WESTERN AUSTRALIA Stirling National Park to Eucla 29 September - 3 October

Monday 29 September STIRLING RANGE NATIONAL PARK
Quote from WA Dept of Parks and Wildlife:
Stirling Range National Park encloses the only major mountain range within the southern half of Western Australia. The rugged peaks, which rise to more than 1000 metres above sea level, feature stark cliff faces, sheltered gullies, magnificent views and a rich diversity of unique and colourful wildflowers.  The park is one of the world’s most important areas for flora with 1500 species, many of which grow nowhere else, packed within its boundaries.

Good weather -  20°, clear, fine (rained overnight).  Many plantation trees in the area courtesy of  Timbercorp.

Mt Hassell

Beaufortia schaueri

Boronia

Conospermum coerulescens subsp dorrienii

Beaufortia decussata

Darwinia leijostyla  Mountain bell

Drosera

Eucalyptus

Lambertia ericifolia

Petrophile longifolia

 Sphenotoma dracophylloides

Templetonia retusa Cocky's tongue

Racehorse goanna

wood duck ? goshawk whistling kite common bronzewing Port Lincoln ringneck laughing kookaburra house swift

Australian pipit scarlet robin golden whistler willie wagtail grey fantail inland thornbill

red wattlebird New Holland honeyeater Western spinebill grey currawong magpie raven

Tuesday 30 September ESPERANCE

Left Porongurup around 8am, very early for us.  Planned to get to Ravensthorpe, 273km away, but had the time and inclination so passed through and reached Esperance by 3:30.  En route, we stopped off at Ongerup, attracted by signs about mallee fowl and wildflowers.  The wildflower display was at a community venue and consisted of cut flowers with labels. Although many of the flowers were looking weary, it was still an interesting display and helpful for identifying some we had photographed elsewhere.

Plants – Lechenaultia formosa, Pimelea sulphurea, Eucalyptus presissiana yellow, Lambertia inermis, Acacia binata Mt T.  Synaphea petiolaris yellow spray Isopogon formosus, Petrophile longifolia, Drosera menziesii.

 The town was very neat and had a good little museum.  We used the internet there.

The Top Tourist CP at E. is very good with a special area for camper-trailers - all grass or pegged down shadecloth.  A big park, it is dotted with amenity blocks and we were opposite one, almost like having your own ensuite.

Wednesday 1 October  ESPERANCE

Lovely fine day so booked ourselves on a half day cruise to Woody Island on Mackenzie's MV Sea Breeze 11.  The Mackenzie clan is headed by Don, 93 yo, who started as a sheep farmer, ferrying sheep across to Woody Is because the soil had trace elements lacking in the mainland soil.  When the island became a nature reserve, he applied for a small area to run as a tourist resort.   Since 1998 his family's interests have extended to running the tourist company, a diesel catamaran ferry, 2 tugboats, the pilot boat, visitor centre and camping ground at Woody Island.

We were given info about Esperance as a port on the way out.  One wharf is for loading grain; another for BHP nickel from a project near Ravensthorpe started 18 months ago; a third is for iron ore.  To enable the nickel transportation, the harbour channel was deepened to 19m for Cape class ships, making it the deepest harbour on the southern shore of Australia.

The ferry stopped at several rocky islands or mainland points to check out the local wildlife.  We saw 2 sea lions, 6 NZ fur seals, Cape Barren geese (a family of 5 and later a pair).  The captain identified dark sea birds for me - fleshfooted shearwaters.  I also saw black-faced cormorants, similar to Little Pied but bigger with black beaks.

After morning tea on Woody Island, most of the 90 passengers followed Don's grand-daughter up a steep path to the top of the island.  There she gave a talk on the history of the island and her family.  I tried bird-watching but only saw silvereyes, NH honeyeaters and welcome swallows.

Can you find the lizard?

Looking back to Esperance

Back at the harbour, a guy in wetsuit was swimming with a sea lion as we disembarked, very entertaining especially for the kids (school holidays).

Sea lion and man having fun

Wetland snails

Wetlands on Woody Island

Large fungus

Jetty on Woody Island

In the afternoon, we drove to Kepwari wetlands, a Ramsar site, and I walked the 3.2km one way track/boardwalk.  David nobly cut short his walk to get the car to the other end, thus missing the best sights - m and f blue-billed ducks, yellow spoonbills at nests and a big rookery of straw-necked ibis.  I was pleased to see plenty of Little wattlebirds for the first time since living in Melbourne.

Cape Barren goose flesh-footed shearwater black-faced cormorant straw-necked ibis yellow spoonbill white-faced heron Eurasian coot blue-billed duck

silver gull Pacific gull white-breasted sea eagle feral pigeon common bronzewing grey fantail willie wagtail welcome swallow

little wattlebird yellow-throated miner New Holland honeyeater magpie-lark magpie raven silvereye

 

Thursday 2 October  CAIGUNA

David drove 569 km today from Esperance to Caiguna and without complaint!!  He never had the sun in a bad position for driving and we had a tail wind part of the time, but the lack of interest in any destination spurred us along.  We intended to camp at Fraser Range, 300km away but arrived there around lunchtime and could not imagine what we'd do for the rest of the day.  60km west of Esperance  So on to Balladonia, where David was tempted to stay, but it was only 2pm ...

So what's it like, driving through the Nullabor and ending after the longest straight stretch in Australia (90 miles or 146.6 km) at Caiguna? Not as boring as I expected, but when you can see clearly in all directions, there is no temptation to walk anywhere.  We did like the gimlet trees (Eucalyptus salubris) with their smooth, waxy greenish bark but saw no flowers or wildlife.  The road was good and traffic light.  Balladonia roadhouse was very busy with a busload of oldies and plenty of fuel customers.  Their historical museum was of some interest (and free) with a chunk from Skylab, pastoral history and some naturalist info.  Fuel was $1.989 L for unleaded.  Caiguna is smaller and less busy but the CP has sensible surface of clean gravel, drive-through powered sites and clean amenities.  $25 a night - fuel $1.93.

 

Friday 3 October  NULLABOR ROADHOUSE

Stopped at Madura Pass, 179km from Caiguna.

Eucla consisted of a hotel/motel and CP, but we drove 4km down a dirt road to the old telegraph station.  Worth the detour, if only to walk over sand dunes and see a line of dunes closer to the sea with sand spray flying from crested tops as they marched inland.  The original town was established in 1877 as a manual repeater station for the overland telegraph.  The remainder of that town is now under the sand, after a plague of rabbits ate most of the dune vegetation which then caused large sand drifts to encroach on the town site.

Roadhouse caravan park looked similar to Caiguna but noisier.  Only $22 plus $1 coin-operated showers (good).  Fine and very windy around tea-time, so I 'baked' potatoes and pumpkin in frypan.  Not very appetising.

 We ended our Western Australian adventures when we entered South Australia after leaving Eucla.