Indigenous History

The ancient limestones of Cape Range on North West Cape, are really good at preserving things like beads, organics, timber, even plant remains that often doesn’t survive,” Archeological finds to date, using radiocarbon dating techniques placed artefacts at 40 or 50,000 years old,.. new technology could prove people were living in the region even earlier than that. The Nyinggulu Archaeology Project, in the Cape Range is expected to span several years and incorporates Traditional owners and leading archaeologists. It has already turned up some significant finds, such as the remains of a thylacine, which are now extinct. “The thylacine was a great find, but there will be more…..This is literally the beginning of what I hope will be a new phase of documentation and research to profile the cultural values of the world heritage area, which are clearly very significant.” (Archaeologist Professor Peter Veth) 

Yardie Homestead

The earliest recorded lease of Yardie Creek Station was in March of 1889
The working sheep station was resumed by the Government in December of 1969
Most of the original Yardie Creek Station/Homestead lease is now National Park.

The Yardie Homestead Caravan Park has a hybrid power station, utilising solar energy and generators. Power restrictions include not using anything with a heating element, e.g. electric kettles, hair dryers, air conditioners. All fresh water supplied to the caravan park is produced by reverse-osmosis desalination. We cannot leave our van attached to the water supply but can refill the tanks as required. The showers now also use de-salinated rather than bore water.

The campground was empty except for us and two other guests when we arrived. It was wonderful, like camping in the desert, so quiet and the stars at night were amazing. We chose this campground as it’s close to the best snorkelling spots along the coast.

Pink Galahs

The local galahs kept us entertained, they played games together which at times was hilarious. Sometimes rolling around with a stick, chasing each other (on foot, not flying), stealing sticks off each other, stepping on someone’s tail to stop them getting away. Two were very friendly and would eat out of my hand, I called them Betty and Bob.

Some fun facts about pink galah’s from Australia Geographic & Wild Life Victoria & Wikipedia

• Galah in Australian slang means fool, clown or idiot.
• incredibly intelligent birds, capable of learning complex tricks and even mimicking human speech.
• have the IQ of a 3 year old human
• They are known for their playful antics and have been observed engaging in behaviours such as hanging upside down, swinging from branches.
• Can fly up to 70km/hr.
• They are powerful and acrobatic, and think nothing of doing loop-the-loops, and ducking through branches at speed. To see a huge flock of galahs flying like daredevils, high and low, at great speed, is one of the great sights of Australia.
• They are monogamous, having one partner for life.
• life span is about 25 years in the wild, longer in captivity
• both females and males have pink and grey feathers
• males have black eyes, females have red/orange eyes
• Adults are more brightly coloured than juveniles.
• Juveniles have a greyish breast, crown, and crest, and brown irises with whitish non-carunculated eye rings
• The lumpy , warty skin around their eyes is called carunculted skin and is an indicator of age. While smooth in juveniles, it becomes more developed with age.
• they feed on seeds, nuts, berries, fruit, roots, grubs
• being ground feeders they are susceptible to predators like foxes and feral cats
• females lays between 2-6 eggs each season
• 50% of chicks will die before 6 months old
• both parents share the job of incubating the eggs and feeding the young
• chicks will leave the nest and enter a type of bird-day care system for up to two months, with the juvenile birds of other breeding pairs.

Showing affection: Because they are monogamous, pairing for life, they display affectionate behaviours like grooming each other and ‘’kissing’.

Playing: We watched them play games every day. Doing somersaults with a stick or wrestling each other, chasing each other to steal a piece of bark.

Tim put our videos together on YouTube. The second scene is sped-up as it’s a little long.

Whistling Kites

There was a Whistling Kite nest near our camp. I’m assuming there are eggs in the nest as one parent is always sitting on it.

Exmouth

Exmouth is the only town on North West Cape, about 40 kilometres from where we were staying at Yardie Homestead. This is where we went for shopping, car repairs, post office etc. There are signs through out the town saying “Please don’t feed the Emus”. White corellas frequent the bakery’s outdoor tables.

Bundegi Beach, Exmouth Gulf

Mangrove Bay

Vlamingh Head Lighthouse

Australian Institute of Marine Science

We attended a talk by AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science) at the Exmouth Yacht Club. This group of scientists have been studying Ningaloo reef for many decades now. The first speaker talked about the Blue Carbon Project, how seaweed stores carbon dioxide and what that means for climate change. The second speaker talked on how Ningaloo Reef is fairing in the recent, more frequent and longer lasting heatwaves. From our own observation, it’s doing very poorly. We first visited Ningaloo Reef in 2019, then 2023 and now. The comparison in percentage of live coral is heartbreaking. At each place we snorkelled we searched and tried to find live coral, there was very little. Occasionally we came across a new baby coral, but that was rare. We hope to bring our grand children here one day, but our fear is that there will be nothing to see by the time they are old enough to snorkel.

Drupella , in the slide below, are little snails. They are native to the reef and feed on live coral. However when a coral is stressed, the coral gives off an odour, the Drupella go a little crazy with the smell and gorge on the stressed coral sealing its fate. Getting rid of the Drupella is not an option as they are small, native to the habitat and there are millions of them. Keeping our oceans cool so the coral doesn’t get stressed is the most beneficial answer.

The ocean generates 50 percent of the oxygen we need, absorbs 30 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90 percent of the excess heat generated by these emissions. It is not just ‘the lungs of the planet’ but also its largest ‘carbon sink’ – a vital buffer against the impacts of climate change……Ocean habitats such as seagrasses and mangroves, along with their associated food webs, can sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at rates up to four times higher than terrestrial forests can.

It was a real joy to find that Sandy, whom we had met and spent time with on One Tree Island, was living in Exmouth. She very kindly took us to some snorkelling sports that are not on the mainstream snorkelling maps.

Sea Shepherd

At Froth, the local craft brewery, Sea Shepherd Australia celebrated 10 years of fighting plastic pollution in our oceans with a film on their campaign to clear ghost nets from the ocean and beaches.

Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear – often referred to as ‘ghost gear’ or ‘ghost nets’ – is one of the most damaging types of plastic pollution found in our oceans. Ghost nets can be kilometres long and weigh up to several tonnes. Once lost or discarded, they can drift for hundreds of kilometres unchecked, causing injury or death to the many marine species that become entangled in them.

Sea Shepherd Australia recently worked with local Indigenous Rangers in South East Arnhem land on a clean up campaign. Over nine days they removed more than ten tonnes of plastic debris from twenty kilometres of coastline. This included over three tonnes of ghost gear.

Turtle Hatchlings

We have been amazed by the number of turtle nests on the beaches here. It’s like a lunar landscape. We went to several beaches on different nights to watch (Five Mile Beach, Bouden, Lakeside). Sometimes multiple nests would emerge with hundreds of hatchlings making their way down to the water. The seagulls patrol the beaches from sunset, swooping in to catch the hatchlings on the sand, while pelicans patrol the water, swimming up and down the beach ready to scoop the hatchlings up as they escape into the water.

Cyclones and Fuel Crisis

For the third time since we started this trip a year ago, we are being chased by a cyclone. First Alfred on the East coast, then Mitchell delayed our arrival at North West Cape, and now Narelle accelerating our departure. Yardie Homestead, our camp ground, and Exmouth are being hit with 240km/h winds as I write this. We feel for everyone there during this frightening time.

Added to that, we have a fuel crisis, with talk of government rationing and people panic buying, with some fuel stops already putting limits on the amount that could be purchased as well as no filling of jerry cans. The prices in Exmouth were jumping by 10c per litre each day- up to $3.20 when we left. To get home it’s unavoidable for us travel through remote areas as well as cross the Nullarbor, where fuel stops can be 300km apart. The Prime Minister has called a National Cabinet Meeting for Monday (in 4 days time) to discuss the fuel crisis – we would prefer to be on the east coast, closer to home, before that and any consequential rationing is put in place.

However, prior to all of that, we had a wonderful 5 weeks at Yardie Homestead, snorkelling Ningaloo Reef almost every day. Being out of season there were no tours and a number of stores were not open until mid April.

Snorkelling

Too many amazing underwater adventures to add here, so I will make a separate blog post and send it soon.

Cheers til next time Helen & Tim