Day 33 Carnarvon - 1/4/11

Today we had a look around Carnarvon.  First stop was the Heritage Precinct which included the restored lighthouse keeper's cottage, the Precinct Railway Station and the One Mile Jetty.  There was one of the lifeboats from the Kormoran which was in the battle and demise of the HMAS Sydney. Unfortunately it seems that the tourist season doesn't start till May in Carvarvon so a lot of the touristy things weren't operating.

Information on the Lighthouse 

The top of the old lighthouse

The story of the Kormoron

The Kormoron Lifeboat

One mile jetty

Carvarvon isn't right on the beach but it is only a short drive to get there.  There is a new housing area which has canals and there are some nice picnic areas nearby.  There is the Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre - Gwoonwardu Mia which is worth a visit.  You can meet local Aboriginal people, purchase artworks and taste some bush tucker in the cafe.  Over the road from Gwoonwardu Mia is a line of trees that have been seriously affected by the wind!

One of the beaches at Carnarvon 

Do you think it is a bit windy here?

We also took a drive around the plantations that grow fruit and vegetables.  It was interesting to see all of them had really high shadecloth screens to cut the wind, dust and hail.  The table grapevines were totally enclosed in these screens.  You could see the damage from the floods as a lot of the screens had been damaged and there was still lots of water in the low lying areas.  We bought some bananas from one of the plantations.  The grasshoppers are really causing having by eating the leaves of the banana plants.  They look like they have been stripped in a cyclone but it is the grasshopper damage.  They are also eating some of the fruits.  We also called in to the Bumbak plantation as they have a shop where they sell jams, preserves, ice creams etc all made from what they grow.  We bought a bottle of extra hot sweet chilli sauce (for a gift), some frozen mango (unfortunately they are out of season now) which was just sliced mango with no additives.  It was yum!  We also bought an icecream each - I went for the sugar free mango and Peter had a strawberry ice-cream which was delicious. 

We then went to see the "dish" which is the former Satellite Earth Station, no longer used, but you can climb it.  Unfortunately it was closed for repairs so we could only look at it through the gate.

We refuelled here and diesel was 164 cents per litre.
Tomorrow we are heading off to Coral Bay.

cheers
Pete and Roz