Exmouth & Onslow

The Whale Shark Parade begins.

We love the area around Exmouth and Coral Bay. The beaches along the shore of the Ningaloo Reef are simply stunning. At this time of year, the weather is warm, around 28 to 30 degrees, and the ocean temperature is a wonderful 27 degrees, just begging you to plunge in. And of course, the Whale Sharks are here, as evidenced in our prior post. We have based ourselves in the Big 4 Cape Range Caravan Park, same as last year, as it is central and well kept. If you are going to pay the high season prices, you may as well get good facilities!

Great Puppets!

More great puppets.

Aside from the Whale Sharks, there is a lot to do around Exmouth and the Cape Range National Park. The week of our stay also coincides with the annual Whale Shark Festival, which proved to be a lot of fun. The Saturday was the big day, with a parade down the main street, then lots of organised events on the town oval. We were pleasantly surprised, how good it all was, with some great puppet floats, and plenty of exhibits and food and craft stalls to wander through. Sunday is a

The local kids put on a show.

Stalls at the fair.

day dedicated to the Whale Sharks, with all operators offering 10% discounts for that day, and WA National Parks giving free access to the Cape Range NP. We spent the morning watching the parade and checking out all the exhibits, and a few shows on the centre stage, then headed up town to Sea Salt for a coffee. We like this cafe, with its relaxed style and great coffee. Their menu has altered since we were last here, and they now offer a Tapas menu at night, so we decided that we would have Saturday night out at Sea Salt. That was a really nice evening, as we got talking to the couple at the next table, who had worked and travelled a lot along this part of the coast, and they were able to give us some good tips on places to see and stay.

Blue Horizon Charter Boat.

John gets ready to fish.

On Sunday, John decided to partake of the other great passion of this region, fishing! He booked a spot with Blue Horizon Charters, and headed off at 7.00am in search of fish. It turned out a great day. There were only 7 guys on our charter, which takes up to 16, and that would be crowded. The skipper Steve, has two young deckhands to help us with our day, and we headed out into the Exmouth Gulf towards the Muiron Islands. The journey took about 1.5 hours, and when we

Terrific Spanish Mackerel.

Fish of the day was Pete's
Golden Trevally.

anchored, it was time to fish. The day flew by, as we moved a few times, as things got a bit slow in one area, or we were getting too many small fish. The plan was that you got to keep all the legal size fish you caught yourself, plus everyone shared in any mackerel that were caught on two drifting lines that were set all day. We all took turns on the mackerel lines whenever there was a strike, and there were lots! On the day, I caught two lovely spangled emperor, which we have now consumed, and we can vouch that

Drew fillets the Spanish Mackerel.

John's spangled emperor.

these are great eating. We cooked one of them whole in the Weber BBQ, and I filleted the other, which we pan fried. Absolutely delicious. The freezer is also full of Spanish Mackerel fillets, for future brain food dinners. On the day, a young fellow by the name of Adam was the star fisherman. He caught so many fish. One guy caught nothing to keep, and most of us caught a couple, but Adam just kept reeling them in. Amazing!! Seven guys all with the same rods, same bait and fishing within a few metres of each other, and one guy gets so many! Go figure that out!! Still, it was a great day, and we had a lot to talk about over a couple of beers, as we headed back to Exmouth Harbour.

The Bar & Grill.

The Bowling Alley.

For the rest of our days in Exmouth, we just lazed around, and on our last night took a drive up the Vlamingh Point Lighthouse to watch the sunset. We left a bit early to go and visit the old US Ghost Town we'd heard about, at the back of the Harold E. Holt Naval Base. It's a great story. The US military actually established the township at Exmouth back in the 1960's at the height of the Cold War. They needed a strategic Very Low Frequency (VLF) Radio Communications

Sun sets over the Indian Ocean.

The Pool & Water Tower.

Base, and built the existing 13 tower facility. These towers range from 304 metres, to an amazing 387 metres tall, making them some of the tallest man made structures in the Southern Hemisphere. In true US style, everything was done on a grand scale. They actually built a US town on Aussie soil, complete with Water Tower (that never worked!), a Ten Pin Bowling Alley, Texas Bar & Grill, Swimming Pool, Baseball Park (Floodlit!), and all the

Oil Platform out at sea.

necessary accommodation quarters. They even drove on the right hand side of the road as all the vehicles were imported from the USA.!! They gave it back to Australia in the 1990's, and just walked away leaving everything. As Australia was only interested in the Communications station, a small staff was all that was required, so the rest has been left to Mother Nature! We continued on up to the Lighthouse, where quite a crowd was gathered to watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean. It is a sight we never tire of watching. As the dark starts to take hold, we can see the flames from the offshore oil rigs that are prolific along this section of the coast. There are literally hundreds of oil and gas rigs floating off the coast. 

Loved this shirt!

It is time for us to leave Exmouth. I am sure we will return another day. Today we are headed north to Onslow, almost 400kms away by road. We are quite enjoying the countryside this time, as it has taken on its new green coat, and looks fresh and even lush. The only place to stop along the way, apart from our compulsory morning cuppa from Carolyn's thermos, is at Nanutarra Roadhouse, where fuel is $2.00 per litre. We decide to have lunch here, as the food looks good. We each had one of the delicious home made sausage rolls, and a sandwich. That was $28.00 thank you very much, and she didn't even have the decency to wear a mask and hold a gun!!!

That's a pile of salt!

Ocean View site.

We turned off the highway, and started on the 82km each way trip into Onslow. We are only going to Onslow so we can say we've been there! The reports we've had on the town have varied between bad to really bad! In fact, back last year when staying at Kununurra, we were next to a couple who had taken a years break off work. They came from Onslow, and told us we should drive straight past the turnoff!! The road was excellent, built by Chevron to access their enormous Gas projects based around Onslow. The other big thing is salt, with Onslow being Australia's second largest salt

The Onslow Pharmacy.

Main Street Onslow.

export town. Now there's a romantic holiday picture for you, Gas Fields, Oil Rigs and Salt Mines!!! No wonder Carolyn is making threats towards me!! We make it into town. It is a two horse town, both parked outside the glue factory!!!  We find our way to the Ocean View Caravan Park, and to our surprise, we get a nice big site right beside the ocean. Might not be so bad after all! The manager Greg comes over for a chat. He is a really lovely guy. He and his wife have just moved here. They are making some changes and tidying up, as the park is run down. They have a big job ahead in attracting people here.  We find out he

The Onslow Anglican Church.

Loading Salt.

originally came from Camden, and shared some stories about a place we know quite well. Bet he wishes he was back there right now!! The caravan park is almost entirely made up of workers, with a variety of humpys, old motor homes and old caravans, surrounded by gazebos and tarpaulins. There are a few tourists like us, doing the 2 to 3 day thing. We sat down with a drink, and the midgies arrived big time, chomping on John with glee. You could hear the little buggers doing high fives as they chomped away. I hate

Spinifex Termite Mounds everywhere!

2.5 million tons of salt a year.

midgies!!!! So we packed up and went for a drive. Greg had told us that Four Mile Creek was a nice spot to fish and swim. The  water was muddy red and the tide way out. Didn't really look all that enticing. So we parked and just gazed out at the huge cranes building the new Chevron Wheatstone Project, an LNG loading facility. Just lovely!! Then it was back along the road to park at the 1.3 kilometre long salt conveyor, loading salt onto ship. It was so exciting watching the salt whizz by on the conveyor!! Can I show a girl a good time!! Carolyn gazed into my eyes and said "why on earth are we here??" We headed back to town as the sun set.

Carolyn strides the boardwalk.

The impressive War Memorial.

Next morning my stocks were looking up. We went for a walk and found the Anzac Park and the boardwalk. The memorial is really well done, facing East/West, with the sun rising and then setting through the opening. We went for a lovely walk out along the great boardwalk that ends up by the salt loader, and wandered back along the beach to the caravan park. The water is not inviting. It looks like mud flats and is a reddish brown. The beach is covered in shells, and in one part is littered with debris from when the army blew up the old pier. It was a huge structure of

On Onslow Beach near the Loader.

More of the War Memorial.

concrete, steel and timber. A guy told us they hadn't had time to clean it all up. Well I guess it was only blown up in 1983!! Whilst on the score of blowing things up, we also visited the nice little museum, where we found out that the Monte Bello Islands are just off the coast. Remember them? This is where Australia and Britain did the first Atomic Bomb tests back in the 1950's and 1960's. Onslow has got it all!! That night, the midgies came early, but I didn't care as we were settling in to watch State of Origin Game 1. If all went well, and the Blues could win, my trip to Onslow might just be salvaged. Just as Brett Morris is about to score everything goes black, not just us, the whole caravan park, in fact the whole town is in blackout. When the lights came back on it was 10 to 4. Thank God for replays. The lights stayed on the rest of the night, except in Queensland!

Under construction.

Almost complete.

They told us real estate is going ahead, with lots of new apartment complexes being built. Who on earth would want to live, or holiday here?? I guess, that seeing as almost every house has a boat parked out the front, the fishing must be good! The new architectural style, is best described as "Big Donga", as they just stick a box, on a box, on a box and weld them all together! The big complex in the middle of town is lovingly referred to by the locals as "The Detention Centre"!!! The shopping centre is two servos, a big tin shed (Grocery Store and Liquor), a medium size tin shed (Post Office and Newsagent with some clothes and camping gear), and a small tin shed (Hardware Store). Prices are astronomical! We couldn't afford to live here! In the supermarket, items are a minimum of 30% above anything we've paid. The Truss tomatoes looked really nice, but at $14.50 per kg they worked out at around $5.00 each!!! I guess it is remote.

Uncle John serves up coffee.

Fly In Fly Out by Charter Plane.

Out in front of the Visitor Centre cum Museum, we met Uncle John and his coffee truck. He made us a surprisingly good coffee, surrounded by a cloud of flies. I strained every mouthful through my teeth! He told us how he'd lived here for 3 years. He takes his coffee truck out to the airport to meet the 4 charter flights every day, that bring in the workers. He sets up outside the Visitor Centre until 10.00am each morning. He explained how the Shire Management messed up the negotiations with Chevron when in 2008, they announced their big expansion plans for the Wheatstone Project, and the fact that 2,500 new workers would be coming to the town,

Tenders go out to the Oil Rigs

2.5 million tons of salt a year.

which had a population of around 800. Chevron was told that the Shire didn't want their workers changing the fabric of the town. So Chevron built their own camps, and provide everything to the workers who Fly in and Fly out. The town never sees the workers, nor do they get any of their dollars. We were amazed that the town was so quiet. I am sure there is a compromise somewhere. The few people who live in town work in the support industries such as tug boat and lighterage, or construction. Inside the Visitor Centre we met a lovely, and very helpful, young lady, who when she found out we'd already been in town for a day, proclaimed we'd probably already seen everything! The adjoining museum, which was just a gold coin donation for entry, was well done, and you got a good sense of the history from the early pastoral days through the atomic test period and up to the latest gas boom. There were some great exhibits.

Signs of Old Onslow.

Old Onslow Cemetery.

We did take a drive out to Old Onslow. It is about 30 kms away. The whole town moved in the early 1920's. It had been a thriving pastoral district with wool the king.The town was based near the mouth of the Ashburton River, but as it silted up, a deep water port became necessary, and that was found at Beadon Creek, site of the current town. We drove out a good dirt road that followed the Ashburton River, where a number of people were free camping. We had been told that the

Onslow Pub.

Crossing the Ashburton River.

remains of the town could be seen, but all we found was an overgrown cemetery, and a number of signs proclaiming where something once stood. It was interesting, as most of the old buildings had been relocated to the new town or to other rural properties. On the way back to town we crossed the Ashburton River, but it was just more termite mounds and salt lakes. They say the river is great for fishing, with big barra being caught in season. It isn't the

The salt whizzes by.

season and the Ashburton River looks like it is floating upside down at present! Tonight is our last night in Onslow, and I'm really wrestling with what to do. The sign outside the pub says Thursday Night Special - "Chook". Probably worth a look just to see which bit you get. Hope its plucked! However, I am being drawn back to another romantic night out by the salt conveyor. There is something about that salt whizzing by!! A bag of chips and a couple of stubbies, what more could a girl want!!  Wonder if Carolyn is up for it????