Geraldton and Greenough

We can't fit in the Yellow Submarine!

On Thursday morning, we drove through the port and along the waterfront to get out bearings. The Yellow Submarine caused much amusement. It was a prototype built for the crayfishing industry, which subsequently poisoned the operators with gas emissions from the batteries! We also found a replica of Randolph Stow's loved Merry-Go-Round which he based his novel upon.

However, the main focus of the day was to visit Greenough Historical Village which was a 20 minute drive from Geraldton. Just outside Greenough we found the famous Leaning Tree. It is a river gum growing horizontally due to the constant southerly winds. Incredible.

Greenough Historical Village is a wonderful time capsule from the late 1800s. The village was abandoned after the area declined in the first half of the twentieth century. Heritage Listing in the 1970's saved Greenough and the process of conserving and interpreting the historic buildings is now continuing.

Greenough School, est. 1865

Mr Church supervising the
1898 Elementary School Bursary Exam

We spent a fascinating few hours exploring all the buildings. They were all built with stone and beautifully cool inside. The school room felt as though the students had just left. A copy of the 1898 Bursary Exam was set out on the desks, which the Church family attempted. With such pearlers as:

Reduce 12s 7 1/2d to the decimal of  £2.

Say what you know about Gordon and his connections with the Soudan.

Draw a map of Africa indicating the chief rivers and the portions of the continent forming part of the British Empire.

It became obvious that we would not have been amongst the 3 successful candidates in WA that year!

St Catherine's Church, still in regular use

We spent the rest of the day in Geraldton, enjoying the waterfront, the second-hand bookstore and the ice-cream parlour! We went for a long walk around the port and marina that evening. There was an enormous catamaran, a tug boat and about 40 large boats in dry dock. The wind was freezing and we walked back to warm up in the caravan.

The Batavia's longboat - which was not very long!

Geraldton's attractions entertained us on Friday. We had a quick squizz at St Francis Xavier Cathedral and spent time on the waterfront (where the ripstick and skateboard came out again!) before visiting the Museum. A guided tour of the Shipwrecks display was excellent, and filled in many details about the infamous Batavia shipwreck, mutiny and the subsequent murders on the Abrolhos Islands. A replica of the tiny 9.1m longboat in which the Captain and 40-odd other people reached Batavia (Jakarta) was moored outside. Everyone enjoyed pottering around the museum, finding out bizarre things. Dave spent his time in the Shipwrecks section, Lachlan loved the fishing history exhibits, Ella found a black and white fish which reminded her of Bonnie, Marcus enjoyed the coins from the shipwrecks and Jackson was fascinated by the Batavia ballast mystery. Over one hundred shaped rocks were found at the wreck site and subsequently pieced together to make an arch which was to have been installed at the Dutch headquarters in Batavia. I read about the enormous asbestos sheeting roof which was erected over Geraldton's water supply in the 1960s to stop some of the evaporation. All well and good until 1967, when it wobbled and collapsed - into the water supply - like a house of cards!

Victoria Building - was a hospital, a council building,
a prison and is now the Information Centre

We spent the afternoon at the Bill Sewell complex, which included the beautiful Victoria Building and Geraldton's first goal. The cells are now used by local craftspeople who joined together to save the building from becoming a carpark.


Ella put her tooth fairy letter out for the fourth time. The Tooth Fairy is having trouble finding us as we travel WA!

Stay tuned ...