Before breakfast this morning we went for a walk to the lookouts in Green Head. There's been a lot of money spent on paths and general beautification of the area. Tourism is obviously high on the agenda in Western Australia.
A couple more lookouts on our way north. The first at Leeman and then the twin towns of Dongara and Port Denniston. The Fisherman's Lookout is particularly spectacular. We had heard that sea lions had been seen at Leeman but none today. Port Denniston looks out over a lovely bay – lots of boats (popular fishing spot) and a pretty spot.
On to the historical settlement of Greenough (and its limestone buildings) and it's famous horizontal trees – River Red Gums (Eucalyptus Camaldulensis – one of the few botanical names we remember from our travels). It's not that windy today but by the look of the trees, that's the exception rather than the rule.
Next stop Geraldton where we did some Supermarket shopping and visited the HMAS Sydney II memorial. There's a beautiful huge dome made with 644 seagull shapes in memory of the 645 men who lost their lives when the ship went down. The other seagull features in a different section of the memorial.
A little background ….. On 19 November 1941, HMAS Sydney was involved in a mutually destructive engagement with the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran and was lost with all hands. The wrecks of both ships lay undiscovered until 2008; Sydney was found on 17 March, five days after her adversary. The Memorial has been built at Mount Scott. A path curves upwards to what is, in fact, a plateau at the top of Mt. Scott. This path becomes a ceremonial entrance ramp to the dedicated area and is guarded by two old bollards, from the Port of Geraldton, which almost certainly were used by the Sydney, to tie up to, on her last visit to Geraldton in 1941. The dedicated central area is comprised of a domed structure forming a Sanctuary, a vertical structure forming a Stele and a Wall forming a semi-circle, split in two, to allow access to the interior of the inner circle. This entry point into the dedicated area is flanked by flagpoles, set in real bronze ship’s propellers, echoing the Altar at the centre of the Dome of Souls. The path then follows the outside of the circle from which it extends to the Stele, on the right. Another branch turns towards a bronze figure of a woman looking out to sea, on the left. All very beautifully done.
Camp tonight is a Hutt River Principality. It was a bit of a challenge finding it. We learnt later that is because governments choose not to signpost the “rogue” principality. Apparently, Hutt River is prepared to pay for signage but aren't allowed to put any up.
