Another Country

Having recently dried myself and my clothes after yesterdays deluge the freshly laundered Sirwhisky set out to see if he could get his title ratified. Sadly, as predicted, the Kalbarri National Park was shut. I have no problem with how the national parks are managed, the people in charge take their position very seriously but I have to laugh at how the locals react. 



I really liked Kalbarri, the people were great, the view was beguiling and while I was there everything was at one with the world. However they're not really with the program when it comes to milking the tourist dollar. Tours weren't running, places were closed and rooms were shut. They then bemoaned the fact that the mighty tourist dollar was being spent up the road in Shark Bay. Plus if they paved the road to the National Park (it's only 20 kilometres) they wouldn't have to shut it and the locals would have one less thing to whine about. I say they should stay sleepy and disorganised. It will keep its charm, no tourists will visit the place and therefore save it from ruin.

Before leaving I checked out some convict ruins that have an interesting history. Apparently Anna (of Anna and the King/King & I fame) lived there with her husband and children before moving to Singapore and being immortalised/fictionalised into the character we know. The ruins still looked pretty dull all the same. Sometimes the story is so much better than the pictures.

The convicts worked on WA's first mine. They should change their number plates to say "Western Australia - Digging Up Australia since 1855"

From one old relic to another. I headed to the Hutt River Province, now known as the Principality of Hutt River. As those of you who are old enough to remember Hutt River seceded from Australia after the Western Australian government reduced the wheat quota for the property to equivalent to 100 acres yield (there was 990 acres under crop at the time). A number of missteps by successive governments and some significant correspondence from other countries and some from of our own government's officialdom has now given it a quasi legal status. 


I met the monarch Prince Leopold who personally gave me a guided tour of his realm in his cardigan and slippers. The poor old bugger is 79 years old and not in rude help. 

Prince Leopold

The Throne Room - Sorry I Couldn't Help Myself

He was a lovely bloke who really stuck it to the government's of MacMahon, Whitlam and Fraser. He is now tax exempt and has a range of interesting things going on a result of his secession. There is a museum, post office, official cars, and a chapel (complete with some paintings with questionable artistic merit). He has his own currency and stamps, there is a star named after him plus heaps of tour groups come and visit. I remember seeing all this on TV as a kid and to stumble across it on this trip and ignite those old memories was fantastic. Prince Leopold at one stage even declared war on Australia and forced the government into abiding by the Geneva Convention when hostilities ceased. After getting my visa stamped, buying the first souvenirs of the trip and farewelling the Prince I departed with some sadness. Long May He Reign. 

To keep with the existing segue theme it was on to the next old fossil or in this case living fossils. Hamelin Bay is where you go if you wish to view the once thought extinct Stromatolites. These are the world's oldest living creature. There are only a few places in the world where they survive in their original form and this is considered the best of them. I'm told that if this is your thing that it's pretty damn exciting. A pleasant 1.5 kilometre stroll past the old shell mine (no that's not the oil company Shell, it's shell as in what you find on the beach shell) along a pristine beach is needed to get there. Due to some freak of nature the shells are compacted solidly together and the early settlers quarried them into building blocks because it was the most useful material at hand. 

Hamelin Bay

Shell Quarry

The stromatolites were pretty amazing too, they look like some alien jigsaw puzzle that we will never really understand. If you saw them and had no point of reference you would think they were props from the swimming pool in that movie Cocoon. 

After the excitement of the stromatolites I headed to Denham on Shark Bay (not far from where Dirk Hartog nailed his pewter plate to the tree 396 years ago) and where my digs will be for the night. Tomorrow its off to Monkey Mia (apparently they have dolphins?), maybe check out a pearl farm and some dugongs plus a local aquarium for shark feeding. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.