Murchison to Shark Bay via an Old Relative

Murchison hung on to us for longer than we may have expected. Without needing to fix a tyre, I could make use of the daylight to look around. The caravan park and facilities had only been open for about a month and being the centre of the shire, the municipal facilities were all in the area. Also adjoining the polo field was an elaborate playground, shire offices and the rammed earth museum, which is really the only thing that makes it into the travel guides. The museum contains a huge range of artefacts primarily from the first half of the 20th century during which Murchison was riding on the sheep’s back. Horse racing, blacksmithing, telephone exchanges, school of the air radios, maps, weather reporting, kitchen and laundry utensils, machinery and furniture were all represented.

As far as I could tell Murchison had no more than 5 people that I could see. Yet the playground was as elaborate as you would see in a big city specialist park, and the diesel, at $1.38, almost capital city prices. I suspect there must be some huge subsidies going on somewhere.

A quick check of the tyre indicated all well, so off we went. The 180km back to the North Coast Highway was almost as deserted as yesterday, but the scenery was more varied. We had a certain amount of elevation to lose, and we came down in a couple of main jumps, rather than gently. The vegetation grew higher, and more varied flowers were around. The overlander roadhouse marked the turnoff to Shark Bay, and apart from buying some eggs from NSW, and some apples that were old and wrinkly enough to have come from Stanthorpe last winter, we delayed no longer. There is something odd about fresh food in this part of the country. The produce in Carnarvon, only a few hundred km north of here is first rate, yet somebody told me it all goes to Perth, from which some comes back up the coast after being distributed. We have seen none though. After seeing bananas from Qld here at Shark Bay, I think that may be right.

The Old Relatives part came at Hamelin Pool. Here are found stromatolites. These are colonies of cyanobacteria, or a type of blue-green algae, that as far as I can make out, photosynthesise inorganic matter, depositing it as a rock type structure and releasing oxygen. They grow in the hyper-saline conditions at the bottom of this long bay near Shark Bay, protected by a sandbar which washes over at high tide, then evaporates, increasing the salinity of the water. Stromatolites are believed to be the first forms of life on earth, responsible for releasing the oxygen entombed in the rock and creating the oxygen atmosphere that allowed the remainder of life on earth to form. Stromatolites were discovered as fossils originally, and were believed to be extinct, before the rock like structures in the Shark Bay area, some more further south in WA, and some in the Bahamas were recognised as being living stromatolites, thus linking back 3500 million years. An old ancestor indeed.

These deep bays also accumulate vast quantities of small shells. They are ideal as an alternative for gravel pathways, and when they have been on the beach for a while, cement themselves together, yet remain soft enough to be quarried and sawn into building blocks. The Hamelin Telegraph station and surrounding buildings used these blocks, but overexploitation has led to restrictions on their use to restoration of historic facilities. The loose shells, being seen as a renewable resource, are being extracted in a managed fashion.

On our way into Shark Bay our phones livened up for the first time in a week, and brought us some bad news. We were expecting to link up with Lynne’s parents in Perth next weekend, after their whirlwind tour of the WA West Coast, as far as Exmouth. That will no longer be happening as Poppy has been taken ill and is currently in hospital in Mackay, and hence they have needed to cancel their trip.

Denham is the town of Shark Bay. It is a funny combination of seaside resort and sleepy town. Being 850km from Perth, and hundreds of km from anywhere really, it is a little too far to take off in a big boom. However, being the jump-off point for Monkey Mia and the dolphins, and all of the other natural features of the surrounding world heritage area, it has a natural attraction, so development is happening. The front has a couple of hotels, and numerous accommodation facilities, petrol stations, and a couple of basic supermarkets. However, we had trouble finding a cheap and cheerful fish and chip shop open on a Saturday evening, and the almost complete lack of people out and about seemed a little odd.

The heavy overcast weather continued through today, but still the glare on the shell beaches around here was almost overwhelming. Perhaps that is keeping people quiet. We’ll see what happens tomorrow when we go dolphin chasing.