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Following Giles & Eyre - Part 3 - Ooldea to Port Lincoln


Part 1      Part 2  

From Ooldea we head back to the coast to Fowlers Bay where most of the early explorers started their Nullarbor journeys and as Ron Moon discovers there’s plenty of adventure and challenges for modern travellers.

We skirted along the edge of the cliff, our vehicle's wheels just a couple of metres from the sheer drop, the camber of the track tilting us alarmingly towards the ocean far below, all of which added to our nervous early morning disposition. We were really pretty safe, or that was what we kept telling ourselves, but the exposed position of the track that traversed alongside the tall, weather beaten cliffs had our hearts in our mouths and a tighter than normal grip on the steering wheel.

Luckily the scrub covered dunes that had pushed the track and our small group of adventurers right up to the edge of these tall sea cliffs quickly released their grip and our party could move back from the edge a little and breath a little more normally. It was a hell of a start to the morning's drive though!

Three days previously we had left Ooldea and struck south east across the flat, often treeless expanse of limestone covered plains towards Fowlers Bay. Giles had passed this way during his explorations in 1873 and 1875 and passed through Colona Station, then the outermost sheep property of the time. Today the property's deep red coloured, little used shearing shed stands close to the track south, just north of the Eyre Highway while other outbuildings and the old homestead itself lay in varying stages of decay and ruin, just visible nearby.

On the highway we refuelled at the nearest servo, the only petrol vehicle in the group getting a tank full of bad fuel which saw it running like a hairy goat before we carried out some emergency repairs (see box story last issue). Our track then struck near west as we found our way along little used farm roads, past old stone ruins of farm houses, yards and water tanks that had sprung up in those heady days when many thought, that 'the rain followed the plough' and a living could be made from just a few hundred acres in this semi-arid region of South Australia. Today farmers still plough the soil and much of the cleared land is considered good wheat country, but this is broad acre farming at the very least and paddocks stretch for kilometres between the occasional fence lines.

Then as we headed into large dense thickets of mallee we picked up the longest fence of all. Here in the heart of the Wahgunyah Conservation Reserve the Dog Proof Fence that stretches for thousands of kilometres across outback Australia makes its final run to the sea ... and the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight.

 

We skirted alongside 'the nettin' as the workers on the fence often called this man-made barrier, bursting out of the scrub onto the rough rocky limestone cliffs at the little visited Dog Fence Beach. The fence itself spilled over the edge of the cliff down towards the small beach that was, looking west, the only sign of a sandy enclave in the many miles of surf lined cliffs we could see.

That evening we camped amongst some dunes east of Dog Fence Beach where a rocky headland jutted out into the wind swept sea. East from our vantage point amongst the high set dunes a long sweep of beach stretched away eastwards into the sea mist. Then, after a day exploring the immediate area and taking a break from the days of beach, cliff and desert travel, our convoy again pushed east. The soft treacherous sand on the beach almost immediately forced us in amongst the scrub covered dunes, their bare white crowned crests getting higher as we got deeper amongst them. We went from the Ocock Sandhills to the vast expanse of the Wahgunyah Sandhills and then into the Chalgonippi Sandhills, the names a separate identity on the map, but in reality a continuous mass of white peaks paralleling the coast with the dune fields varying in width from 100 metres to over a kilometre.

At one point we wound our way back to the beach to find what remained of Wahgunyah Well. Located on a largish flat amongst the dunes and just up from the high tide mark, the well had long silted over. It was places like these that Eyre and his companions had looked for, and dug deep for, on their epic walk across the Bight in 1841 and they had found water amongst these very dunes, but whether it was this same spot it is hard to tell.

Later, not far from a fisherman's shack that lies on a grassy flat amongst the dunes and about 200 metres from the beach we again took to the beach, but our timing was all wrong and the high tide was washing around some low headlands that barred our way eastward. We retreated yet again, climbed a loose, rocky track up onto the low cliffs and progressed eastward along the cliff tops. Camp that evening had us overlooking a pristine stretch of coast that was a continuous line of cliffs, while dinner was taken just a few feet back from the edge with a view that you could easily die for!

 

 

 

Next morning we had our too close a call with the cliffs and then later in the day after more beach driving and cliff crawling we headed across the limestone studded flats to the crest of Scott Point. Named by Eyre after one of his faithful companions the tall headland is crowned with a cairn of stones that give an impressive view of the coast. From there we found our way onto Scott Beach for the long drive around the sweep of sand that like most started off firm at one end and was soft and boggy in the apex of the arc, where a couple of our group bogged down and a quick snatch strap recovery was called for. Then the sand firmed again as we headed for the easternmost headland and an exit from the beach into low dunes that we drove amongst to come out on yet another beach that led to the small hamlet of Fowlers Bay. Eyre had found water here behind the beach in 1841 and set up a base camp and the protected spot became the start or finishing point for other explorers including De Lisser (1865) Forrest (1870), Giles (1873 & 75) and Tietkens (1879) to name just a few.

As we headed towards Ceduna next day and an appointment with the seals at Baird Bay my eyes were drawn to the sweep of sand that stretches east away from the Fowlers Bay township. As we passed through the highway settlement of Penong and its unique tiny mobile windmills, I knew from past visits that the coast was not far away; the surf Mecca of Cactus Beach, the fishing hotspot of Port Sinclair and the oyster capital of Denial Bay were all tempting me, but our timetable was drawing to a close.

 

 

 

 

 

Next morning found us swimming and diving with the seals at Baird Bay and while Giles and Eyre would have looked at any seal more as a source of food, we're much more benevolent, preferring to swim and play with them. And there is no better place to interact with a group of friendly, playful seals than here; it's safe and you don't have to be a strong swimmer as the water is so shallow you can stand up most of the time and you let the seals come right up to you. Their friendly attitude and captivating antics win even the hardest sceptic over and you are soon trying to keep up with them as they dive and cavort around you.

 

After our incredible seal experience there's was also an opportunity to swim with a pack of wild dolphins, but this is in the open water a short distance away and the meeting, at best, is brief, but still highly charged and emotional. Needless to say, everybody got out of the water absolutely elated with the experience!

The journey south to Port Lincoln and the modern city that surrounds Boston Harbour, the best and biggest natural harbour in Australia (sorry Sydney - it's three times bigger), was for us, a bit of an anti-climax. Here though in a small park beside the highway, where Eyre had started his incredible journey west across the Great Australian Bight is a small stone monument to his name, memory and his achievement. I took a pic, silently saluted his endeavours ... and vowed to be back - there's a lot more adventure in those rarely visited beaches and cliffs that I want to experience!

Travel Planner - Kalgoorlie to Port Lincoln

The best maps for the Kalgoorlie section of the trip is Hema Map's Great Desert Tracks Maps - SW sheet. This shows the exact location of Giles' Queen Victoria Spring and all access tracks. You can check out all their maps at: www.hemamaps.com.au

Two other excellent guides are Westate Publishers, 4WD days in the Eastern Goldfields of WA and the Golden Quest Trails Association, Golden Quest Discovery Trail Guidebook.

The region around Esperance is covered in Westate Publishers, 4WD days on the South Coast of WA.

The southern coast of Australia is pretty poorly covered as far as decent mapping is concerned. You are best serviced by 1:250,000 topographic maps.

For more info check these Websites:

Kalgoorlie: www.kalgoorlieandwagoldfields.com.au
Esperance: www.visitesperance.com
Nullarbor: www.nullarbornet.com.au/towns/kalgoorlie.html
Eyre Peninsula: www.southaustralia.com/EyrePeninsula.aspx
National Parks and Reserves: www.calm.wa.gov.au, www.environment.sa.gov.au

 

Baird Bay Seals
Diving with the seals at Baird Bay has to be one of the great wildlife experiences available in the world today! For more details contact Alan and Trish Payne, ph: (08) 8626 5017, or www.bairdbay.com.

 

 

 

Hooked on Recovery
The Outback Ideas Bush Hook is a quick connect recovery hook that quickly fits into a vehicle's normal heavy-duty tow coupling receiver. Easy to use for connecting a snatch strap without the use of a shackle for a speedy snatch strap recovery, or as an anchor point for winching, the Bush Hook is rated at 10,000lb. We've been using one of these for a couple of years now for recovery operations and they have worked fine. In fact, they are so good and handy they have become a near permanent fixture to both my Patrols.
RRP is $65 and they are available at TJM and other good 4WD stores.

 

 

 

 

Article on the LOE trip in 4x4 Australia Magazine
You can also read the article that appeared in the '4x4 Australia' magazine by following the link:

http://www.loe.com.au/Loe_Pt2.pdf

 

 

 

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