A story of hardship and disappointment

With better weather we today made our way to the coast, to Windy Harbour. Today it didn’t live up to it’s name, although the sea was rough in the aftermath of the week’s gales, it was pleasant walking down to the beach and along the cliffs.

Windy Harbour itself is a small village mostly comprising holiday chalets, and a small caravan site.

We visited Point D'Entrecasteux, named after a French admiral who first sighted it and named it in 1792, to the window on the rocks, a hole in the limestone cliffs that looks down on the surf below.

From the top we could look along the coast to Tookalup and Salmon Beach, a few miles away

Originally this whole region was part of the group settlement scheme, in the 1920s British families were duped into settling the area after they were told they were coming to cleared farms and new houses, with a regular train service to Perth. In reality the land had to be cleared by themselves, their home was a tent until such time as they could build themselves a home. And there was no train to Perth!

Very few stayed longer than a year, particularly on the coast, as the sand dunes were impossible to farm, and the water was too salty to irrigate what little land was suitable.

Their loss however was our gain, because now it is a very attractive tourist area, D’entrecasteax National Park, with lovely beaches and rugged cliffs along the shoreline, and forest just a few miles inland .

Later we returned inland to Northcliffe, named after Lord Northcliffe, the press baron of the twenties that encouraged the settlers to come out here through his newspapers. He too was duped, and eventually the governments had to admit defeat and give up the experiment, leaving the immigrants with debts that they could not repay. A complete disaster.

The pioneer museum in Northcliffe tells the story, and we were fortunate enough to meet a local author/ historian who filled us in on many facts. The museum is one of the better ones, and also contains an excellent geology collection, including crystals and fossils.

Later we moved on to Walpole, where through the visitor centre we found a superb chalet on a farm, by a river.  Tonight we are watching television beside a log fire- quite a change from the cold nights we have recently spent!