be an arch-typical Murchison River scene...tinnies, beaches, walkers and their dogs.
For those less fortunate than the members of the boat owning fraternity, Kalbarri does offer good land based fishing opportunities, some of which can be found along the riverside tracks to the north of the end of Grey Street.
Here good sized black bream and other species lurk over the rocky shelves and in the deeper channels of river.
I did not try my luck here. The sand spit near the small southern jetty was my hunting ground, where, after a chance encounter with a regular visitor to the area, I equipped myself with the right rigs and bait to land several large bream, and, best of all, two mangrove jacks.
Apart from the fact that 'jacks' put up one heck of a fight at the end of a line, they are amongst the most prized table fish in Australia. And these were my first, a species I did not expect to encounter this side of the tropical rivers of the north. Apparently the muddy waters of the Murchison which had resulted from the recent rains, provided just the environment the mangrove jacks prefer.
We did dine royally on fillets of fine fresh fish on at least two evenings. Whilst the bream was tasty, the jack was on its own. It is a genuinely delicious firm, white fleshed fish. This was what I had come to do in between all the sightseeing. As I have said before, Kalbarri did not disappoint in any regard.
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