Geraldton - The HMAS Sydney Memorial

Hi everyone, yesterday we visited the HMAS Sydney 11 Memorial in Geraldton.  It is a stunning tribute to the 645 sailors that died  on 11/11/1941.  I have lots more photos of Geraldton, but this blog is dedicated to the Memorial.  Below is a photo from the city centre ( the memorial is on a hill above the town ).A very moving experience.
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Walking up to the Memorial

A very moving  explanation of the Memorial, please read this if you can.

One of 2 Memorial Walls inscribed with the names of the 645 sailors that went down with the "Sydney".

Memorial Dome- it consists of 645 sculptured seagulls, each one representing a sailor that died.  Grae is standing next to the propeller.

Sculpture of the helm of HMAS Sydney

Close photo of the dome showing the individual seagulls for each sailor.

Beautiful sculpture of a woman looking out to sea, waiting for her men to come home, not knowing they will never return.

The memorial pool,  the tiles here under water show the WA coast where the Sydney was sunk. The island on the left is Dirk Hartog, in the middle is Denham & Monkey Mia.

Latitude & Longitude where the Sydney lies , depicted at the bottom of the Memorial Pool

By the Memorial Pool, again a sculpture of a seagull which represents sailors lost at sea.

May they rest in peace.

On the road to Geraldton

Hi everyone, just a quick blog.  We left Kalbarri this morning & had a relatively quick trip down to Geraldton, although it is very windy & the van moved a bit on the road.  No real problems though.  Below are some photos of the convict ruins at Lynton, near Port Gregory.  This settlement was doomed to failure & closed after 3 years.

Roadside stop near Northampton.  The country side has changed from dry bushy scrub to wheatfields & rolling hills, & finally some decent looking trees instead of little stumpy things.

A PISSED GRAEME

There is a great story behind this photo!  At 9.30 this morning we were pulled over at a breathalyser stop (they were stopping all southbound traffic) As I took this photo I asked the police woman if they had caught anyone yet. She  took a look at Grae's reading & then said,  " We have now" The reading was way above the limit, about 1.51. She asked Grae if he had been drinking- he had had ONE can of beer last night.- then we realised about 30 seconds before we were pulled over he had used a spray breath freshener. We then had to pull off the road & wait 5 minutes to be re-tested.  During this time Grae was frantically washing his mouth out with soft drink, & I was returning the dirty looks other drivers were giving us!  When he was re-tested he was a zero reading.  The police woman was really nice & apologised for giving us a fright ( she had no idea how much!)  

More Kalbarri

Hi, more photos of Kalbarri & it's surrounds. It is really such a beautiful place with the river flowing into the sea.  We had lunch at the pub today, this is the view from our outside table.

Views from the lookout, the Murchison River flowing into the sea.

Views of the river

Mystery vegetation- we have seen these plants a lot but have no idea what they are.  They just lie by the roadside attached to long runners.. The first time we saw them I thought a truck had spilled a load of oranges.  They are about the same size and smooth skinned.

Port Gregory, 60 kms south of Kalbarri.  A tiny little hamlet, some houses & a general store & a jetty.

The waves here are breaking over a rock reef about a 100 metres from shore.

Pink Lake, just behind Port Gregory.This picture doesn't do the colour justice, it really is the most amazing pink colour, apparently due to it's lead content.

Another mystery object-just sitting in a field. Maybe a crashed UFO?

Memorial just outside Kalbarri

View from the memorial of the rocks outside Kalbarri rivermouth.

Kalbarri

Hi everyone, we arrived yesterday at Kalbarri, a lovely little seaside town situated at the mouth of the Murchison River.  We had a 4 hr drive from Denham, it was interesting to see how much the countryside changed, from bushy scrub to wheat fields & the odd wildflowers. Yesterday was the first cloudy day we have had since NSW & only about 25 degrees- freezing!  Again we had lots of animals on the road from Denham to the highway, including the family of emus who seem to think a 2.5 tonne caravan travelling at 90 kms is harmless.  We are now in a nice little caravan park opposite the river mouth/beach. After we set the van up we went for a drive & took the photos below.  It is quite a dramatic coastline, very different from what we have seen further north.

Murchison River mouth at Kalbarri.

Looking north along the coastline

Looking south- the coastline turns from sand-dunes to shale at the river mouth. There is a man standing on the rocks in the middle.