Streeter’s Jetty, Broome

One very hot day in Broome we made a quick visit to Streeter’s Jetty.  It’s not in use any more but it’s an important part of the history of Broome’s pearling industry.

You really had to watch your step going out there, especially with kids around.  It wouldn’t have been that far to fall but it would have been a really muddy landing!

The jetty used to go much further out, I think it was the longest.  See all the mangrove trees?  We were there at a good time of day, able to see the water near the end of the jetty and the mud up closer to shore.

As we stared at the mud we saw some mud skippers, then suddenly noticed these gorgeous crabs!  They were so adorable, if crabs can be adorable.  Look at that huge claw!  Those are the males.  These fiddler crabs live all up the northern west coast through WA to the NT.  We hadn’t seen these before and their colour was so striking against the mud.

We were all fascinated and watched them for awhile.  I was glad we visited when we did or we might have missed them. 

On the way out I was taking a picture of the gorgeous rocks they used to line the path.  JitterBug (8) climbed up for a picture and TurboBug (2) had to climb up with him.  JitterBug squatted to be more TurboBug’s height.  But of course little brother then had to squat like big brother.  Mama moment, it makes me smile to see how the youngest imitates his siblings all the time.

Then he wouldn’t leave until I’d snapped a picture of him by himself.  Toddlers.  :)

One of the signs had a picture of the staircase to the moon which we were hoping to see while we were here in Broome.  It happens when a vary low tide coincides with a full moon, the reflection in the  mud flats creates the illusion of a staircase.

Did I mention it was hot?  Scorching.  After this quick trip we ran for the air conditioning in the car!

Five Rivers & a Huge Croc in Wyndham

Wyndham is the northernmost town in Western Australia.  It’s about 100km north of Kununurra.  After we visited Emma Gorge we made the drive up to Wyndham to have a look at the Five Rivers Lookout.  It’s a place where five rivers empty into one before heading out to sea.

We had a look for all the rivers and gazed around at the view a bit.  Honestly the kids could not have cared less.  It was hot and windy up at the lookout and they weren’t all that impressed.  Still it was a unique spot and we thought it would be worth seeing.  Where else can you see the mouths of five rivers from one lookout?  I imagine sunset here would be quite the view.  Driving through town was interesting also as it was a bit…unkempt.

We could see remnants of the iron ore port facilities, I’m not sure if any of it is at all operational now.

These old barges tell the story of the days when the port was in full swing.  LadyBug (6) was wondering if that was a swimming pool down there!

 

This sign had me wondering what it says behind that ‘All Clear’.  What else can they change it to?  Do people really look at the sign when a cyclone is on the way? 

One more thing we had to see in Wyndham, the giant crocodile.  If I remember right it is 20m long.

We’d already been to Emma Gorge this day, we had one more stop to make on our way back to Kununurra…The Grotto!

Survivors’ Lookout & Govt House

After our tour of the oil tunnels we walked up to the nearby Survivors’ Lookout.  This is where survivors of the 1942 bombing of Darwin gathered to survey the damage in the harbour.

The view of the Darwin harbour is mostly obscured by trees now.

After Japan’s entry into the war Darwin began evacuating citizens, by the time of the bombing most of the women, children, aged, and infirmed had left the city.

According to the signs, the day of the bombing there were 46 ships in the harbour.  Eight were sunk.

Further up the road was a monument with more information about the bombing.

It shows 292 fatalities in Darwin that day, but I’ve seen several different numbers (usually lower) and it seems as though it isn’t certain.

Also nearby is the Government House, where the Administrator of the Northern Territory lives. (Territories have an Administrator rather than a Governor, and a Chief Minister rather than a Premier.)  Once a year they open the building up for public tours, wouldn’t it be lovely to see inside?  The gardens are beautiful.

This lovely coat of arms for the NT was on the gate.  Those are red kangaroos, the largest living marsupial, on the sides and a wedge-tailed eagle at the top.  Both, as you can probably guess, are emblems of the Northern Territory.

We  have seen these frangipani trees all over the place up north.  Such a symbol of the tropics with their beautiful white flowers.  The kids love collecting them but they turn brown right away.

On the way back we took the walkway over the road to get a view of the Darwin waterfront.  Our car is parked down there under one of the trees, the entrance to the tunnels is on the right of this road.

In this building there are a few shops and eateries.  There’s a free ocean water swimming lagoon behind all those trees.  If you follow the path to to the left you’ll get to the wave pool.  We made sure to visit both during our stay in Darwin, the wave pool was especially fun and one of the highlights of our stay.

We drove by nearby Parliament House but opted not to stop in for a tour.  If it was just us adults we’d probably stop in to more of these places, but we visited parliament in Canberra and that was enough for the kids for a long time to come.  Maybe Perth.  ;)

Katherine Gorge – Baruwei Lookout

Near the town of Katherine is Nitmiluk National Park.  Actually, until we got closer I’d only heard of it referred to as Katherine Gorge.  The entrance to the park is just 30km outside of Katherine.  We did one short walk while we were there, it was too hot to do much else.  We stopped in the visitor centre on the way in and they told us that if it was 30 degrees there, then it would be 40 degrees up on the escarpment.  So we quickly took off for our walk to the Baruwei Lookout before it got too hot.

The Katherine River has carved a series of deep gorges, there are thirteen in total.  You can do cruises to see some of them, or long walks to see others.  The lookout walk is part of a longer loop, we started near the visitor centre.  Did I mention it was hot?

The walk to the lookout isn’t long but it has a steep set of stairs.  Lots of stairs.  They told us at the visitor centre that the walk was about forty minutes return. 

At the top you are rewarded with beautiful views.  Of course, that’s really the point of hiking to a lookout!  This is only the first gorge.  Swimming wasn’t allowed in this one though some of the others were open for swimming.  There is some danger of crocs here though I don’t think that’s the only reason they close the gorges.  This time of year the water levels are getting lower.

It was too hot to wait for this little guy to navigate all those steps.  After he was tucked back into his spot we headed back down to the visitor centre to cool off.

After seeing those canoes in the gorge we looked into canoe rental but discovered they only allowed two people per canoe, so that wouldn’t work for us.  Our trip to Katherine Gorge was going to be a short one!