Albany and The Great Southern Ocean

 

After a brief stop at the Walpole visitors centre, we headed along the South Coast Highway, turning off at William Bay National Park, just outside of Denmark. We donned the wind jackets and caps to walk in the wind to view Elephant Rocks, Greens Pool, Madfish Bay and Waterfall Beach. Although not great weather, it was kind of fitting as we had our first taste of the Great Southern Ocean – drizzling and windy. We were lucky to have the sun pop out occasionally – so we did get to see the crystal, green water shining every now and then. It was then onto Denmark for lunch by the river, which feeds into the Wilson Inlet. A further 50km along and we arrived in Albany. As we navigated school pick up time, our first impression was that Albany was much bigger than we thought. We crossed the town to Middleton Beach, which was our home for the next three nights. Our van site backed onto the beach, so after settling in, we walked along the sand to the end of the bay where we found an awesome boardwalk that went for several kilometres affording sweeping views of King George Sound. It was a lovely, calm, late afternoon, and we made it back to the BT by 6:00pm before the rain started again.

The next morning, although a little chilly at 12 degrees, the sun was shining as we headed off to explore Albany. First stop was The Gap and Natural Bridge, which were spectacular rock formations being pounded by thundering waves – a rather scary experience. I certainly had a good grip on my mobile phone as I shot some footage. It was then onto the Historic Whaling Musuem, where we spent several hours learning about the history of the Cheynes Beach Whaling Station. The company had three whaling chasers (boats) including the Cheynes IV, which was on display and allowed people to board and walk through. Each chaser could burn one tonne of fuel per hour – so were expensive to run. During its 28 years of operation 14,600 whales were harpooned for their valuable oil. 

The oil was used for cooking, wool, leather and textile manufacturing, and as a special lubricant for fine grade machinery. It was also used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. In the 1970’s it was considered to be the best oil available, hence it was highly valued around the world. To begin with the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company hunted humpback whales, as did other whaling companies based on the east coast of Australia. In 1963 however Humpbacks were designated a protected species as their predicted numbers had gone from 16,000 to only 500! Albany’s southern position meant that the chasers had access to the Sperm whales habitat, which enabled the company to continue whaling for a further 15 years. The government finally put a ban on whaling in Australian waters and the whaling station was closed in 1978. It was rather confronting touring the museum, but it is a part of Australia’s history and certainly was the making of Albany. As the audio at the museum was broken we were lucky enough to have a local man, Bob, who from the age of 16 worked on the Cheynes IV. Bob was very open and honest about his life as a whaler. He also acknowledged that we need to learn from history and ensure we do everything possible to look after our planet, which was nice to hear.

After several hours at the museum our next stop was beautiful Misery Beach, which was just around the corner. Misery Beach had been voted best Australian beach in 2022, so we were keen to visit. The beach had soft white sand and beautiful turquoise water, but not sure how keen we would be to swim after visiting the whaling museum and learning of the number of sharks that frequented the area! It was however very picturesque, backing onto Bald Hill at one end of the beach with lovely round, rock boulders at the other end. It was then off to see the Blowholes, but unfortunately we were greeted with another front of poor weather which meant we didn’t venture out of the car – so it was back to the van for dinner.

Wednesday morning we woke to threatening skies again so we headed to the Anzac Interpretive Memorial. This was a wonderful exhibit where we learnt that the first and second conveys of ANZACS, bound for Gallipoli, departed from Albany. As you entered the memorial, you were given a photo of one of the diggers which enabled you to follow their journey through the war. This made it very engaging and well worth visiting.

At midday we then headed 40kms from Albany up to the Porongurup National Park, to walk the Granite Skywalk. The massive ancient granite domes rise 670 metres and are accessed by metal ladders, providing exhilarating views of the landscape below. The wind was whipping as we reached the top and we held on tight to our hats! The summit walk was certainly not for the faint hearted. At first I certainly did not look down! But on my second walk out I got a bit more acclimatised to the height (and wind) and managed to look out across the beautiful view and also managed a quick look down. As we descended the ladder another weather front came across and we hid under the boulders as the rain blew in. We made it back to the car and stopped off at Castle Rock Winery for a tasting of their Riesling and Pinot Noir (purchasing a bottle of the later) as we headed back to Albany and the BT to put on a lamb roast for dinner.