The Gascoyne Region in Western Australia was visited as part of the Kimberley/Pilbara trip in 2015. There are still many images The Doc has never posted, here are some more.
At the mouth of the Gascoyne River is the township of Carnarvon. NASA built a tracking station at Carnarvon to help with the Gemini and Apollo space missions. The tracking station is now gone but there is a major telecommunications hub still there. The Carnarvon tracking station was also used to track long range missiles from the RAAF Woomera Test Range launched from South Australia into the Indian Ocean over Carnarvon.
The Doc stayed in the Carnarvon caravan park for a week, touring around the region and having the Patrol serviced for the trip back across Australia.
The Doc drove a few hours up the river to the Kennedy Ranges National Park (and nearly came to grief crossing the Gascoyne River). The images are from this trip, plus a quick side trip to the Quobba blowholes near where HMAS Sydney was found off the coast. HMAS Sydney being sunk with all hands lost by a German raider, the Kormoran, disguised as a merchant ship.
Remember to click on the image to see the full size. Enjoy.
In 2014 Tony and I travelled around outback NSW, Queensland and South Australia. Places like the Warrumbungles, Broken Hill, Marree, the ochre pits at Lyndhurst, ruins at Farina, Arkaroola Wildness Sanctuary, Innamincka, Brachina Gorge in the Flinders Ranges, Epsilon in outback Queensland, Cameron’s Corner, Tibooburra, Menindee Lakes and lots of others.
Characters like Talc Alf, roadtrains and huge coal carrying locomotives, the odd emu and even some water in this parched part of Australia.
Tony had a long chat with Talc Alf and enjoyed his stories (Alf was also the Outback postmen, talc carver, talc miner and general dogs’ body!).
Here is a map of the trip. The kink over Lake Frome near Arkaroola in SA was a plane flight we both took around Arkaroola. Doug Sprigg was the pilot and he thanked us all for financing his hobby (flying) when we returned. Lake Frome is the whitest salt lake in the world and is used by NASA to make various measurements.
Tony often spoke about the trip. He had photos on his phone he would show to nurses on his many trips to hospital. Tony is in five images below and I have written a little story around each one.
Coffee at the Innamincka Pub in SA
We had a shower at the public shower block – after being so remote for a few days a shower felt amazing.
Tony is drinking coffee before lunch. Then on to juicy steak sandwiches, chips and salad in the dining area. Then cake and ice cream for desert. The food was superb. The Innamincka Pub at the time was owned by the same people who owned the Birdsville Pub, Innamincka had better food IMO.
Tony also retained fond memories of the Innamincka Pub. We talked about it for years after.
Canonba near Nyngan Outback NSW
Tony sitting beside the car near his tent around 6.30am. My bed is in the Patrol.
We had refuelled and resupplied at Nygnan the previous afternoon and drove out to the free camping ground at Canonba. It was on the Canonba Road about 10kms out of the Nygnan township. Close by us in the camping ground was a wandering drover with his dogs (hidden by the Patrol).
Canonba was once an important Outback town when it was a supply depot for Cobb & Co coaches. Once the railway went through Nygnan, Canonba disappeared.
Middle of nowhere
Tony with the trailer gate down boiling the billy for tea. We had camped overnight in the middle of nowhere. The driver was tied. We camped beside the Wool Track between Ivanhoe and Cobar, NSW. It was an access road to the surrounding stations and not a single car drove past the whole time we were there.
Coally Station, Far North West NSW
Tony is leaning on the passenger’s seat setting up his camera. This was at a small ephemeral wetland off the Silver City Highway near Coally Station Homestead.
Earlier we had driven through Cameron’s Corner (fancy hamburgers for lunch that time, yum), then through Stuart National Park in the far north eastern corner of NSW.
Epsilon Station, Outback Qld
The image with Tony standing at the car door looking forward was near Epsilon Station in remote Outback Queensland. We were travelling out of the area on private roads used to service the Moomba Gas Field oil wells. Earlier we saw the white camel also pictured.
The road is called the Nappa Merrie-Santos Road. We were on the Santos end, Nappa Merrie Station (Ranch for any American readers) being at the other end. In remote Australia it is common to name roads after the destinations at each end, it sure helps you know where you are going.
How do I remember these details? First, I add keyword to my images. Second, I keep a travel diary to help indexing. Last, I add GPS co-ordinates to the images. Here I mainly used the GPS co-ordinates and memory.
Due to some medical issues with Tony (bruising mostly) the trip lasted only two weeks instead of the planned three weeks. Due to Tony’s limited mobility I was visiting places where I could drive Tony close to the scenery or eating place. It worked out well. I still remember those delicious BLTs (bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches) at the Blenheim Pub, Flinders Ranges. SA.
Click on the first image and a slideshow will appear. Take five minutes to look through the images.
The Doc has been a bit quite because he has been indexing 300,000 images for AWC and also preparing some images for photo competitions.
Here is a selection of the images The Doc will shortly enter into an Australian competition (you get the low res versions, some images are over 350 megapxiels). Click on each images to see the correct size.
Female and joey, Brachina Gorge, Flinders Ranges NP, Flinders Ranges, SA.
I was tracking Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies at their colony in Brachina Gorge in the Flinders Ranges. I had walked up a steep incline to follow the wallabies, the female with the joey hopped over the top of the ridge and I thought it was over for the day. A minute of two later the female and joey came back and took a second look and seemingly said good bye before she hopped away.
These wallabies are something to behold when they hop across cliff faces like a kangaroo on flat ground.
This is sunrise at West End Bay, Flinders Chase National Park, Kangaroo Island (KI).
The Doc waited 2 1/2 weeks for a decent sunrise on KI. When it came it was a cracker. It was hard to post process this image, as I could only make very subtle changes or it looked fake.
About 9 years ago a large wildfire burnt out over 80% of the National Park. The fire was so intense that many of the mature trees were killed. There is now a double canopy, the dead upper layer and the regrowing green layer (actually black in this image). Click on image to see correct size.
While at AWC’s Mornington Sanctuary The Doc became aware that Australian Wildlife Conservancy (“AWC”) had taken full control of Charnley River Station (formerly Beverley Springs Station). Click here for the report with pictures.
The Doc is now in Alice Springs for 2 days preparing to go to AWC’s Newhaven Sanctuary on the Tanami Track north of Alice.
This trip started with a visit to AWC’s Bowra Sanctuary and will finish with AWC’s Newhaven Sanctuary. The 2 big AWC sanctuaries for birders. The Doc would love to get some good shots of Princess Parrots at Newhaven, time will tell.
Then The Doc will make his way home after 4 months on the road. The most likely route will be the Plenty Highway (starts just north of Alice Springs) to Boulia in Queensland then back to the bitumen through Longreach and Outback Queensland to Ballina for a week, then Sydney.
Using the Great Central Road saved 1,500kms and 2 long days driving and he hopes the Plenty Highway will give a similar saving. This trip has roughly another 4,000kms to go, bringing the grand total a bit under 30,000kms over the 4 months. It has been a long trip on rough roads and the body is beginning to say enough.
A few photos from Laverton in the West until Uluru in the East along the Great Central Road.
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