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Travelling along a good section of the beach north of Israelite Bay

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QUEEN VICTORIA SPRINGS TO ISRAELITE BAY, Western Australia

Our latest travels started from Kalgoorlie, WA, and headed into the semi desert country to the east where we travelled a variety of dirt roads and then sandy tracks to Queen Victoria Spring. This spring was discovered by Ernest Giles in September 1875 on his crossing of the Great Victoria Desert.

We then headed south to Balladonia and then on to Cape Arid. The section of track from the Trans Australian Railway line to the Eyre Highway was plagued by long deep sections of bulldust – probably the worse I’ve seen in the last 20 years! South of Balladonia we had muddy bog holes to contend with on our way to Cape Arid. But, this is a spectacular coastline that extends all the way to the modern town of Esperance and beyond and is worthy of a two or three week visit just on its own.

 

Bulldust north of Balladonia.

 

Our next destination was Israelite Bay, first travelling along Fisheries Road (the southern access via Point Malcolm was closed by DofEC) where it passes through grazed and ploughed farming land and then along a sandy corrugated track that past through low heath country. At a cross road near Tookle-Jenna Rock the tracks were badly eroded with, luckily, dry bog holes and just a short distance further on we skirted along the edge of Daringdella Lake. Once again this lake, which lies just a few hundred metres inland from the coast and extends for much of the way between Point Malcolm and Israelite Bay, was dry but after any rain the flat muddy pan becomes slippery and then quite quickly, very, very boggy.

Travelling along a sandy track on the way to Israelite Bay.

 

        

Track Near Mt Ragged.

There are no facilities at Israelite Bay but a maze of tracks lead to points of interest, the beach, headland and the many camping areas scattered amongst the dense scrub. Sheltered from the southerly wind that blows here pretty consistently the camp amongst the trees is a good one. The bay and surrounding coast are part of the Nuytsland Nature Reserve, a 625,344ha reserve declared in 1969 which extends along the coast for almost five hundred kilometers from Red Rocks Point in the east, south east of Madura, to Cape Pasley in the west, where it joins the Cape Arid National Park.

Coastline near Cape Arid.

 

 

Old telegraph station at Israelite Bay.

Israelite Bay is most famous for its great fishing and its historic telegraph station that operated here from 1877 to 1927. Originally built from timber the current building dates from 1896, while nearby is ‘Glencoe’, a small stone cottage built in 1883. Built around the same time as the grand new telegraph station was a timber jetty to help load the increasing volume of wool that was being produced from the sheep properties in and around the bay. Two small cemeteries also date from these pioneer times and can be seen in the area.

Old graves at Israelite Bay.

 

 

See you in the bush.

Ron and Viv.

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