Travels in Oz: Day 39 Exmouth to Onslow 7/4/11

7/4/11The drive to Onslow is very similar to the landscape around Exmouth with lots of termite nests. There are also landing strips on the road for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Most of the smaller towns don't have hospitals and some don't even have doctors. When we were in Denham there was a sign at the shops saying what date the doctor would be there and that appointments are necessary. Amazing what we take for granted. There isn't even a chemist. They fax their scripts to Exmouth and they are sent out in the next day or two.

We had to retrace our drive south from Exmouth until we got to the Manilya Roadhouse which is on the North West Coastal Highway and then headed north again.

Some amazing shapes in the Gooch Range

A shot of the countryside

We headed toward the coast to Onslow where we are spending the night.

Onslow is a small town with a population of 790. The town was originally located near the former mouth of the Ashburton River. It was abandoned in 1925 and moved to its present site at Beadon Bay. During WWII Onslow became an allied naval base and Japanese aircraft bombed the town in 1943. It has a thriving prawning and fishing industry as well as pearling and off shore oil exploration. A solar salt field has been constructed on tidal salt flats surrounding the town. A 3.5km conveyor belt transports the salt to the 1.3km jetty where it is loaded onto ships.

The salt mine

The Jetty with a ship at the end

The conveyor belt that takes the salt to the jetty

First impression was not the best, the supermarket was like Fort Knox and the caravan park looked a little unloved. However, we got a lovely shaded site and the amenties were clean with plenty of hot water.

Once we set up we had a drive around town to see the sights. We had some great views from a lookout and were also able to drive fairly close to the salt mine. We stopped at the Beadon Point Memorial Park where there are several monuments. One is to 7 crew members off two fishing vessels, the Lady Pamela and the Harmony, who lost their lives off the coast of Onslow during Cyclone Bobby on 24 & 25 February 1995. Another commemorates 50 years since the first British atomic testing on the Monte Bello Islands on 3 October 1952. Then when we got back we went for a walk along the beach and then took the boardwalk back to the caravan park. It goes through the sand dunes around Beadon Point to the picnic area at Sunset Beach. There is a seat in the middle where we sat and watched a big ship which had been loaded with salt being moved away from the jetty by two tugs. A very slow and painstaking process but it is incredible how much power the tugs have to move these very big ships.