Carnarvon

Here we are in Carnarvon – and we are pleasantly surprised by it.

You may remember we visited Carnarvon on our way north earlier this year – just for a spot of lunch on the foreshore. I wasn’t particularly enthused by the town at that time… although Andrew had a little more faith than I.  We came back with the view that we may only stay a night – to get the domestics done – and then venture north to the remote coastal areas towards Coral Bay – the Blowholes, Quobba Station, Red Bluff, Gnaraloo Station.

But we stayed four nights in town – and still haven’t done and seen it all. It’s a great place – strong on community, proud of it’s history and diversely peopled… as well as being the centre of food production in the north (you go no further than Carnarvon if you are looking for a yummy banana) and a stunning coastal playground (situated between Shark Bay Marine Park and the Ningaloo Reef).

Read more here – I think you need to. It is a well-kept secret.

The main industries in the area are salt mining, agriculture (particularly bananas, tomatoes, wool, cattle, sheep and goats), fishing (particularly prawns) and tourism.

On our first afternoon in town, once those pesky domestics were out of the way, we walked into town (on purpose, we stayed at the closest van park to the town centre), walked around the heritage precinct and then had happy hour at the Carnarvon Hotel, basking in the luscious late afternoon sunshine.

It was pretty clear from the outset that this community is very proud of it’s town and it’s heritage, depicted beautifully in the murals cleverly painted on many of the buildings (apparently all painted by locals).

Mural painted on ‘Department of Mental Health’ building

Full mural – Department of Mental Health

Parish Hall – circa early 1900s – now Gascoyne Printers. Very cleverly painted to depict the internal printing area whilst incorporating the exterior structure of the windows and door

Close up of the Gascoyne Printers mural, showing how the external window structure has been incorporated into the scene. So good!

These two pictures show the two halves of one of the murals over the Visitor’s Centre – this one showing busy one mile jetty in it’s hey-day. Beautiful stuff!

Camel Lane mural – over the visitor’s centre in Camel Lane – depicting the use of camels for transporting goods. The very wide streets in Carnarvon are testament to the wide turning-circle of these amazing camel-trains!

The Carnarvon Hotel – no thing of beauty but a great place for a late arvo drink!

The view across to the newly-established foreshore area

As you know, Andrew and I love our food – primarily freshly grown, local, organic (if possible) fruit and vegies. Carnarvon is often called the ‘food bowl of the north’ – it has an extensive agricultural area on the edge of town, growing everything from bananas (everywhere!) and tropical/citrus fruits to just about any vegetable your heart desires. It is watered by the mighty (there’s that word again…) Gascoyne River. This river (which is WA’s longest river at 865 km – so it is mighty) is said to be an ‘upside down’ river – apparently it only flows for about one third of the year, whilst the remainder of the year it flows below the dry river bed. It is in effect a huge water storage system with the river’s aquifers lying below the desert sands. This provides the town and the agricultural area with fresh water year round (and it tastes great). This is what the river looks like right now.

No diving from the bridge at this time of year

We visited the Saturday morning fresh produce markets, held weekly in the middle of town, and bought a heap of stuff (some of it organic) – and we enjoyed a ‘Church burger’ (the local church group was there, cooking a range of burgers – we had a brekky burger – we didn’t want to be smote by lightning), beautiful coffee and delectable dutch pancakes with fresh lemon.

We also dusted off the bikes and rode the affectionately named ‘fruit loop’ – a 13 km loop of road running along the river just out of town, where much of the local fruit/vegie production occurs. Along this road there are numerous roadside stalls, loaded with freshly picked produce, working on an honesty pay system.

Vicious guard dogs

An honest way of life

We enjoyed chocolate covered bananas and mango.

Mmmmmmm – Andrew shared

Mmmmmm – the mango was sooooo good, I didn’t want to share

One last word on Carnarvon food –  on our last evening in Carnarvon (because, as I write this, we have moved to just north of the town), we enjoyed a beautiful meal, prepared lovingly in KK and comprised almost entirely of fresh, local produce. We feasted on Shark Bay king prawns (entree) with a squeeze of fresh lime, followed by freshly caught local pink snapper with salad, finished off with yoghurt (not local unfortunately) and fruit (bananas of course, and passionfruit). Delicious.

I’ve got to tell you about Carnarvon history – it’s so rich. But I won’t be able to do it on this post. Just a bit to start you off, but don’t worry, there’ll be more on the next post.

During the 1960s, NASA set up a tracking station, about 10kms south of Carnarvon, to support the Gemini and Apollo space programs. The tracking station was closed in the mid-1970s and only the foundations remain. The OTC satellite earth station was established to support NASA’s  Apollo Moon Project. The dish became famous on 21 July 1969, the day of the Apollo 11 moon landing, by relaying Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon from NASA’s Canberra tracking station to Perth’s TV audience via Moree earth station – the first live telecast into WA.

Another part of Carnarvon history – amazing

There is much more to share about Carnarvon’s history and surrounds – stay tuned for more!