Carnarvon

September 11 to September 18

We said last week that we planned to stay in Carnarvon for a few days, which stretched into 8 days. We decided to get our mail sent from home (thanks Russell and Steve) so we had some admin to catch up on. Leah also picked up a cold/flu so she had the opportunity to hibernate and get over it quickly.

Gascoyne River - There's water under there somewhere

The weather south of us is continuing to be cool and wet so that was another reason to stay for a week. When you stay in towns for a week or more (as we also have in Karratha, Broome and Darwin), you not only get to relax, but you become a little bit imbedded in the local area and get to know the services and people more intimately.

There are a few things that stand out about Carnarvon and its district. First is the Gascoyne River. Well known for delivering the water reserves to support the fruit and vegetable farming in the area. The area supplies up to 70% of the fresh produce for WA in winter. However the river is a dry bed (see photo), only flowing after heavy rains. It is an “upside down” river, with the water feeding into an underground aquafer reserve where it is protected from evaporation and is pumped as needed.

Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum

Carnarvon was also an important satellite communications centre from 1966 to 1987, playing a major part in many NASA projects including the Apollo moon missions, the Skylab Project, through to tracking Hailey’s Comet. The centre is now a museum with extensive displays, equipment, memorabilia and interactive installations.

The waters off Carnarvon is where the HMAS Sydney II was sunk in 1941 by the German ship Kormoran, killing 645 Australian Navy personnel. There will be a 75 year anniversary commemoration in November this year.

It is also windy! We had only one day when the southerlies didn’t blow 30-40km/h. Still we did plenty of walking and cycling around the beaches and river area.

We left Carnarvon on Sunday Sept 18 in the direction of Denham and Shark Bay/Monkey Mia.