Geraldton, Windfarm & Elendale Pool

Wednesday the 7th October we went on into Geraldton and stayed at the Belair Van Park. We went to the HMAS Sydney Memorial Park and had the guided tour. Heard the story of the tragic loss of life.

That afternoon we went to the old gaol which was used to house the convicts whose labour was hired out and used by government to establish infrastructure. In the previous post about Lynton Station I mentioned about the convict hiring station there. The one at Lynton Station was used for only about three years and it was moved to Geraldton. These prisoners were not maximum security and the external wall of the exercise yard was not very high. As the story goes they would have a roll call in the afternoon, not to see if any prisoners had escaped, but to see if any vagrants had climbed in to get a free meal and bed for the night.

In the same area was the old hospital.

Linda checked out the St Francis Xavier Cathedral which had been renovated.

We went to the Museum and learnt of the history of the Batavia, a dutch ship that ran aground on the Abrollos Islands in the 1600s. The history is amazing. Whilst the captain went off on a long boat to get help from Indonesia two sailors started murdering men, women and children. To cut a long story short, when the captain returned he had their hands cut off and hung them. Linda took a photo of this portico that the ship had been using as balast. The Batavia was taking it to Indonesia to use at the entrance to the Dutch East India Company.

We went to dinner there at Geraldton to Lynne and Santiago's place. We had met them at Katherine two years earlier and Linda had been keeping in touch with Lynne on Facebook. We got to meet their beautiful 4-5 months old baby, hence why they are not travelling now. It was great to catch up with them.

Next day it was time to move on but we did not go far. About 25km down the road we checked out a windfarm. The towers and blades are so huge. I don't know if the photos show that fact well. I'll put some stats of them up. There is a blade on display on the ground and I photographed it with the van and vehicle in front to give it some scale.

After the windfarm we went on a few km to Elendale Pool which is a nice oasis and only $5 for the night. It was a good spot for a swim and a cheap camp and we stayed the night.