North West of Western Australia

November 2nd, 2009 by Rob Phillips

From the 21st of June to the 12th of July 2009, Rita and I travelled to the north West of WA. I had never been past Kalbarri before, despite having visited most places on the East Coast of Australia. We went up the coast from Perth to Shark Bay to Exmouth to Karratha/Dampier, then cut inland to the Millstream and Karajini national parks, before coming home on the inland road via Newman. Check this out on the map.

Perth to Karratha

We were accompanied by ‘diddums’, a furry stuffed Kiwi which I got at the 2008 ascilite conference. The idea was to take him on your travels, and report back through a Flickr site prior to the 2009 conference in Orcland.

Rita took lots of photos, especially of the many plants and birds. The Gallery at the bottom of this post has tons of photos, but they aren’t in chronological order.

Here is the chronology of the nicest photos.

21 June, First overnight stop, 100 kms out of Perth at Oliver Bridge, then up the coast via Greenhead, Greenough and Geraldton.

Oliver Bridge on Brand Hwy

Crayfishing village of Greenhead

23-24 June. Time spent at Denham and Monkey Mia on Shark Bay. Early morning rainbow over the bay at Denham. Sand formations near Monkey Mia. Rita and diddums at the camp in Denham, and the landscape around Shark Bay.

Rainbow over Denham

Sand formations just inland from Monkey Mia

Camping at Denham

Eagle Bluff on Shark Bay

Our van at Goulet Bluff, Shark Bay

Moving further North. Sunset near Minilya Roadhouse and on the beach at Coral Bay with diddums.

Sunset from Minilya Roadhouse

At Coral Bay with diddums

29-30 June. Ningaloo (Cape Range) National Park. Relaxing at Mandu Mandu Gorge and at the camp at Yardie Homestead. Yardie Creek Gorge is pretty impressive. There is fossilised coral right next to the ferry.

Outside Mandu Mandu Gorge

Campsite at Yardie Homestead

Yardie Gorge. Figs. Airroots reach to just above the highwater mark, they don't like salt water.

Petrified Coral at Yardie Gorge

1 July. Still at Yardie Station. Rita got up early to go to the loo, and caught this sunrise, both direct, and through the window of the shearing shed.

Sunrise in the shearing shed window

Sunrise at Yardie Homestead

2 July. On the way North from Exmouth/Ningaloo we had a problem with the front suspension. Rita was still photographing flowers, and we passed some large rivers, including the Ashburton and Fortescue.

Troubles with the steering

More flowers!

Ashburton River at Nanutarra RH

Sturt Desert Pea

3 July. Karratha/Dampier. We visited the rock carvings the Burrup Peninsula – who knows what else has been lost under the huge processing plants being built. We met a friendly echidna, and then we visited my nephew Shaun in Dampier, and got the suspension problem fixed.

Echidna

4 July. We set off inland, first to Millstream National Park. Millstream is an area of permanent natural springs, with some great riverside camping spots, except you had to drive through the river to get to them.

Deflating the tyres from 46psi to 26, to better cope with the rough roads ahead, into the Millstream National Park.

Millstream near the Homestead

Crossing the Fortescue River

Reflections

Not one ripple!

Crossing the Fortescue

6 July. Tom Price and Karajini. After leaving Millstream, we had a choice. We could retrn to the coast and follow the bitumen roads for 600 kms to Port Headland and then back South towards Karajini – towards Newman. Or, we could follow the Rio Tinto railway line straight inland over 120kms of dirt road to Mt Tom Price and then Karajini National Park. We had different reports from people about how tough this was going to be. We decided to take the inland route, and the first three quarters were fine. We could drive at 60-80 kms/hr. However, when we got to the hillier areas, the road corrugations increased, and we had to drive slower and slower in our old Toyota – 20-30 kms/hr. Nevertheless, we got to Tom Price much quicker, and used less fuel, than if we’d gone the long way.

Three engines to help it up the hills

View of Mount Tom Price Opencut Mine from the top of Mount Nameless.

7-8 July. We drove from Tom Price to Karajine Natnal Park. We had to queue to secure a camping spot, but this was OK. We were to meet our friends Amanda and Rob, who were coming up from Newman to spend a day with us. The gorges were spectacular, but the dirt roads weren’t, with all the yuppie 4WDs hooning along and digging up corrugations. A dingo came visiting. Enjoy these photos!

Weano Gorge, Dingo walking along road.

Circular Pool, Dales Gorge

Dales Gorge, bird watching

The will to live. Dales Gorge

Near Fortescue Falls in Dales Gorge

Fern Pool

Here is a gallery of the good photos from this trip.

Photo Gallery

: Bull Hakea, Hakea chordophylla, on Burkett Rd.

: More flowers!

: Azure Kingfisher

: Old Machinery and Water Tower, Rail museum

: Safety Cable ???

: Fern

: At Coral Bay with diddums

: View of the the shark nursery, south

: View of the the shark nursery, north 2

: Mandu Mandu Gorge

: Rock Morning Glory, Ipomoea costata

: Cape Range Kurrajong

: Outside Mandu Mandu Gorge

: At the mangrove bird hide

: Echidna

: Australian Bustard, Bush Turkey

: Desert Heath Myrtle, Brachychiton gregoii ??

: Flannel Bush, Solanum lasiophyllum

: Yardie Gorge. Figs. Airroots reach to just above the highwater mark, they don’t like salt water.

: Black Footed Rock Wallaby

: Black Footed Rock Wallaby

: Corella

: Rock Fig

: Little Corellas.

: Black Footed Rock Wallabies

: Night Heron

: Sea Eagle’s neat nest on left, Osprey’s untidy nest at right edge of picture

: Black footed Rock Wallabies

: Petrified Coral at Yardie Gorge

: Petrified Coral

: Sunrise at Yardie Homestead

: Sunrise in the shearing shed window

: Sunrise in the shearing shed window

: We just missed the rain in Cue

: The local “Cop Shop” and Post Office in Cue

: Sturt Desert Pea

: Swansonia sp, (Dampier Pea ?)

: Sturt Desert Pea (Swansona formosa), Swansonia sp, Kapok Bush

: At Burrup Peninsula, Hearson Cove. Location of the famous Aboriginal Rock Art.

: Echidna

: Echidna

: Aboriginal Rock Art

: Aboriginal Rock Art

: Aboriginal Rock Art

: Aboriginal Rock Art

: Aboriginal Rock Art

: Creek running through the jumble of rocks with the rock art.

: Aboriginal Rock Art

: Aboriginal Rock Art

: Aboriginal Rock Art

: Aboriginal Rock Art

: Sturt Desert Pea, Swainsona formosa, Black form

: Sturt Desert Pea, brown form

: Acacia acradenia

: Sticky Caesia, Senna glutinosa

: Dampier causeway, salt ponds

: Dampier causeway, salt ponds

: Rainbow over Denham

: Camping at Denham

: Eagle Bluff on Shark Bay

: Troubles with the steering

: Our van at Goulet Bluff, Shark Bay

: All hands on deck to see if we can get this rig out of the mud. It was lucky to stay upright as it came off the road in the bend.

: Be prepared to meet all sorts of transports on these ozzie roads

: Be prepared to meet all sorts of transports on these ozzie roads

: At the Benedictine Monastery in New Norcia.

: The next hold up. Waiting for the monster to emerge over the hill.

: Here it is! No room to pass this baby! The prime mover of the second transport got hit by an oncoming truck, so the prime mover of the first transport, parked on right of screen, had to go back down the hill to bring #2 up the hill to the parking bay, to get it off the road till it’s prime mover can get fixed; the crew will be camping overnight.