This morning we set out to drive the "Fruit Loop", a 26 km journey past many plantation sales outlets, some small honesty box based, and others a more elaborate shop. Our first sop is Tipton's Plantation Roadside shop, a small shed displaying produce and an honesty box.
We bought a few items at cheap prices and moved on to Cosh Plantation Shop. There it was a different story, the had not planted any crops this tear due the cyclones and a death in the family.
The next one was an organic farm, a bit more expensive but still cheaper than the supermarkets. Then we had to drive past Humpty Dumpty, a photo op without much e4xplanation as to why it was there.
Just down the road was Borich and Sons, a Croatian run plantation which also sold some home made Croatian favourites. We bough a jar of some very nice home made Avjar.
And finally we stopped at Bumbacks who sell a lot of home made jams, relishes etc made from the local produce. It was a pretty professional outfit
Bumback's
The last part of the trail is down near the port and marina and included the local butcher and a seafood outlet. The Butcher also sold pet food and bait, and some frozen seafood. The transition between the pet food and other packaged meat was not always obvious. Most of the meat for sale was in bulk pacxks and all cryovacced or frozen.
Just down the road is the Seafood Outlet. When we turned up, it appeared to be closed, but I rang later on this afternoon and they said they are open all day. Maybe we will try again tomorrow. The was a nice cafe nearby which was a real surprise, and it was very popular with many people around our age, all seemingly coming for lunch. We had a coffee and a cinnamon scroll so big to share, we skipped lunch. It soon became clear that size of the meals was an important part of their marketing.
Mar E Sol Cafe
The fishing boat port, whilst small had some big trawlers operating out of there, and they look like they are mostly after prawns.
On the way back to our van, we called into Woolworths to buy a few items that we couldn't get from or IGA shop yesterday, or our fresh produce trip around the fruit loop, but mostly to buy some meat, as the butcher didn't have what we wanted. So wen filled the fridge and freezer, and decided to explore a couple of options provided by the information centre.
The first of which was to view something that only happens in WA, and in the North West between the months of July and September, the appearance of a native bee, the Dawsons Burrowing Bee, they are attracted the rough bluebell when it is in flower.
We had to drive out into claypan almost, where the dirt road was blocked and only pedestrian traffic was allowed from there.
Rough Bluebell
The reason for the road closure became obvious a hundred metres down the road, the bees have decided to burrow into the road surface, and whilst ever they are there, the road will be closed. They are large bees, don't sting and are totally focussed on mating and breeding. The males hunting around the various burrows hoping a female may emerge.
Having witnessed this wonder of nature we continued on in the hope we could see one of the 3 museums that have been recommended and to which we have a free pass. In this case, it is the One Mile Jetty Museum.
It turns out that this is not one museum, but 3 and the ticket office is in a rail car. In is known as the 1 Mile Jetty Heritage Project.
Rail Car / Ticket Office
This place is run by volunteers and is amazing. We first go to the 1 Mile Jetty Museum. There is a lot to absorb. Essentially this region, the Gascoyne, was sheep for wool country in it's early years, and there were a lot of sheep in this region, around 1.4 million. The pier which has been progressively destroyed by cyclones, is in a poor state and is desperately undergoing restoration which seems to be limited by funding. It is currently closed off for pedestrian access. It was orinally built to facilitate wool export exports and meat exports from the burgeoning sheep based economy.
We head to the first museum, which is the 1 mile jetty museum. It is quite disarming at the entrance as there a two
This statue is so real, the everyone was waiting for it to move
The subjecrt matter covered in this museum covered the history of this district as an agricultural centre and the role of people developing it. The move into bananas appears top have been driven by early Chinese residents who introduced bananas to this area. Later it was discovered that Cavendish Bananas from Singapore was a strain that would do best in this climate. Bananas were a very early crop here.
The prawn trawling industry never really took off, during the whaling period, as trawling yields were huge and there was no refrigeration. Whaling at the time was more profitable.
Then there was an area devoted to WW2 and the sinking of HMAS Sydney off the Gascoyne Coast, Australia's worst Naval disaster 645 lives were lost. The German ship Kormoran, disguised as a Dutch merchant vessel fired on HMAS Sydney resulting inits demise, but Kormoran also sunk as a result of return fire, but most of their sailors survived and were taken prisoner. One of Kormoran's life boats is on display in the museum.
Coming out of the museum there was a short walk to a lookout where you could get a view of what is left of the jetty.
Don't look at the Islands Statue
The 1 Mile jetty in it's current state
A small railway museum is part of the precinct and once again it covers a range of items from the history of this region.
A Naval Cutter used for exploration and an explanation below on the role of the cutter as a fast boat compared to the ships of the day
A Steam engine from the Kimberley
A Shearers Hall of Fame filled out the story of the early years of this region, which was predominantly dominated by huge sheep stations.
Finally, the third part of the heritage district is the lighthouse keepers house, well preserved and full of implements of the day.
The original light with the anchor of the Korean Star in the foreground. She was wrecked of the Quobba Coast
Lighthouse Keepers House
The main bedroom
The Kitchen
This Heritage project was much more than we expected and all credit goes to the enthusiastic volunteers who keep this going, and growing.
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