Rats Nest Island?

Just about everyone who visits the Perth area takes a trip over to Rottnest Island. Some stay there in the various types of accommodation on offer. Others go for a quick day trip. We were the latter category as we took a fast ferry from Fremantle to the island that was first documented and named by the Dutch sailor and explorer Willem de Vlamingh.

The Dutch were the first Europeans to document the Swan River and surrounding coast as far back as the 1690s. Including Rottnest Island. Willem de Vlamingh called the island ‘t Eylandt ‘t Rottenest – meaning Rats’ Nest Island –  after the quokka population he saw there. He clearly mistook them for being some kind of giant rat. And to this day the quokka is the main reason most people go to the island.

It’s easy to see how the first Europeans to see the quokka mistook them for large rats. Like many other animals unique to Australia these are certainly different if not plain odd.

From 1838 to 1931, Rottnest Island was used as a prison camp for over 3,600 Aboriginal people, keeping them separate from other prisoners housed at Fremantle prison. Today it is a holiday haven and tourist trap. The island has a permanent population of around 300 people but attracts around 780,000 visitors each year.

The island lies some 18km (11 miles) off the coast of Fremantle and there are plenty of boats ferrying visitors throughout the day. There are also hundreds of privately owned boats that make the journey and weigh anchor in the many beautiful bays around the island. It is clearly a popular destination.

It’s not all about the Quokka…

There are regular bus services covering all corners of the island, but many visitors prefer to hire (or use their own) bicycles. We hired bikes and headed off to one of the many great little bays for a spot of snorkelling.

The port area is the only place you could call “built up”. There are several shops, cafes and bars where people spend time waiting for their return ferry or keeping an eye on their own craft in the bay. When we were there it was packed with yachts and plenty of small motor boats.

Quokkas

These little marsupials are like a cross between a rat and a kangaroo. Which makes them even more odd than the kangaroo itself. They only live in south western Australia, mainly on two islands (the other being Bald Island near Albany) and in a few forest locations between Albany and Perth.

At first while we were cycling we only spotted a few. However, by the time we were waiting for our return ferry they were coming out all over the place. Take it from me: You are definitely guaranteed to see them if you visit Rottnest Island.

If like us, you visit Rottnest Island for the day, I can safely say that you will be thinking: ‘This is definitely a place I want to return to and spend a few nights on the island.’

On our first trip to Fremantle we did the obvious thing and visited the imposing Fremantle prison.

Early History

While the Swan River colony was established originally as a “free” colony, there were always plans to expand it. And what better way than by using prisoners as free labour. By the 1840s demand for cheap labour became too much and the colony agreed to accept convicts from Britain. Just like the eastern states, Western Australia was built (initially at least) off the sweat of convicts.

Oddly, Fremantle prison is not automatically called a ‘gaol’ as most of the others we have visited in Australia. It was built by the convicts who would serve their time there. They would then be expected to stay and farm locally on their release. Over time the colony would expand and thrive.

The first convicts arrived from Britain in 1850 to support the colony’s dwindling population, and it soon became apparent that the temporary prison (the Round House) was inadequate. So the convicts built the new gaol, which was opened in 1855 and continued to be used as Fremantle’s prison until as recently as 1991. It housed British convicts, local prisoners, military prisoners, enemy aliens and prisoners of war. In August 2010, Fremantle Prison was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. This gaol was used for convicts up to 1868, long after convict transportation had ceased in the eastern states.

Inside the Prison Block

Tales…

The problem with constructing a prison in such a remote location meant that the cost of shipping in building materials was prohibitive. Local materials were needed and so it was constructed from local limestone. However, this rock is soft and it was easy to carve out. The prisoners knew this of course and hence there were many escape attempts.

That proved to be largely unimportant however as there really was nowhere for escapees to go. The unforgiving environment coupled with its remoteness meant that most escaped prisoners were soon knocking on the door to be let back into the prison. Then they would serve their time and become new citizens. There were some successful escapes but only by those who had some serious outside help which had to include a ship to get as far away as possible.

Moondyne Joe

Joseph Bolitho Johns, better known as Moondyne Joe, was Western Australia’s best known bushranger. His story proves that real life is indeed stranger than fiction.

Born in Cornwall and already a prisoner in the British system, Johns first arrived at Fremantle in 1853 as just another convict. After two years (of good behaviour) he received a conditional pardon in 1855. He then settled in the Avon Valley but was arrested for horse stealing in 1861. During his sentence he made several escapes.

In July 1865, Johns was sentenced to ten years for killing a steer. He soon absconded from a work party and was on the run for nearly a month, during which time Johns adopted the nickname Moondyne Joe.  When caught, Moondyne Joe was sentenced to twelve months in irons. In July 1866 he received a further six months in irons for trying to cut the lock out of his door, but later succeeded in escaping again.

As punishment for escaping ‘Joe’ received five years hard labour on top of his remaining sentence. Incredible measures were taken to ensure that he didn’t escape again. A special “escape-proof” cell was prepared for him. The soft stone cell was lined with the hard jarrah wood and over 1000 nails. In early 1867 Moondyne Joe was set to work breaking stone, but rather than let him to leave the prison, the acting governor ordered that the stone be brought in and dumped in a corner of the prison yard, where ‘Joe’ worked (supposedly) under  constant supervision. The Governor was so confident of the arrangements, he was heard to tell ‘Joe’: “If you get out again, I’ll forgive you”.

It turned out that the rock broken by Moondyne Joe was not removed regularly, and eventually a pile grew up until it obscured the guard’s view of him below the waist. Partially hidden behind the pile of rocks, he was able to take an occasional swing at the prison’s outer wall with his sledgehammer. Sure enough in March 1867 Moondyne Joe escaped through the hole he had made in the wall. A few days before the second anniversary of his escape, Moondyne Joe was recaptured, returned to prison, and sentenced to an additional four years in irons. Eventually, the new Governor heard of his predecessor’s promise, and decided that further punishment would be unfair. Moondyne Joe was released in May 1871.

Fremantle

I always thought that Fremantle was a suburb of Perth. Well, these days the whole area is one  continuously built up conurbation – referred to as the greater Perth metropolitan area. But it is separate and it is very different.

Fremantle is famous for its well preserved architecture. This includes convict-built structures and hundreds of gold rush-era buildings. Often built in limestone with ornate façades the streetscapes off a stunning variety of architectural styles. Fremantle stands as one of the best example of British colonial (Victorian and Edwardian) architecture

A Little History

Fremantle and Perth were both founded in 1829 but as Fremantle is located at the mouth of the Swan River it became the port and was developed first. It is named after Charles Fremantle the captain of the ship dispatched by the British to start a colony on the west coast before the French made a move on the territory. This was a recurring theme in the geography and colonisation of the “new world” in those days of course.

The Fremantle colony struggled for its first two decades. Then the British decided to turn it into a penal colony – just as the convict era was coming to an end in the other states of Australia. Convenient that eh? Ship in an army of convicts to use as labour to build up a city and port. The other most obvious result was the building of Fremantle prison (see future blog post).

Fremantle was actually declared a city, in its own right, one hundred years later in 1929. Definitely worth a visit and (in my opinion) easily better than Perth city centre.

The Record Finder – A ‘Gold Mine’ of Vinyl

There are plenty of interesting shops in Fremantle but this one was my personal favourite. The Record Finder specialises in that old form of music reproduction – vinyl. There are plenty of other items on offer such as old magazines and comics. As well as posters and that newer forms of music – CDs. But – for me at least – that’s not even the best part…

Here they sell radiograms! Now, younger readers will not have a clue what a radiogram is, but I remember them well. My nana always used to have one. It is basically a record (vinyl) player, speakers and radio all built into the one unit. Usually (at least the ones I remember) with space to store your favourite vinyl albums/LPs. Check out the photos below. I love those things and really think they should make a comeback. Who knows? With so much vinyl records being pressed again radiograms may be the next big thing. And some of them are big!

You don’t even need to try hard to find it. It would actually be impossible to miss this place as it sits right on the High Street. At the heart of the architectural heritage. Every visitor will walk past it.

We visited Fremantle twice. Once right at the start of our WA adventure and then again for our last day before flying back east. On our 2nd visit I had a good old chat with the owner and was pleased to find out that the business is going well. Despite being closed down due to Covid restrictions for much of the past two years. What a great shop!  If you fancy a bit of (relatively recent) retro musical history then The Record Finder is the shop you really must visit.

Inside this record collectors paradise…

For more information on this record shop check out: facebook.com/therecordfinderfremantle 

More Views of Fremantle

The legendary, original singer of Aussie rock band AC/DC was born in Scotland and moved to Melbourne when he was six. But after four years he settled in Fremantle where there is now a statue in his honour.

Today is the eighth birthday for this blog. Wow! Where does the time go?

Eight years ago I made my (first) break from the workplace. Well it was a bit more really as I had to plan my escape.

So much has happened since then – as it does of course. But the biggest change in Dani’s life is the move to Australia. Last week Dani began his fourth school year in Australia.

Back when I started this blog he was in nursery in Madrid and dressing up as Clarke Kent (aka Superman). The best way to see how he has changed is to look at one of the more recent photos side by side with one of the first…

 

Hmm… Hardly changed at all really. To me anyway.

To see my first blog post – from way back in February 2016 – click here

Now I need to get back up to speed with the posts for our Western Australia trip. And push on to blog-birthday number nine.

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Here we go, back to the WA road trip. Please remember to hit the like button, share with others who you think may like the post and (if you haven’t already) please subscribe to receive email notification of posts….

North of Perth to the Pinnacles Desert

The Pinnacles Desert is part of the Nambung National Park and lies just under 200km and about 2 hours drive north of Perth. The national park overlooks the Indian ocean and is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. For me it was as unique and fascinating as Mungo National Park (see here , here and here for posts on that site). It gives you a kind of otherworldly, surreal feeling.

Thousands of limestone pillars that seem to have been pushed up through the yellow desert sand. The place has almost a spooky allure. A place where you could easily lose yourself in the landscape and tranquility. That is of course, apart from the hordes of tourists that now visit the site. And this is a sample of what people come to see:

Incredibly this place remained largely unknown until the 1960s even though it had been surveyed and documented back in 1935. The Pinnacles area was added to the national park in 1968 and has been protected ever since.

We even saw some emus roaming the park. Here are some more photos. Enjoy…

It’s a beautiful place. One of those places that would look very different yet equally stunning at various times of day – or year. Personally I thought the vivid colours on this hot summer’s day were perfect.

Cervantes

The seaside town of Cervantes took its name from the famous Spanish writer Miguel Cervantes – but not directly. In fact the town is named after an American whaling ship called Cervantes which ran aground about a mile offshore in the area in 1844. That ship was itself named after the Spanish writer.

Cervantes lived in the same era as Shakespeare and wrote many books; the most famous being Don Quixote of course. And there is a nod to this book (as well as the old whaling ship) as you enter the town….

However tenuous the link between the township of Cervantes and the Spanish literary master  there is plenty of evidence that the builders of the town knew where Señor Cervantes was from. Most of the streets are named after Spanish towns & cities.

The small town is a holiday spot with beaches and caravan parks, but the main attraction seems to be a place called the Lobster Shack. A large restaurant attached directly to a factory processing the lobster catches provides the perfect combination. Fresh lobster meals by the thousand. It was packed! But it was worth the wait for a table and the lobster was terrific.

This part of the Western Australia coast is known as The Turquoise Coast. It is easy to see why…

The other day – 25th January – marked our third anniversary in Australia. I wrote about the 2nd anniversary last year with a recap about most of those two years being under some kind of covid marshall law. To varying degrees and depending on which country you live in etc… At least this past year was relatively back to normal.

So here we are coming to the end of January and another school year about to start. Dani is about to begin year 5. That means several things will change in school. He gets a locker for one thing which I find quite amusing. But more importantly the format of the lessons will be different. They have real science classes with experiments instead of just reading from a text book. It seems the school makes an effort to give them more responsibility and treat them as (I guess) more grown up. Dani is quite excited about it. I wonder how long that will last?

Also the first term opens with a three day camp. The kids go away to a camp-ground/bush-camp about two or three hours drive away. As far as I know all schools do something like this here in Sydney (maybe Australia?). Can anyone confirm that please?

I think it’s a great idea. They actually start doing this in year 4 in Dani’s school but last year the camp was cancelled because of… No. I refuse to say it. Sorry. But you know… So this year will be the first camp-out, away from home, for the kids in Dani’s year. I see it as a kind of character building exercise, almost a coming of age thing. I saw something similar at first hand many years ago when I worked on a kids’ summer camp in upstate New York. It’s a big thing in the USA. Those kids – some as young as six! – spent six weeks or more away from home. To some people it may seem cruel but I will be the first in line to argue that it certainly does build character. You only need to look at the older kids who have spent several summer doing the same thing.

So this start to his fourth year in school in Australia – could prove to be a kind of make or break event. I think he will either love it or hate it- nothing in between. And that may affect how the rest of the school year pans out. Let’s hope he enjoys it. We will know soon enough…

Perth Western Australia (WA)

On the map of Australia, Perth is a very long way from Sydney. By air it is about 3,300km and takes almost 5 hours! We set off on Boxing Day evening – three hours ahead of Perth time – arriving (Perth time) only 2 hours after we had taken off.

Perth City

Perth is a lot smaller than Sydney and Melbourne so much easier to get a feel for the city centre. It has the usual mix of old and new architecture. Well, “old” as in ‘original buildings’. None are really very old of course.

For me large cities are more or less the same but I did quite like Perth.

Pouring Gold at the Perth Mint

Between 1899 and 1931, more than 106 million gold sovereigns and nearly 735,000 half sovereigns were minted in this place, for use throughout the British Empire. But the making of gold sovereigns stopped when Britain abandoned the gold standard in 1931. The refinery remained busy as staff turned their skills to making fine gold bullion bars. A new facility was built in 1990 with the old mint becoming a tourist attraction.

Gold played an important role in the development of Western Australia and still does. Although the gold rush died off a long time ago there must still be plenty of nuggets on or near the surface out there in the wilds of the outback and deserts. The last (very) large nugget was found as recently as 1995 and weighs over 25kg (see photo). It is the second largest nugget in existence. These days however most gold is hidden within the ore and rocks and is extracted by the hundreds of tonnes, then processed to extract the tiny gold fragments.

The highlight of the tour was the gold pour. Most of it is captured on a video as we had front row seats. So sit back and enjoy the following video/photo montage… And see how quickly you can identify the backing song…

Fun Fact: Gold is such a good conductor that it only takes about 90 seconds for the molten metal to solidify.

 Pouring molten gold to form a Gold Bar

Here are some more photos of Perth…

While staying in Perth we made a couple of trips to Fremantle and also north up the coast. More on those trips later…

There will be a series of posts about our trip to Western Australia coming up (as promised) so please look out for those. But this weekend we had a quick trip to the Blue Mountains. I also got to see something close up that we have seen many times from the car on the main road to & from the harbour tunnel.

First, A Quick Word…

Before I continue just a couple of things I want to say. I have never done this before but I think it is worth trying to sell the blog a little. I have to suffer listening to some of the youtube garbage that Daniel watches and they seem to say the same things every time they introduce or close out their videos. So here goes…

Firstly: If you like any of the posts please hit the “Like” button. (Is there one? I think there is, but maybe as blog owner I don’t see it.) Or, as those (annoying) youtubers say, “Smash the Like button!!”
Secondly, and better still: Follow us on Twitter @beinganolddad. Also please subscribe to receive all posts via email. You may need to scroll down the page to find it but there is a place to enter your email address and subscribe. Also of course, feel free to share any posts with anyone you know who may like it.

OK, sales pitch done. Here is what we saw this weekend…

Is This One of The “Bigs” of Australia?

This “work of art” sits right behind the NSW Art Gallery in the centre of Sydney. It also overlooks the main highway leading to/from the harbour tunnel. We have passed this many times heading north on trips and returning home. I have been meaning to get a close up look at this for some time. But I never realised how big it was.

Called “The Big Matchsticks” on Google maps this piece is never listed in those lists of Big things in Australia (or “Bigs”). Not that I have seen at least. Maybe it should be. One is a complete (unused) matchstick while the other is half ‘burnt’.

As I walked away from this curious artwork it occurred to me that most kids today probably don’t know what a match is, or how to use one. You hardly ever see them now eh? Even most smokers use lighters.

Blue Mountains National Park – Quick Trip

We also took a quick trip up to the mountains – yet again! We only went as far as Glenbrook – the first port of call in the Blue Mountains National Park. But even after many trips here we hadn’t been to this particular part.

After entering the national park we went to the bottom of the valley, crossed the Glenbrook Creek and up the other side of the Glenbrook Gorge. Considering this is the first port of call in the Blue Mountains and at the lower altitudes, the views are stunning.

That was Saturday morning. Later in the day it rained and the rain and cloudy skies continued for the rest of the weekend. It’s turning into another wet summer in this part of Australia…

So, Christmas came and went but not without incident. I spent several hours of Christmas Eve morning in a hospital. My knee had swollen up and was causing a lot of pain. So much so that I genuinely thought we should cancel our planned trip to Western Australia (set to leave Boxing Day evening). Looking on the bright side, if that was the NHS in the UK I probably would have still been waiting when our flight was due to leave. Fortunately the Australian (public) health service is still far better than the disaster that is the UK’s NHS.

Always Ask For a Second Opinion (Medical or Otherwise)

After several tests, some x-rays and a second opinion – from an older more experienced doctor – I was sent home with a prescription for anti-biotics and told to rest my leg (knee) for the next two days. Easy enough as moving around was painful, even if it was just about do-able. They even told me that I could go on holiday. Great! But then I am not sure what type of holiday they thought it would be. Maybe they thought it was a week of sitting by a pool, feet up? I hadn’t told them this was a long range road trip with plenty of driving and walking involved.

All this basically meant that I did nothing for Christmas Eve and Day apart from sit on the sofa, leg up. Hardly fun but it helped. Sure enough by midday Boxing Day I felt like I could make the trip. But it wasn’t going to be easy. Little did I know at the time that shortly after my left knee had seemingly healed my right knee would suffer the exact same fate. Well; they are both the same age, and have been subjected to the exact same wear and tear over the years.

All would be fine with the aid of a walking stick. And as it was my left knee, driving the automatic hire-car would not be a problem.

Suffice to say, these knee problems seriously limited how much walking I could do and certainly cut out certain activities. This is exactly the kind of thing I feared when I started writing this blog. Any kind of illness, injury or health issues with a young (and usually hyper-active) child was something I have constantly dreaded.

At least I know what caused the problem. Not that that makes it any easier – and it can certainly happen again. The problem is at the front of the knee-cap (aka patella bone). Pain seems to come from all over the knee area but it is really only the knee-cap itself.  It is something that can happen to people who regularly work on their knees (like carpet fitters) and do not wear knee protectors. My knee-caps had become fragile after years of exercising without paying due care to them. Ironically doing regular yoga-type stretching exercises on hands and knees to help with any back pains and strains. One thing ultimately led to another etc… When they are finally fully pain free I must only do exercises on a suitable cushioned surface. Yeah, I know; like an exercise mat – DOH!!!! Easy to say, but even easier to forget come the time… We shall see.

WA Road Trip…

So please stay tuned for up-coming blog posts on our Western Australia adventure. We visited some lovely places, some a little off the beaten track.

Booderee National Park

One of the parks around Jervis Bay is the Booderee National Park. We have been there a few times on previous visits to the area but this time we went to parts of the park we had not previously seen.

We went for a two hour hike ending at Brook’s Lookout. Unfortunately we could not gain access to one of the beaches I wanted to see due to repair work on the pathways. But it is always worth reaching an ocean view in these parts.

Along the way I nearly stepped on this snake – and yes, I almost shit myself when I realised what it was.

This was the first snake we had seen in all out walks in national parks. It turns out that it is not one of many venomous varieties that live in Australia. This one is a diamond backed python. At least I think so. If anyone knows differently then please let me know…

Bherwerre Beach

After the hike we headed to the western side of the park towards Cave beach. It was over 2 years ago that we visited Cave Beach in the Booderee National Park (see details on that visit in the post here). This time we went to check out another much longer beach just around the headland. Bherwerre Beach.

Pronounced Berwerry, this beach lies at the end of a 600 metre track that runs from the camp site at the western end of Cave beach. The path takes you past Ryans swamp before leading onto the enormous 7 km long Bherwerre Beach.

Maybe it’s because this beach is so long or maybe it is down to there being so many other great beaches in the area; but you can easily find that you have the whole beach to yourself/yourselves. We did!

There was an odd mix of objects washed up by the Pacific Ocean. Among the usual seaweeds and shells were dead birds and coconuts. We walked about half the length of the beach and I spotted at least six dead birds dotted along the high tide mark.  Here are a couple of examples of the dead birds.

These birds looked like cormorants but it was hard to tell as they were slightly decomposed. Does anyone know what type of birds these are? And why are there so many dead along the high tide line?

I have two theories:
The first one is that this area has white bellied sea eagles and they may be attacking other birds to protect their nesting/hunting grounds. Is this plausible?
The second theory is that these birds are attacked from the water where they become too injured to fly off and are simply washed ashore by the tide. Possibly by sharks or dolphins. Some may be eaten but not all. Does anyone know?

One thing I do know for sure is that we haven’t seen so many dead birds on a beach before.

Are Coconuts Native to Australia?

That’s a question I can’t find a definitive answer to but I think not. My guess is the ones we saw here were carried by the ocean from, well, who knows where? Anyway, Dani decided to pick up one of the more complete coconuts to take it home. He carried it for  few kilometres and stuck to the task.

We got it back to our accommodation and I set about cutting out the centre so Dani could look inside. Not an easy task with simple kitchen knives. At least not for me. I finally got to the central “nut” and pierced a hole and poured out the “milk”. What a stench! The stuff was putrid. The actual layer of white coconut had long since dissolved leaving only a stinking slimy substance. Well, I suppose that’s what happens when it has been floating across the sea (from wherever) for many weeks or months…

And Finally…

I realise these things don’t come out too well on a mobile phone camera but the moon the other day, over the bay. It seemed unreal. Almost like something out of The Truman Show, a false light in the studio sky.