Australia 9

Another event during our short stop at Turkey Creek was the arrival of several road trains that were moving mining equipment halfway around Australia from Kalgoorlie to Townsville in Queensland. The picture shows one of those trucks.

Wyndham was another of those places we tossed up whether or not to visit because it meant taking a hundred km side trip. We did go there and once again we were pleased we did and visited the Crocodile farm as well as a set of statues at Warriu Park that made quite an impact on us.

The statues commemorate the Stolen Generation - a dark event in Australian history. The statues are big and bronze and depict an Aboriginal family as they might have been in days gone by.
Like most of the smaller communities, People were very friendly, welcoming and eager to provide any information or service.

The crocodile farm breeds the creatures both for releasing back into the wild and also for manufacturing handbags and shoes and presumably for eating. They also provide a capture service to farmers and anyone else being troubled by the odd rogue saltie and there are a few of these on display with the story of their history and how many cattle beasts they had taken. One or two were mighty big but we now know that today's salt water crocodiles are nowhere near as big as they could grow if they had not been slaughtered in the earlier years. They were literally pre-historic monsters and given time could once again grow to those sizes. In the main street of Wyndham, there is a sculpture of one of the earlier animals.

Wyndham is a good example of how closely people live to salt water crocodiles. One street runs behind a row of houses and the local bakery and the other side of the narrow road is the sea frontage with the water lapping the road. I am sure the crocs must go for a walk along the street sometimes. I don't think I would be going for an evenings stroll there.

This area is also famous for its proximity to Lake Argyle - one of the world's largest hydro lakes as well as the Argyle Diamond mine. On our return from the Bungles, the pilot took us over the top of the mine which is quite big but only a tiddler compared with the Iron Ore mine we were to visit at Newman.

For those interested in discovering more about these places I suggest you start with Google on the internet. I will be pleased to provide photos by email.

The next place - Halls Creek (320km) does not have a very good reputation for making visitors feel welcome so if we find it like that, we will press on to the Mary River where we understand there is a nice camp site.