May 2014 - Hamersley Ranges

From Nanutarra we left the North West Coast Highway and headed inland again through the Hamersley Ranges to Tom Price and the gorges of the Karijini National Park.  The rocky mountains and the red sandy plains make this a very picturesque landscape.  The rain out here in the past 6 weeks has brought on the wild flowers and the wattles are already starting to shoot.  There is grass everywhere and of course with good feed comes the breeding season for the roos and other wildlife.  There are 2 mining towns out here where Rio Tinto mine iron ore, and the first one that we came to was Paraburdoo.

Mining towns have come a long way over the years. Now they have all the facilities as well as nice green lawns and gardens which I am sure would make the place a lot more livable during those hot summer months when the temperatures often reach the 50 degree mark.

With the rain over the past weeks, red mud must have been everywhere and we laughed at the colour of the normally white corellas. Mining towns have very floating populations and the population can double during maintenance shut downs at the mines.  Accommodation can therefore become an issue so there is a lot of temporary accommodation units to handle the overflow.

Rio Tinto have just completed a new temporary accommodation site which also doubles as the local caravan park.  They have 20 or so 4 bedroom motel style huts mounted on semi trailers so they can be shifted from site to site as required.  The trailers are set up to carry potable water as well as empty tanks for grey water, hot water services, air conditioners, flat screen TV and even a pull out awning along the full length walkway.

A further 80 kilometres north east is Tom Price with another huge open cut iron ore mine.  They run a mine tour for visitors so we learnt a lot about Tom Price and the mining operation.  Iron ore was discovered on Mount Tom Price in October 1962 when Lang Hancock brought an American geologist out here for a look around. The geologists name was, you guessed it, Thomas Price who died of a heart attack 4 hours after the West Australian government announced that a mining lease had been granted for Mt Tom Price.(He was over 70 and had been ill for 12 months before the lease was granted).

From the moment of the announcement it was all go, and within 18 months the mining towns of Tom Price and Paraburdoo were built, along with establishing the mine, building the port town of Dampier and a rail link between the towns and port. It was originally thought that the ore would run out in 50 years, so everything was built around that time frame, however it has since been established that with modern technology, there is at least another 50 years worth of ore here.  Previous to 1982 Rio Tinto owned the town and only people connected with the mining operation could live here, but in 1982 they sold the town to the newly formed shire for the princely sum of $1, and the town then grew from 250 houses to 1,600 as it is today.  The town boasts an average population of 5,000 with 900 school age children attending either of the 2 primary schools or the secondary school.

Tom Price is the highest town in Western Australia with an altitude of 747 metres, and the highest point around there is Mt Nameless which is just over 1,100 metres high. The mine have their communications towers up there and there is a 4WD track to the top, where the view is 360 degrees for as far as the eye can see.

Rio Tinto also operate another 2 mines in the area from the towns of Wickham and Panawanica, and also have a 50% share in the Hope Downs project with Gina Reinhart.  The mine lease at Tom Price which covers an area 13 kilometres by 8 kilometres, produced 5 million tonnes of iron ore in 1966 and this has built up to 290 million tonnes in 2013 from all 4 mines.

Do the sums, iron ore was valued at $140 per tonne last year so that’s $40,600,000,000.  All this iron ore is blasted out of the mountain, sometimes 4 times a day, and then picked up by face shovels that weigh 300 tonnes and can pick up 45 to 50 tonnes of ore at a time in their 17 cubic metre bucket.

This machine clocked up 72,555 hours of work between 1994 and when it was decommissioned in 2010.  Average fuel consumption during this time was 8,000 litres per every 24 hours it worked. Any wonder why this mine alone burns 2 million litres of diesel every week.

The ore is loaded into Komatsu diesel/electric dump trucks that have a 240 tonne carrying capacity and a total gross weight when loaded of 400 tonne.  These trucks are powered by a 2,500 horse power diesel motor, and burn 20 litres of fuel every kilometre when under full power.  The mine operates 36 of these large trucks which cost $4.5 million each.

There is also a big crushing plant at the mine that reduces the ore down to 6 mm in size ready for loading on the train to be sent to customers in China and India.  The trains are 2.5 kilometres long and consist of 3 General Electric locomotives each with a 4,500 horse power engine, 236 rail wagons each loaded with 116 tonnes of ore.

At current ore prices, the 27,376 tonnes of ore on each train is valued at about $3.5 million, and there is an average of 4 trains per day that leave Tom Price.  To shift all this ore, Rio Tinto have 170 locomotives and 10,000 ore wagons that operate over 1,600 kilometres of heavy duty standard gauge railway track.  The carriages are coupled together in such a way that they can be picked up and turned upside down when they get to Dampier for unloading.

Karijini National Park is only 90 kilometres east of Tom Price, and as it boasts an abundance of ancient gorges, a day trip around the park turned up some spectacular views.  The main road around the park between the visitors centre and the west entrance is a well formed gravel road, but the roads running off to the gorges are atrocious.  We persisted, and it was well worth the view.

Junction Pool is where Weano, Red, Joffre and Hancock gorges all meet. There are 2 lookouts within 50 metres here where we stood 100 metres above the junction pool.  The rocks in the bottom of these gorge have been worn smooth over many years by water carrying rock, gravel and debris, which sweeps through the gorge after rain.  The trees seen growing in the gorge are river red gums which grow up to 20 metres tall and northern paper barks which grow up to 15 metres tall.

The head of Joffre Gorge can be accessed along another 20 kilometres of rotten road, but again well worth the effort. From the lookout you can see the water falling down into a very cold pool of water about 120 metres below. Surprisingly enough, people climb down the cliff face to swim in the pool below. This is why the SES unit in Tom Price is the busiest unit in the Pilbra as they are often out here rescuing people that fall off cliffs and break bones.

Back on the main road again, the visitors centre has been built from raw sheets of rusty steel plate which fits very nicely into the surroundings. From the visitors centre to Dales Gorge the road is fully sealed which makes for a pleasant change. Fortescue Falls, which is where you can see one of the very few permanent waterfalls in the Park, is then easily accessed from the car park. This area has a camp ground where visitors can stay and spend days discovering all the gorges in Karijini National Park.

Our original plan was to head back to the coast at Karratha, but the gravel road was said to be too rough for the caravan, so we headed further east and met the Great Northern Highway just south of Auski Road House, about 610 kilometres north of our old home town of Meekatharra.

I couldn’t resist taking this photo of the Landcruiser towing a double road train. The Great Northern Highway passes the Roy Hill turn off where Gina Reinhart is building a new open cut iron ore mine after recently raising 10.4 billion dollars to get the project started.

There are literally hundreds of road trains with 4 trailers hauling iron ore from already existing mines about 150 kilometres east of Auski Road house on the Roy Hill road back into Port Hedland. These trucks work 2 shifts in 24 hours so there is a constant hum of trucks going through the southern part of Port Hedland to the port. Port Hedland seems like one of the busiest towns in the Pilbra with all the infrastructure work going on around the south side.

They are building new roads, rail and overpasses to cope with all the extra iron ore coming in from the new Roy Hill mine which is due to start shipping iron ore by the end of 2015.  The Roy Hill project will even have it’s own port which has already had $230 million dollars spent on dredging 5.6 million cubic metres of material to clear a channel for big iron ore ships.

The new port facility will receive, stockpile, screen and export 55 million tonnes a year and be capable of storing 5 million tonnes of ore awaiting shipment.  A 344 kilometre railway line is being built from the mine to the port which will handle 5 trains per day each consisting of 3 locomotives hauling 232 ore cars with a total payload of 32,062 tonnes.  The estimates of this new deposit is that it will take at least 20 years to mine all the ore at the forecast rate of 55 million tonnes per year.  All this construction work going on means that the caravan parks are full of workers, so after a night in the car park at the golf course listening to trucks and trains all night, we headed north towards Broome.

To break the 600 kilometre journey, we stopped off at the 80 mile beach caravan park, about half way between these 2 cities.  What a great find, and a lot more than we expected. Nice grassed, shady sites with the Indian Ocean only 100 metres away over the sand hill.

Once again,a lovely sunset over the ocean to finish off the day.  Fishing from the beach is top of the list in this caravan park.

There are many campers here who come each year and stay for 3 months and spend their waking hours fishing.  Most of them have 4 wheel motor bikes with fishing rods strapped to the front, an esky strapped to the back and they ride along the beach to their favourite fishing spot.

There must be heaps of fish here as even I caught a nice Blue Threadfin Salmon about 450 mm long.  A couple of fillets off him made for a very tasty lunch. Wednesday nights are hamburger nights, just bring along a plate and $6 to enjoy a freshly cooked hamburger with salad out on the lawn chatting with fellow travelers.

A lovely way to finish a busy day fishing.

May 2014 - Ningaloo Reef

Coral Bay is another absolutely beautiful place along the West Australian coast at the southern end of the Ningaloo Reef, and like all the other tourist destinations, it has expanded to suit the influx of visitors wanting to come here.

We visited here with our 2 daughters about 20 years ago and it was just a gravel road which finished at the beach, with a pub on one side of the road and a camping ground on the other side of the road.  Today there are 2 caravan parks and a resort as well as 2 supermarkets and various other shops.  The town is said to be capped at 3,000 people, but during the last school holidays they had up to 5,000 people. Along with all the development came tour operators who do fishing trips, whale shark swimming tours, manta ray tours, glass bottom boat tours, 4 wheel drive tours and quad bike tours.

The reef is about 350 metres from the shore line which protects the bay and the coral is growing within 50 metres of the shore. Snorkeling over the coral from the shore is quite easy and is well worth making an effort to go out for a look.

Coral Bay Ecotours operates a whale shark tour which takes visitors out past the reef to swim with whale sharks, which are the world’s biggest fish.  These massive fish are filter feeders that visit Ningaloo Reef each year over winter, and they can grow up to 18 metres in length.

Yes!!, I DID take these photos AND they were taken without any zoom on the camera.  We really did get this close.  WOW!!

Funny how the worlds biggest fish feast on plankton which is just about the worlds smallest food. They can filter 1.5 million litres of water per hour through their gills when they are feeding on plankton. We took the tour and wow, what an experience.

We went out onto the reef in their boat and had a snorkel around the coral. Very nice, saw lots of coral and fish etc.  The water temperature was about 24 degrees and air temperature about the same at that stage.  The tour company have a spotter plane that goes up looking for whale sharks and they found one after a short while.

The boat stops about 10 metres from the whale shark and organised groups of about 6 people enter the water from the platform on the back of the boat for a swim with the whale shark. They are awesome. The one we swam with was 5 metres long and just gracefully swam around.   They only leave you in the water for about 2 minutes the first time as other boats have people that want to see them as well.

The second time in the water we were in for about 5 minutes and managed to get some great photos. These sharks are magnificent.  We were out there at least 2 hours and had the opportunity to swim with the whale shark 5 times and for longer periods each time.  

In that 2 hours we drifted towards Exmouth and ended up about 20 kilometres from Coral Bay and about 3 kilometres off shore.

Once we started coming back towards Coral Bay and got into calmer water, the crew served a beautiful salad buffet for lunch before they anchored near the reef again so we had another opportunity for a half hour snorkel over the coral. During the day we saw not only the whale shark but also dolphins, a minki whale and turtle.  The trip was topped off with a fruit platter and sparkling wine for afternoon tea.  This experience is an absolute “must do” when visiting the Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay.

Exmouth is at the northern end of the Ningaloo Reef, and as the road had been opened again following the heavy rain that they had over the past 4 weeks, we decided it would be worth a visit.  Exmouth sits almost at the tip of the North West Cape and for this reason, a lot of travelers give it a miss as there is only one way in and the same way out, a distance of 160 kilometres each way.  We found it to be well worth the extra kilometres as there are so many beautiful beaches and canyons around the cape and we found the coral to be a lot more colourful along the reef here.

We decided to take an organised day tour around the cape with Dave from Ningaloo Safari Tours, and what a great day we had. Dave picked us up in his OKA 4wd bus and headed south along the east side of the cape to a gorge along Charles Knife Gorge road. He usually goes to Shothole Canyon but the road was still closed from all the previous rain.

The gorge is awe inspiring as it winds it’s way through the Cape Range National Park.  The highest point along this section of the range is 250 metres above sea level so we had a wonderful view out across the Exmouth Gulf.  Dave has many stories to tell about just about every point of interest that we drove past.  

I didn't know that the Japanese actually attacked Exmouth Gulf during the second world war and there are 2 or 3 memorials along that part of the gulf that commemorate the airmen that protected that part of our coast during the war. From there Dave took us back north through town with a look around the marina, canals and the homes being built around the canals. This canal development started 15 years ago and although it took a while to catch on, new homes are shooting up all around that area now. Further north of town is the Harold Holt Naval Base which was once known as Little America as it was built and run by the Americans during and after the war. We went into the non restricted part of the base and saw how it was set up just like a small American town with their own church, 10 pin bowling, baseball diamond, bar and grill, swimming pool, single officers club and single mens quarters. They even had to drive on the right side of the road. Further out are the High Frequency radio transmitters and towers, but the real important aspect of this area is the low frequency radio transmitters. This band is used for transmitting radio waves into the ocean for submarines to pick up when they come back up to 20 metres below the surface.  This area has ultra high security because of it’s importance to the American and Australian submarines in the whole of the south pacific region. The main 2 towers are 382 metres tall which is taller than the Eiffel tower in France.

Continuing south now down the west side of the cape is the Jurabi Turtle Centre which houses information about the turtles life cycle and how they return to shore here where they were born some 20 years later to breed.  Turtle breeding season is over the summer months, but it was interesting to read about the plight of the poor little things, with about only 1 in 1,000 making it back for breeding.  Traveling further south along the west side we entered the Cape Range National Park and passed about 20 beaches along the way where you are allowed to camp, provided you obtain a permit from the ranger at the park entry.

We stopped at the Osprey Bay camping ground for lunch which Dave supplied as a part of the tour cost.  A beautiful beach with water as clear as crystal.

After lunch we headed about another 10 kilometres onto Yardie Creek, which is as far as the road goes around the west side of the creek.  Yardie Creek is the only gorge in this national park which joins to the Indian Ocean and therefore has water in it.  Dave has a tinny moored in Yardie Creek and part of his tour is a trip on the boat up into the gorge.  According to Dave,

Yardie Creek is the only place in the world where you can see the Yardie Creek Black Tailed Rock Wallaby which live amongst the caves on the sheer rock faces along the creek. These are a shy animal, but we managed to spot 7 of them on our 45 minute trip through the gorge, as well as a pair of nesting osprey, some egrets, numerous short billed corellas and even a pair of “Yardie Creek Brown Feathered Emu’s”.(Dave has a good sense of humor)

By 3 pm the temperature had reached 30 degrees so we stopped at beautiful Turquoise Bay for a snorkel amongst the coral. Turquoise Bay has the best “drift snorkel” we have ever done, as the waves break over the reef to the south and flow through the bay towards the north. This takes you for about 200 metres along the reef without having to put in much effort swimming at all, you can just relax and watch the fish and coral go by underneath you.  This was all followed up with a big slice of home made carrot cake and date cake and washed down with a cup of billy tea or coffee.

Some of the best sunsets can be seen from the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse on the way back into Exmouth.

Dave told us how this lighthouse was built over 100 years ago as a result of the shipwreck of the SS Mildura which hit the reef on the 12th March 1907.  The SS Mildura had sailed from the port of Wyndham loaded with 498 cattle bound for Freemantle and hit the reef while confronting a looming cyclone.  Building materials and equipment were shipped in from Freemantle and a railway line was built up the side of the mountain so horses could pull the carriages up there loaded with that equipment and materials to build the lighthouse.  A small part of the railway line still remains today, a tribute to those men who built it over 100 years ago.  We had a great day out with Dave and the rest of the folk on the tour.  How else could one gather all this information in one day.

We left Exmouth and headed for our next overnight stop at Nanutarra Roadhouse which sits right on the banks of the Ashburton River. This was nothing like we expected. There was water running down the river which is fairly unusual for this river.  Water in this river comes from hundreds of kilometres inland in the Kenneth Range, and good rainfalls in there have seen this river run 3 times already this year.

The water has picked up a lot of red sand along the way which contrasts nicely at sunset with the white ghost gums that line the river bank. This goanna was out for it's afternoon stroll and walked straight past us while we were sitting under the awning in the evening.

The sunset here was even more spectacular than what we saw at Exmouth.

From Nanutarra we left the North West Coast Highway and headed inland again through the Hamersley Ranges to Tom Price and the gorges of the Karijini National Park.

May 2014 - Jurien Bay to Carnarvon

Indian Ocean Drive runs from Perth and rejoins the Brand Highway just south of Port Dennison.   As the name suggests, this road follows the coast and there are plenty lovely beach side places to stay along the way.  We picked up the Indian Ocean Drive at Jurien Bay, which is about half way between Perth and Geraldton.

Jurien Bay has a marine park which has an extensive reef system that runs parallel to the shore which makes it an ideal place for diving and snorkeling.  This marine park and its immediate surrounds are the only major breeding area for Australian sea lions along the western coast of Australia, with about 800 sea lions living along this coast.  Australian sea lions are the rarest sea lions in the world.  Jurien Bay has a unique tourist attraction, an underwater interpretative trail which is the first of it’s kind in WA.

With the weather being against us, we opted for a drive around the Pinnacles Desert Discovery in the Nambung National Park, about 45 kilometres south of Jurien Bay.  Within the park there are thousands of limestone pillars which rise mysteriously from the sand dunes, some of which are up to 5 metres tall.  Some are jagged, sharp edged columns rising to a point while others resemble tombstones, all in an eerie landscape which is in sharp contrast to the surrounding area.  These amazing natural limestone structures were formed approximately 25,000 to 30,000 years ago, after the sea receded and left deposits of sea shells.  Over time, coastal winds removed the surrounding sand, leaving the pillars exposed to the elements.

The visitors centre at the Pinnacles has a display of wildlife from around the area and has 2 of the smallest possums in the world. These little fellas are honey possums which only grow to 70 mm long. They live on the nectar of the many saw tooth banksia trees that flourish in the area.  Apart from some bats, honey possums are the only mammals in the world to feed exclusively on pollen and nectar.

We were a bit ahead of the wild flower season but the Banksia’s and Bougainvillea’s that are in flower put on a very colourful display when they are at different stages of flowering.

Kalbarri has one of Western Australia’s iconic photo opportunities.  Like the Northern Territory has Ayres Rock, Western Australia has Natures Window at Kalbarri National Park. This is a rock formation that frames the rugged country and the Murchison River behind it.  Early in the morning the sun brings out the true colours of the rock and the contrast of the river which is nicely positioned looking through the window.

Back in town, Rainbow Jungle is the biggest parrot collection we have ever seen anywhere.  Built amongst a beautiful garden setting with ponds and waterfalls, it is a very relaxing place to visit on a hot day.  Parrots from all around the world are on display here including some beautiful Macaws.

The evenings are beautiful with the sun setting in the west across the Indian Ocean.  From the Overlander Roadhouse on the North West Coastal Highway, we turned onto the Shark Bay World Heritage Drive to Monkey Mia which is another must see destination along this coast.

We visited here about 20 years ago with our 2 daughters but the place has changed a lot over this time. When I rang to book in I was told that the only site they had available for the next 3 weeks was a beach front site.  These sites are a little more expensive but it was sure worth the extra few dollars.

With 180 degree view of the bay, and dolphins swimming by regularly just metres from the shore, what better dolphin experience could you have.  Certain dolphins are fed a small amount of fish if they visit the beach before noon.

This is a big change to what used to happen last time we were here where they used to feed buckets of fish to keep the dolphins close to the visitors on the beach. This changed as they found that the baby dolphins were not surviving as the mum’s got lazy and stopped teaching the young to catch fish for themselves.  The new system works very well and they have an excellent survival rate.  Dolphins are identified by their dorsal fin and the most popular dolphin last time we were here was “Holyfin”. This dolphin passed away at the age of 35 in 1995 and now it is one of her daughters called “Nicky” which comes in most regularly for a visit.

It’s great to see wild dolphins interacting with people.  They aren't trained, they just visit of their own accord which we are told upsets some people as they stand there all day and not see a dolphin.The amount of visitors each day is displayed on the wall with between 160 and 270 visitors being the regular amount, but with Easter and Anzac day just past, there were 737 people on one day.  Apparently it was absolute bedlam.

Where there is a chance of fish scraps there are always pelicans, and this lot not to be outdone by the dolphins, just love sitting around in the sun having their photo taken as well.  Monkey Mia is the main tourist attraction in this area, but the main town on Shark Bay is the little fishing village of Denham about 26 kilometres away. Denham is home to the Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery Centre which has displays to show why this area is heritage listed.

To be world heritage listed, the area must meet at least 1 of the 10 criteria.  Four of the criteria are natural criteria and Shark Bay meets all 4 of those.  Other sites around the world that meet all 4 of the natural criteria are the Great Barrier Reef, the Galapagos Islands and the Grand Canyon, so this ranks Shark Bay as one of our planet’s most important wilderness regions.  The 4 natural criteria are Natural Beauty, Earth’s History, Ecological Processes and Biological Diversity.

Denham is also home to the HMAS Sydney Memorial, which pays tribute to the 645 sailors that lost their lives when the Sydney was sunk by the German ship Kormoran, while in service protecting the west coast shipping trade during WW2. On 12 March 2008, 67 years after both ships were lost, searchers on board the SV Geosounder located Kormoran lying more than two and a half kilometres beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean. Four days later and just over 12 nautical miles away the Geosounder’s crew located HMAS Sydney lying on the flat sandy ocean floor at a depth of 2,468 metres.  The HMAS Sydney lies 112 nautical miles off the coast of Shark Bay.

Just down the road from Denham is the Ocean Park aquarium which features marine life from around Shark Bay. The guide explains the various species which are held in open top tanks.  Pink snapper, parrot fish, tiger fish, “blowies”, stone fish, mulloway, star fish, stingrays and many more are on display, but the highlight was the feeding of the lemon sharks.

Another areas that contribute to the world heritage listing of this area are Hamelin Pool, Eagle Bluff and the Stromatolites. Eagle bluff has beautiful clear shallow water about 50 metres below the cliff top walk.

There is no access to the beach so the area is pristine and there are often sightings of turtles, various fish, rays and sharks.  There are 2 small limestone islands just off shore which were once mined for guano (fertiliser) but are now important bird breeding colonies.

Shell Beach is another unique area of Shark Bay as there is no sand and the shore is lined with Fragum Cockle shells which are metres deep.

The cockles live in the sea and can be as many as 4,000 per square metre. When the cockles die, all the shells wash to shore and over the years they have become compressed, and can now be cut into blocks for buildings. Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay is one of only 2 known places in the world where living marine Stromatolites exist.  

It is said that these living fossils contain microbes similar to those found in 3,500 million year old rocks, which is the earliest record of life on earth.  A board walk takes you off shore about 80 metres to see the difference between the Stromatolites that are constantly under water and those that spend some time out of the water when the tide goes out.  We stayed overnight at Hamelin Pool Station where we heard one of the most unusual birds that we have heard for our whole trip.

Photo taken off the internet

I spent an hour of so trying to track this bird down but could not find it as it is very clever in that it seems to be able to throw its voice. We were told by the park manager that it looks like a small top notch pigeon and found out from the Michael Morcombe & David Stewart eGuide to Australian Birds app that it is a Chiming Wedge Bill.  These birds are only found from the coast of central Western Australia inland to the southern part of the Northern Territory, west and central South Australia, and the south-western corner of Queensland.  This station doesn't offer powered sites nor do they have water to the sites, but they have a fantastic amenities block and well equipped camp kitchens so the overnight stay was lovely and peaceful.

Carnarvon was our next place to explore and we stayed at the Wintersun Caravan Park on a lovely fully grassed site for the week.  Here we were 4,500 kilometres from Geelong and we ran into a lady that went to Grovedale State School at the same time as we did.  She was a little older than us but Judy went to that school with this ladies sister.  Of course the conversation got around to “do you remember this person” and “do you remember doing this”.  Funny how you run into people that you least expect.

Seventy five kilometres north of Carnarvon is a magnificent piece of coast which is full of blow holes. The ocean rushes into the shore and you can hear the rush of air coming up the hole and then the water spurts into the air possibly 40 to 50 metres.  The power of the sea crashing into the coast makes for spectacular scenery.

Carnarvon also played a big part in the Apollo space missions with it’s OTC dish Earth Tracking Station which was built in conjunction with NASA in 1966.  Australia also received it’s first satellite television broadcast from this dish. The dish which is a very imposing 29.6 metres in diameter and weighs 300 tonnes, closed after assisting in tracking Halley’s Comet in 1987, but they have a very interesting space museum in one of the old buildings.

They have a photo of Shark Bay taken from a fixed camera on Apollo 13 during one of its earth orbits. Carnarvon has 176 plantations and produces over 30,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables every year. Everything from bananas, avocados, tomatoes, mangoes, sweet corn, beans and stone fruit to fresh sea food which is brought in daily at the jetty.  All the produce from Carnarvon including grain and wool used to be transported by sea to Freemantle.

Carnarvon has a jetty stretching out into the sea for 1 mile that used to be used for loading all this produce, but now days the jetty has a little tourist train that takes passengers to and from the end of the jetty where the fishing is good if the tide is right, if you are using the right bait, if the wind is in the right direction and if you were there "yesterday" when they were biting.