May 9th, 2006 02:05pm
admin
We arrived in Ceduna S.Aust. after a good trip accross the Nullabor early in
February. The fishing is amazing and you do not have to go too far to be in
the action. Little tinnies are everywhere!! Ceduna is a small town with
most amenities and the four caravan parks are centrally situated.
We had a lot of fun with the fishing and getting our bait. Very new to us
was the retrieval of the razor fish at low tide for bait. You can wade in
the water to pull them off the bottom of the bay or use a pair of specially
designed to drag them up and into the boat. Gloves are required when
handling the razor fish which are really a big shall in the shape of an
angel wing with a mussel inside and very sharp edges on the shell. Th mussel
is like a scallop - a little thicker through.
The King George Whiting just love the razor fish. 12 fish are allowed per
person perday and with the fish frames you can go crabbing.
Blue Swimmer Crabs are very plentiful in the months of February to April and
are caught in dillies either from boats or the wharfs and jetties in the
area.
Three pots per person are allowed and it is not difficult to catch 20 crabs
in a couple of hours. One of the jetties at Denial Bay, which is
historically one of the early settlements in the area is very popular for
fishing and crabbing.
Thevenard wharf is also a good crabbing spot. The port of Thevenard is used
for loading grain and gypsum on to large tankers for export. This part of
South Australia is a large grain growing area and while we were at Ceduna
there was a mouse plague affecting many people.
The bay has King George Whiting, Squid , Razor fish and oysters in
abundance. There are several big oyster leases which supply many businesses
in the surrounding areas with lovely fresh product.
We left Ceduna after nearly 3 months of great fishing and stopped at Port
Augusta, Broken Hill and Nyngan on our way to Tamworth
At Broken Hill we enjoyed a visit to Pro Hart’s gallery which was really
worth the visit. We weren’t able to take any photos unfortunately, but
understandably so.
After a couple of days in the silver city we had a slow trip to Nyngan and
Tamworth due to the poor condition of the roads (main highway) it was very
rough and quite dangerous we thought.
We are spending a few days in Tamworth, the Country Music Centre, even
though the temperature is O degrees in the mornings and then on to Brooms
Head on the coast to fish for snapper, where we hope it will be a bit
warmer. Cheers until our next update.
Photos
February 20th, 2006 02:08pm
admin
Hello Everyone,
The Shark Bay area is just a paradise when it is not windy and cold. We
spent about 10 days at Denham trying to get out fishing to one of the west
coast’s renoun fishing areas, but unfortunately after several attempts -
even on the Monkey Mia side of the Ithmus it was far too windy and very
cold. We stayed and explored the area for 10 days and moved onto Kalbarri
for Christmas and New Year which we had hoped to spend at Denham.
Kalbarri is a lovely little seaside village with a beautiful blue bay with
white sand. We spent a day at Rainbow Jungle at Kalbarri which is a lovely
bird park and well worth a visit. They have some of the really rare parrots
and cockatoos as well as dozens of other species - really very beautiful
colours. In the open aviary the birds are flying around hiding in the trees.
>From Kalbarri we moved to Geraldton which is one of the major towns on the
west coast and home to the very lucrative lobster industry and fishing port.
We took a tour of the lobster co-operative which was very interesting. The
tour guide explained how the lobster was handled from being caught to the
way the lobster is exported alive in sawdust. Asia is the biggest market for
lobster - it is a multi million dollar industry - most fisherman have
invested about 5 million dollars for their boat and lobster pot liciences
alone. Lobster pot liciences cost $1000.000 per year and most boats have
about 100-120 lobster pot liciences. During the season the Co-op factory has
about $4 million of live lobsters in tanks every day. Premium large lobster
live can sell for $200 in Asia..
The Geraldton Museum is a very informative place to visit. The early history
of all the explorers arriving on the coast- many were shipwrecked and left
many artefacts behind. We enjoyed our stay in Geraldton.
After a week in Geraldton we drove to Perth through the Swan Valley with all
it’s wineries and pleasant scenery. Perth is a very pretty city built on the
banks of the Swan River- similar to Brisbane. We had a couple of wet days in
Perth - we had forgotten what rain looked like as it had been months since
we had seen any. Any excuse for some retail therapy - Wow! A Myer
store!!!!Yes finally the big smoke! one day we took the bus to Freemantle
for a look around that area.
After 10 days at a very well appointed caravan park (Perth International)
Forrestfield we left for the south. We stayed with some friends who live on
a farm at Boyup Brook for a couple of days. It was very cold with the open
fire going most evenings,(mid January!!!!!) but we had a lovely time
catching up with Margaret and Hedley in country W.A.
After leaving the farm we headed for Augusta where the Southern Ocean and
Indian Ocean meet in the very south through some very hilly country, very
pretty timbered covered .Cape Leewin Lighthouse right on the extreme south
west point of Australia is dedicated to the world’s mariners. The lighthouse
was proposed in 1881 but did not come into service until 15 years later.The
lighthouse is built of local stone with foundations going down 6.71 metres.
As you would expect the sea was very rough and the wind nearly blew us away.
Those early mariners were very brave. Augusta is along side a beautiful
estuary which is a fishing haven when the weather is good. From Augusta we
spent a day visiting the Margaret River which was grapevine heaven. It
reminded us of Maleny in Q’ld- very picturesque and green. It is a famous
wine making area - the town is very trendy with coffee shops, etc
everywhere.
Moving on to Albany through some spectacular scerery - very tall jarrah
trees and grape growing areas. Albany is the oldest town in W.A. and it is
the last whaling station closed in Australia. On the site there is a place
called Whale World which exhibits whale skeletons and shows videos of the
early whaling industry. All the southern towns in W.A. are very pretty and
very green. The area is very hilly and has some superb views, Robin
remembered some of the town from visits during his days as a merhant navy
officer in the early 60’s !!
Esperance was windy and cold but really if the weather had been kind, what a
difference it would have made.It is a seaside holiday spot for the people of
Perth to get away from the heat. We did not experience any heat at all. Some
of the local beaches have been voted the best beaches in Australia and they
really are lovely. The town is very pretty - wide streets with beautiful
Norfolk Island pines down the main street. Esperance has most services and
several banks.
We met up with some people we had met in Darwin and keep in contact with and
decided to travel the Nullabor together.
We left Esperance early one morning on the three day trip cross the Nullabor
plains and fuelled up at every service station after hearing some stories
about the fuel being scarce on occassions. The first night we spent at
Balladonia caravan park - very basic, but power was available then onto
Eucla and the next night on to Nundroo. Most of the service stations have an
area where weary travellers can stop for the night. We enjoyed our trip as
we had company on our overnight stops. The Nullabor was very green and far
from treeless. Apparently there had been rain before we arrived and the
countryside looked great. Arrid and treeless - not at all - we were very
impressed. We also stopped at a spectacular view of the Great Australian
Bight from the cliffs overlooking the southern ocean, this was the highlite
otherwise it was a long and boring ( mostly straight ) road.
We passed through the checkpoint on the road just before we reached the town
of Ceduna. No fruit or vegetables can be brought in from W.A. Settled into
our caravan park site in Ceduna ready to hit the fishing spots and we will
tell more about it in a while.
Cheers.
Photos
November 15th, 2005 02:02pm
admin
Hello everyone, we are now on our way to Denham and will stay there until early January. On the way down the coast we have been experiencing a lot of wind but we have managed some fishing and we have visited some interesting places.
PT. HEDLAND A very interesting iron ore mining and big port facility. The whole town is covered in millionaires dust from the iron ore mining. Salt mining is a big industry also. We had good fishing on the harbour watching all the big bulk carrier ships coming in to port to be loaded for export, while several other big ships waited off shore for their turn to be loaded. Some of the iron ore trains that run from the mines inland to the port are very very long, in fact the world record for a long train was established here it had 682 ore cars, 8 engines, payload 82,262 tonnes of are and a total weight of 99,732 tonnes, it was 7.35 km long !! A new the business, shopping and housing area has been established at South Hedland away from the dusty port, and the B.H.P. facility . There are several housing estates in the South Hedland area and a couple of caravan parks. We stayed at Black Rock which was good but sites were small for boaties like us.
POINT SAMSON Very pretty small fishing village with great boat ramps and a fleet of trawlers. W.A. looks after it’s boating fraternity extremely well. There is a small caravan park and a very large one being built at the moment, so it should be a great stop for the fisher people in the future.
COSSACK A very small historical place- it was once a port for the area but later moved to Point Samson, and was the first port for the pastoralist in W.A. It was also the first pearling port in Western Australia in the 19th century .There are a few remants of old heritage buildings and talk of Cossack being brought to life for the tourists - selling blocks of land and developing the whole area in the future. There is a good boat ramp and access to the open sea if the weather is good.
KARRATHA Driving into Karratha looks like a great red rocky area until you go over the last hill and you can sea the blue sea. The rocks are right in the town which is quite big for a country town. There are good facilities and several caravan parks. The area has several industries - iron ore, salt mining, and the big gas plant off shore. The housing situation is very scarce as the wages are so high and everyone wants to live there- if only for a short time to make their fortune. Rents were very high so many people opt to live in the caravan parks during their stay in the town. As well as the abundance of work it is a great fishing place.
DAMPIER The town of Dampier is only 30km up the road from Karratha and has a big harbour/port for all the bulk LPG tankers and ore carriers. Surrounded by little islands it is a great place to try for a fish. We ventured out on several occassions- it was very windy at times which is not good for tinnies. We caught a big 10 to 12ft long shark at one point and cut the line very quickly when we saw what it was.
ONSLOW We stayed at Onslow for a couple of nights and enjoyed the sleepy little place. The spinifex termite mounds were very facinating and are everywhere. Some of them are very old and quite large. It is a dry place but the termites burrow down many meters to find water to make their homes.
CORAL BAY The town is full of backpackers due to the lovely coral reefs and diving and snorkelling. The bay is a beautiful blue/green colour - the town is very small and ther is a water problem, Caravanners and campers cannot connect to the water supply which is bore water and not suitanble for drinking. Drinking water is in very short supply There are a couple of caravan parks and large backpackers accomodation- a small supermarket and lots of white sand.
CARNARVON Carnarvon was a moon exploration tracking site during the moon exploration space shots. A large jetty was built in 1897 to export wool and livestock, but is now only a tourist attraction. They have a tourist train running out to the end of the jetty. Carnarvon is now a significant fishing port and a market garden area. The Gascoyne River runs along side the town, but like a lot of rivers in Australia it only flows during heavy rain. The rest of the year it flows several metres below the river bed. Carnarvon has an ideal climate - not too hot or cold, but it is very windy . The trees are all leaning away from the prevailing wind on real angle.
Photos
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