Kalbarri NP

During the last week in Geraldton we visited the HMAS Sydney Memorial which is made up of a dome of sea gulls in flight next to the depiction of a ship's prow. The Memorial sits on the highest point in the town and provides a wonderful view across to the ocean and was opened by John Sanderson who was Governor of WA at the time and an acquaintance.

We also visited the Geraldton WA Museum which concentrates on the Batavia Coast and just happened to have an Italian Exhibition at this time. The Italians played quite a large part in setting up agriculture in the area and we even came across one family who came here from Sondrio in 1950.

As we had opted not to stay in Kalbarri itself, we drove the loop stopping to look at a prison collection point - mainly in ruins. We diverted to drive in to Port Gregory which is predominantly a fishing village but is memorable for the Pink Lake which is quite a sight and has a Carotene extraction plant on its shores.

The Kalbarri cliff walk is quite spectacular and has tarred access to the edge at quite a few points. We saw whales heading south not far from the shore as well as a school of dolphins, but they were a little too far out for a good photograph.

Kalbarri township seems to be a thriving place at the mouth of the Murchison River with people swimming in the town beach as well as kite boarding. As additional attractions there is a sea horse breeding facility and a parrot breeding "farm". The sea horses were interesting and the range of colours of the parrots was quite startling.