Day 104: Day trip to Hopetoun and Fitzgerald River National Park


Before we drive out of town this morning, we called in at the local sports ground where to caravan park host told us there was a good display of everlasting daisies in bloom.



We then headed off to Hopetoun.


 Hopetoun is the nearest coastal town to Ravensthorpe and is also the gateway to the Fitzgerald River National Park.

To make the drive from Ravensthorpe to Hopetoun more interesting, there is a farm gate art trail in this region and many of the exhibits are along this road. It is a collection of sculptures made from scrap metals and old farm machinery. There is a bit of a wildflower theme in some of them.

The first one we see is called Scarlet Banksia. It is constructed from brushes from a street sweeper and scrap metal.


Next is Blue Boy utilising more street sweeper brushes and some old machinery tyres.



Not far down the road is this spider and web.


Some larger sculptures follow further down the road. This large watering can is the first of them


There is a sculpture of a tea set in a setting of wildflowers.


There was a side track diversion where the artists had been active.


A strong ANZAC theme on this sculpture


Resurrection of  a circa 1938 truck that had been found in the fields

A couple of others in the same area.


A stunned Mullet


Driving Miss Daisy

Soon we were in Hopetoun, but we enjoyed looking for these sometimes off the beaten track artworks.

Hopetoun is a small coastal village which under summer conditions of bright sun and warm weather, would be a tourist magnet. Today it is cold and a bit overcast, but it is still a very pretty place. We were told by the tourist info centre  in Ravensthorpe  that we had to visit Simon's Market Cafe to try his famous vanilla slice and have a coffee. We were ready for a coffee, so obliged. The vanilla slice was very good.

Afterwards we had a short walk down to the "port", had a brief chat with a WA merino farmer, and found a public toilet.


Very colourful toilets at the port and a coffee van


There is a public jetty and boat ramp



And a nice beach

To continue our trip into the Fitzgerald National Park we need to drive back out of town and head into the park on Hamersley Drive.

Fitzgerald River National Park is one of the larger National parks in WA, at 330,00 hectares. It has been classified as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (whatever that means). 

From Hopetoun we can follow the coast to Hamersley Inlet, which is sealed road. All gravel roads in the park at the moment are closed after recent weather events.

The road to Hamersley Inlet is incredibly scenic and has a great lookout stop at Barrens Lookout. Of all of the places we have stopped to look at wildflowers, this place is a standout.



Royal Hakea


Qualup bells

















Donkey Orchids







Continuing along the road to Hamersley Inlet, we call in to Caves Point to get more great coastal views and more wildflowers.


View from Caves Point Lookout













Grevillea Nudiflora


Bell Fruited Mallee

We continued on to Hamersley Inlet, which is largely a camping ground and not particularly scenic. It was very empty, not surprisingly, as it is bitterly cold at the moment. It is also the end of the coastal road from this side of the park.

Lunch is calling, so we drive back to Hopetoun along the way we came, a very scenic drive. There is the Hotel which we looked at as a lunch option, but the dining room there was empty (not a good sign) and the menu too heavy for lunch. The Bakery is our usual fall back and it was again today. A freshly made meat and salad roll was perfect.

It was a quick trip back to Ravensthorpe, I topped up the diesel for $2.65/ litre !!!, and we returned to the caravan park.

This afternoon I went for a bit of a walk around the local area, and discovered a field of native hibiscus in the paddock behind the park.



It started to rain at 5.30 pm, so we were lucky to have have fine weather for most of the day.

Tomorrow we move on to Esperance. 

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