Wittenoom

Wittenoom was named for one of the locals—Frank Wittenoom. It was given this name by Frank’s partner at a nearby station, Lang Hancock, for whom Hancock Gorge is named. Today, only a handful of people remain in Wittenoom, though it was close to being a ghost town even when we visited it. The nearby asbestos [...]

Port Hedland

A long day of driving carried us from Broome to Port Hedland. The town was small enough, with a lovely location on the ocean, and it catered to my particular addiction to sea shells (bought three lovely ones), but it fell short of charming me because it was also the location of a great deal [...]

Around Broome

I spent my first day in Broome seeing some of the sights. Stuart took me first to the Japanese cemetery. Because Broome has long been a center of the pearling industry, Japanese pearl divers arrived fairly early in Broome’s history. Unfortunately, no one knew about “the bends,” or diver’s paralysis, when pearl diving was in [...]

Heading Out

Open Road

The road.
Again, the road.
It always comes to claim me, and I go,
Each time with less resistance than before,
I hardly know why it still draws me back,
its pull so strong,
or why I long for its embrace.
It is not always love, for now I find
That leaving gets more difficult with time.
And yet, I’m always faithful [...]

A Gorge-ous Day

My last day in the Northern Territory was a long one, but splendid. It started with an all-day climb/swim/boat up Katherine Gorge and ended with boarding a bus after midnight and heading for Western Australia.
Katherine Gorge, also known as Nitmiluk, is owned by the Jawoyn people, the same people whose corroboree I’d had the pleasure [...]

Elsey Station

Not far from the thermal pool is the site of the old Elsey Station, a sprawling cattle station carved out of the wilderness. This was the home of Jeannie and Aeneas Gunn at the beginning of the 20th century. It was at that time an incredibly remote location, and Jeannie Gunn was in fact [...]

Darwin’s Courthouse and Police Station

After Aquascene, Judy and I headed off for a brief walking tour of Darwin, before we had to catch our bus to Katherine. I acted as tour guide, having been around the town the day before. On foot, I was able to get photos of some sites I’d passed by bus previously, and among the [...]

Water Buffalo

The water buffalo found in the northern part of Australia are impressive and fascinating, but they are not indigenous—and they are, in fact, something of a menace. Introduced into Australia in the 1800s as work animals and as a way to supply milk and meat to settlers in remote, northern settlements, these heat-tolerant mammals from [...]

Check Out My Other Blog

I had originally thought that this blog would be all I’d need—that I’d share other travels and interests here. However, this is pretty clearly a travel blog, with most of it’s focus on Australia, so I decided to start another blog for my equally serious food interests. That blog is The World’s Fare.
The original idea [...]

Arnhem Land

Leaving Cooinda and Yellow Water behind, we began the long, rough drive deeper into the wilderness. The great, craggy walls of the Arnhem Plateau rose in the distance, looking like the lost world from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tale.
If “Arnhem” doesn’t sound like an Aboriginal name, that’s because it’s not. The top end of Australia [...]