A VERY SAD DAY (14 JULY 2014)

This will be brief.  Late this afternoon I received the rotten news from my sister Helen that Mum had finally given up her long struggle with declining health. I fly back to Adelaide on Wednesday for the funeral, with plans to return to Carnarvon in a week's time. 

By sheer coincidence, Stu will be in Adelaide for that same week so at least I shall have the pleasure of seeing both the boys again.

Liz will continue with her job here at the park. I am comforted by the knowledge that she is surrounded by any number of friends and work colleagues here who will be able to support her in the most unlikely event of any drama.

I mention all this because obviously the Marshie missives will be absent from your screens for a while. When I return we shall see just what Carnarvon is all about.

Vale Mum....you will indeed be missed.

NORTH-WEST CAPE 3 - EXMOUTH CARAVAN PARK AND A FAREWELL SUPPER (21 -22 JUNE 2014)

After three nights at Yardie Homestead, we moved into town, Exmouth that is, for a final two night stay with our travelling companions of two months, the Vogts. They were heading north from here, whilst we were returning to Carnarvon.

Liz and I have decided that we shall return for a longer stay in Exmouth, a town we found really appealing, on our way north next year.  Consequently I have not 'happy snapped' my way around this area, nor visited the various places of local interest.

But I did wander around the very well established and maintained caravan park in which we stayed. The Ningaloo Caravan Holiday Resort is just that, a real 'resort' park, the entrance to which is off the main road through Exmouth

immediately opposite the Tourist Information centre and 'The Big Prawn', which I was tickled to read is removed and placed into storage at the slightest threat of a cyclone!

The park office building also houses a number of shops and tour centres. In its only similarity to Coral Bay, Exmouth does play host to many different Ningaloo Reef tour operators. And if not touring, one can have a massage or a hair do without having to leave the park. 

When I said a 'resort' park, I meant it. Opposite the park office is the on-site restaurant, and behind this,

one of the best park swimming pools we have come across. This is actually long enough for a decent splash and even comes complete with its own poolside bar area where the less athletically inclined can enjoy a cool glass or two as others frolic.

Backpackers are accommodated in the nearby dormitory block

and their cooking needs are more than adequately met in this fine camp kitchen, one of two in this huge park.

For us it was off down the main park entrance roadway, past a row of cabins and fine grassy sites

to the far end, where, as the sign proclaimed,

we were to be accommodated in the 'Dog Park' (well Max sometimes pretends he's a dog!)

Here our site presented a slight challenge (there is a large tree out of shot on the left), but with the accumulated skills of many months on the road, we were soon settled.

And with the Vogts parked at right angles to us, we had a fine area in which to socialise for our last days together, but more of that shortly.

As I said earlier, this is a huge park. With over 300 sites it is one of the largest in which we have stayed.  Grassy camp

and caravan sites 

cater for large and small alike.

Near our patch, the permanent sites provided us with a reminder of two things local....cyclones and fishing.

Whilst it does not show out in this photo, the van next to the huge boat is chained down to large cement foundations.

We did not make use of the park restaurant during our stay, despite the fact they advertise one of my favourite meals, smoked ribs. Next time! But we did make the most of our site set-up.

The Beer Garden was duly formalised

and we made full use of it, by day

and by night, in this case, our last night. We had decided to celebrate with a seafood feast. Chef Pierre was brought out of storage. After an cold entree of local tiger prawns it was onto the next course, grilled red emperor, here sizzling away on the BBQ plate.

This was followed by a fried selection, in Panka lemon crumbs....Kalbarri bream and banana prawns. With Rhonda's celebrated coleslaw and other assorted accompaniments, we really did eat well.

And, of course, we drank equally well. The top finally came off the bottle of bubbles I had bought at the Manjamup truffle farm many months previously (we had been saving this for a special occasion...$30 and bloody good drop) and several more modest examples of the same wine. We did save one with which to anoint the desert strawberry sorbet and berries.

What a way in which to end our two months together. It was only long after the event I was prepared to admit that by now the bugs within my system were so rampant that I could hardly taste anything, but I did enjoy the occasion!

Safe travelling, Rhonda, John and of course, Bob the Dog, who we all think knew that he was about to farewell his travelling companion, The Black Panther. He sat with his back to us all night peering into the doorway of Max's home waiting for one last glimpse.

After a somewhat heart wrenching farewell the following morning, it was back to Carnarvon for us.....and you know the rest!

NORTH-WEST CAPE 2 - VLAMINGH HEAD - A WRECK, A LIGHTHOUSE AND A RADIO SHACK! (18 JUNE 2014)

I was determined to get out and about, notwithstanding the malaise brewing in the lower regions of my lungs. If there is one thing worse than feeling crook on the road it is sitting around dwelling on it. A sortie to the lighthouse at Vlamingh Head was just the shot. And what an interesting place it proved to be.

This feature of the North-West Cape takes its rather odd sounding name from Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh, a Dutch sea captain in the employ of the Dutch East India Company who, like many of his contemporaries, charted a goodly section of the west coast of Australia, almost as an incidental activity, en route from Holland to the Dutch East Indies.  As a brief aside, Vlamingh and his crew are believed to the be the first Europeans to have entered the Swan River on 10 January 1697. A realisation of just how many Dutch seafarers (apart from the more famous and infamous) were involved in the early charting and exploration of this coast has been something of a surprise to me.  And of equal surprise has been the discovery of how many of them failed to make the necessary turn to port at the right time and met the Continent with a resounding and voyage ending thud! As another quick aside, I was interested to learn that the coast of Western Australia has claimed over 1,400 ships since the Dutch began exploiting the wealth of the East Indies in the 17th Century.

It could be said that the Vlamingh Head lighthouse, high on the hilltop overlooking both sides of the tip of the North-West Cape, came into existence literally by accident....another shipwreck.

In 1906, the still new Federal Government announced its intention to take over the management of all Australia's lighthouses.  The Western Australian government of the day apparently rubbed its hands with glee. Let me quote directly from the words of a plaque near the lighthouse when referring to the reaction of those in power in the West......."[the] penny-pinching State Government scrambled to build more [lighthouses] before this happened".

But even this was not enough to secure the Vlamingh Head light. This location had not been considered a priority until the very night before the final decision was taken as to those spots on the coast which were to  benefit from the construction of a lighthouse. Then fate stepped in in the form of the SS Mildura, a steel hulled cattle transport ship of 2,217 tons.

In early March 1907, the Mildura, under the command of Captain Charles Thorpe, set sail from Wyndham with a cargo of 498 cattle bound for Fremantle. Four days later, on 12 March 1907,  in the face of a developing cyclone, the skipper made a serious miscalculation of course and position with unfortunate results for the ship and the cattle. Mildura struck the reef off Vlamingh Head, and although limited damage resulted and all the crew were later safely taken on board the SS Burrumbeet, the cattle drowned when set free to swim to shore. 

Much of the ship was later salvaged, but the hull was left on the rocks, where, during WW2 it was used as a target for bombing practice. Understandably there is now little left of her. 

As for the skipper, again let me quote from a plaque near the lighthouse. "The outcome for the ship's Captain was not so positive - despite (or perhaps because of!) having safely passed the Cape on 68 other occasions, he was found guilty of neglect and his Master's Certificate was suspended for three months!"  I have to say I would be more than happy to have a beer with the person responsible for the wording of these plaques. I suspect we share the same sense of humour.

Whilst poor old Captain Thorpe may have spent three months 'on the beach' (a mere slap on the wrist in the scheme of things), his personal misfortune was to be of great subsequent benefit to his fellow Masters. The fate of the Mildura prompted an immediate call for Vlamingh Head to be included on the list of locations for the construction of a lighthouse. And so it was, with the first kerosene powered beam (now electric) piercing the night at the tip of the Cape on 10 December 1912.

Apart from the practice bombing runs over the hulk of Mildura, the North-West Cape was the location of other significant activity during the Second World War. In 1942, at the height of the Japanese expansion into the south-west Pacific, the good citizens of WA were becoming increasingly concerned about their futures. This is not entirely surprising seeing that they were the closer to the advancing foe than those on the east coast, where large numbers of troops were stationed and defences had already been established.

In response, the 2nd and 4th Infantry Divisions of the 3rd Australian Army Corps and the 1st Armoured Division were sent to WA for the defence of Perth and the northern regions of the state. Those defences included the establishment of joint RAAF, AMF and US Navy facilities on North-West Cape. RAAF Learmonth was born, and remains an operational base to this day. The Yanks built a submarine base on the eastern side of the Cape which they maintained until the Japanese threat was reduced. Code named 'Operation Potshot', this base played an important part in one of the most daring exploits of the war....the Z Force commando raid on Japanese shipping lying in Singapore harbour.

The 14 commandos involved in 'Operation Jaywick' embarked on a 70 ft Japanese fishing vessel which had been previously used by an Australian, Bill Reynolds, to evacuate civilians from Singapore. The 'Kofuku Maru' was renamed the 'Krait', after the small but deadly Asian snake. The raiding party, maintaining a disguise as Asian fishermen, sailed first from Thursday Island to the Exmouth Gulf where the 'Krait' was refuelled and repaired at the US naval base.

This extraordinary group of Brits and Australians then sailed north to within 50 kms of Singapore. From there, on 26 September 1943, a number of them paddled collapsible canoes into the Singapore harbour and planted the limpet mines which subsequently sank seven ships. They all returned to Australia unharmed, but sadly, some of their number were killed in a later, similar operation which did not end well.

In one of those odd quirks of war, despite the utter daring and success of this raid, the consequences were tragic. The Japanese could not conceive that this raid could have been carried out from Australia.  They were convinced the explosions had been the work of local saboteurs. Fifty seven Chinese, Malay, POW's, and European civilian suspects were rounded up by the notoriously barbaric Japanese military police. Torture and executions followed. The Australian authorities did not acknowledge the raid because of plans to carry out similar incursions, but as a result of the Japanese reactions, these plans were shelved.



But back to Vlamingh Head, where a radar station and anti-aircraft guns were mounted to provide a forward defence for the naval base during WW2. The guns were removed at the end of hostilities, and the radar head was destroyed by a cyclone, but these original sandbags are a reminder of the defences.  

From the vantage point of the hilltop, we were able to look out to the north-east, across the nearby Lighthouse Caravan Park to, in the far distance, the towers of the Naval Communications Base. These are the most wickedly difficult things to actually capture on film. You will just have to accept my word for it that we could see them from here.

So here is a better (but still not great) view of this incredible 'radio shack', the most powerful radio transmitter in the Southern hemisphere.

What's its story?  In 1963, in response to the need to maintain communications with their Polaris submarines in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans, the US negotiated with the Australian Government to built this Very Low Frequency communications base on the North-West Cape.

VLF transmissions have two unique features.  Firstly they follow the curvature of the earth and can therefore travel enormous distances. The second critical feature from the perspective of submarine communications is that they can be received up to twenty metres below the surface of the sea.




These transmissions require incredible power, a million watts of it. The actual messages emanate from 'Tower Zero', the 389 metres high, central tower, around which twelve other towers support a web of antennae, as depicted in this diagram taken from the Net.




Tower Zero is supported by a concrete foundation which extends to a depth of 17 metres.  Also beneath the ground on this 400 hectare site, is a buried array of copper wire, 417 kilometres of it! All 13 of the towers, which are the highest structures in the Southern hemisphere, have been designed and constructed to withstand winds of up to 500 kph.  This was put to the test in April 1999, when Cyclone Vance slammed into the North-West Cape bringing with it a gust of 276 kph, the highest recorded wind speed in Australia's history. The towers survived when much of Exmouth, the town built specifically to support the base, did not.

Initially, the base, named after Prime Minister Harold Holt, was staffed entirely by American service personnel.  In 1974 the Whitlam government renegotiated the relevant treaty. 'US' was dropped from the title of the base, and it was then 'officially' a joint facility, although one wag at the time noted that, "In the Communications Centre the only thing the Americans and the Australians shared was the coffee pot".

As the US Polaris strike submarines were phased out and replaced by the Ohio class boats, communications with this fleet were centred more in stations in the USA, but the facility on North-West Cape, which, by 1999 had become entirely Australian managed, still plays an important role.  
I found it quite eerie to drive past this base and think that chaps sitting somewhere within its perimeter are communicating with submariners thousands of kilometres away. As I said before, this is some 'radio shack'.

CARNARVON - NORTH WEST CAPE - YARDIE HOMESTEAD (17-19 JUNE 2014)

And so it was that we turned our back for the time being on the hub-bub and commercialism of Coral Bay and continued to make our way north up the Cape.  

The spine of the North-West Cape,Cape Range, was looming on the far horizon, 

as were the termite mounds, on a much closer skyline.

We began to drive past long sand hills ridges, the sand barely visible beneath the thick cover of low scrub,







until we reached and passed the RAAF Base Learmonth, the town of Exmouth itself, the Naval Station, and the towering aerials of the US Navy Very Low Frequency radio base, the point from which communications are maintained with submarines hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres away as they steal about under the waves carrying out their clandestine work.

I can actually remember when this mysterious North-West Cape communications centre was mooted and confirmed in 1963. All very spooky stuff, and the cause of much scare-mongering at the time. Like the facilities at Pine Gap, this was predicted to make Australia the target of all types of destructive nonsense.  'Nonsense' was the word indeed but more of this incredible facility later.





For now, we had turned the corner at the tip of the Cape and were now about to head south past the Vlamingh Head lighthouse 












and on down the western side of the Cape, where the white water wash over the Ningaloo Reef is never far away. 











Nor are the ubiquitous termite mounds, less frequent along this road, but with a few still maintaining a presence.

Yardie Homestead was in sight, nestled amongst the trees at the base of the western side of Cape Range. 

All that now remained was to negotiate the left hand corner at the sign posted junction

and continue on into the park along what was for all the world like a FNQ 'Development Road', a single lane of bitumen on which passing another vehicle demands the exercise of common sense and a reduction in speed as both vehicles move partially off onto the dirt verge.

And here we were at last, Yardie Homestead. What will this outpost on the Cape present the weary traveller?

Hmmmm, some folk must carry some bloody big rods....the last time we saw one of these warnings was at the Caloundra boat ramp on Golden Beach where the reference to possible power line strike related to yacht masts!










The entrance road took us past some of the more up-market park cabins,

the very presentable modern station homestead













and the tennis courts, which have seen better days,











until we reached the park office and fuel station.









Yardie Homestead is nothing if not self-contained. Behind the office and bowsers, across this most welcome patch of lawn, the park pool offers solace for the over heated, and the restaurant immediately behind it, succour for the famished. Here the menu was well balanced and the prices surprising reasonable by WA standards (what am I going to have to grizzle about when we leave this state?) given the captive nature of the potential dining audience!








And for those with the desire to self cater but do not have the where-with-all, the camp kitchen at Yardie is large and well equipped,







as is the fish cleaning station, as one would expect given the welcoming sign at the entrance...'the Home of Serious Fishermen'. Behind this venue of scaling, filleting and bragging, the well grassed tent ground was occupied by a couple of domes of canvass. By nightfall, this area was alive with backpackers.

After booking in, we meandered our way down the dirt roadway 














 past the 'second class' cabins

and the ablution block














before turning into our row














and dropping anchor on our allotted site, which was right at the far end of it.







The sites are Yardie Homestead are not green. Anything but. Many do have quite adequate shade, and, as ours did, many have cement slabs. Despite the understandably dry and dusty nature of the van sites themselves at a place such as this where water is at a premium, Yardie does have a number of very well grassed areas where those yearning for a touch of green can seek some respite.  

This is a place where its occupants can be divided into two quite distinct groups....those like us who are transient tourists, here for a few days to take in the sights of the western coast of the Cape and the Ningaloo, and those who camp here for three months or more and fish and fish and fish.






The regulars set up all manner of camp sites ranging from quite small and neat









to the 'Taj Mahal' of the park. Believe it or not, there is a caravan in the middle of all this canvas and hessian. And do note the aerials....Yardie has one major drawback...it is an electronic dead spot. Mobile phone reception can be obtained in a small area near the camp kitchen, a place where one can learn all about everyone's business if prepared to sit for a while!







This is also a park for boats...again of all shapes and sizes. They range from tinnies to whoppers like this unit.










And here is a bloke who has his priorities in order.  Big boat, solid truck and tiny tent. No guessing why he is here.








From what we saw in our three nights at Yardie, they certainly do catch fish here. The waters both inside and beyond the Ningaloo are teaming with many highly prized table fish, ranging from the inshore whiting and bream to offshore demersal and pelagic species.  Tuna, Spanish and 'doggie' mackerel, cobia, dhufish, trevally, red and pink snapper, emperor and cod all find their way to the cleaning station, where, as I mentioned before, notes are swapped (or not, if a particularly good new ground has been discovered) and yarns spun as the scales come off and the fillets are cut and stored. I wandered past on a few occasions, but did not tarry....I was wearing my envy too obviously on my sleeve.

Despite being highly tempted to break out the rods and spend some time on one of the many beach fishing locations on this side of the Cape, the bug which finally laid me low was beginning to bite whilst we were here.  I put myself on 'light duties' and confined activity to sight-seeing only.

Even that was limited, given what is on offer within striking distance of Yardie Homestead. The western side of North-West Cape is a nirvana for those seeking white sands, crystal clear and calm inshore waters and the colour and movement of the reef fish of the Ningaloo.  Turquiose Bay, Oyster Stacks, Sandy Bay, Osprey Bay all lie along the coast within 50 kms of Yardie and all have something different to offer. We do plan a return visit next year.

Next, we explore the Vlamingh Head lighthouse and discover its interesting origins, visit the wreck which prompted its construction, and learn about the VLF radio base and the genesis of Exmouth.