Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing

Halls Creek is another Aboriginal town with a small variety of shops. Despite the dusty and arid van park, we did enjoy their refreshing pool for a few swims.  We drove out to see the China Wall, which was a wall of quartz, about 30 feet high.  You just wonder how such things got there!  We were travelling on dirt roads.  We also found a real billabong there with beautiful river gums.  We drove on and found Caroline's Pool. In his hey-day Halls Creek was the gold capital of WA.  Gold was first found in WA at this place in the 1800's and up sprung a large town.  The river is still flowing beautifully there and all is green.  The old town was fascinating and we saw the building that used to be the Post Office, a large building made of mud brick, still standing with its ornate fire place also of mud brick. There is a strong history there of The Inland Mission and the clinics that the nurses ran for the mission.  There is a rather destitute caravan park still out there. The sun was setting and we came back the next day to try and get a few photos in daylight.  Caroline's pool used to be the picnic and recreation centre for the old town of Halls Creek.  It was truly beautiful.  I don't think we quite captured the feeling in our photos.  It is a large, deep expanse of river water, which dries up a bit in summer.  People were camped there with vans on the sandy creek bed.  No crocs, apparently. and people were enjoying a swim.

 

We bravely carried on to a romantic sounding place calls Palm Springs.  Well, it was a bit of a surprise, not what we expected, with half a dozen young folk swimming there, then Aboriginees came and had a dip there also.  The road was pretty bad, and on the way home we got a flat tyre. Graeme did not know how to get the spare from under the truck, where it lives.  Within seconds of us stopping, two couples stopped to help us and took over the job, got the spare out, changed the wheel over, while the two girls chatted to me and kept me company. They were Jehovas Witnesses and we were glad of their kindness.  They also suggested where we should stay at The Lodge, Fitzroy Crossing.   We had the tyre repaired,   We need stronger tyres for the outback roads.

 

At Fizroy Crossing we found The Lodge, which is about 5 star accommodation.  Everything is built up high off the ground, because the Fitzroy River floods up very high and it is on at least one side of the van park.

It is a delightful place to stay.  We firstly took off to cross the Fitzroy Crossing, which is on one of the boundary roads to The Lodge.  We continued on to the barge which carried us gleefully down the Geikie Gorge. It is a wonder all of its own.  The walls stand very high and at the base the walls are pure white (an old coral reef from past times) and above the white are the Kimberley reds and browns towering even higher.  There are about 400 crocks in this part of the river.  They ignored us for the most part.  They are fairly friendly, smaller than some we have seen.   A note about crocks:  When the hatchling crocodiles escape their eggs, they make a noise which alerts all the female crocks that they have arrived.  Any female will come and hunt them off down to the water.  However, many things like to eat little crocks including Barramundi, if they catch one.

 

The Geike Gorge was absolutely wonderful to behold.  Well worth the trip to come and travel on it. We hope our photos will convey a little of it to you. The visitors' shed shows the heights the river has flooded to in various years.   It must be unimaginable to see it in flood. 

 

Caroline's Pool, Halls Creek

China Wall Halls Creek

Creek Crossing

Eagle flying near Fitzroy Crossing

Fire and termites

Geikie Gorge, Fitzroy Crossing

Old marine reef, Geikie Gorge, Fitzroy Crossing

Palm Springs, Halls Creek

Palm Springs, Halls Creek

Geikie Gorge, Fitzroy Crossing

 

Something fascinated me here.  It was the big modern service station.  It has been built of rammed earth.  This is both outside and inside.  The roof over the petrol pumps is held up by four huge logs.  Inside it is as clean as the most newly built modern supermarket would be. The Aboriginees seem to be the best customers. The servo also has two houses built in the same manner, but I could not get a photo of them.  What a cool way to build.