Plating up – at Dirk Hartog Island

[JohnM]

Righto, time to hit the road again.

Come tomorrow at sparrow’s, it’s off to Dirk Hartog Island for the next week.

The island is a National Park within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area and is famous for Dutch East India Company Captain Dirk Hartog, sailing the ship Eendracht from Cape Town to Batavia, leaving evidence of the first European landing on Australia’s west coast in the form of a pewter plate inscribed with details of his journey. The plate has acquired legendary status.

In 1697 the Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island and discovered Hartog's plate. He replaced it with one of his own, which included a copy of Hartog's inscription, and took the original plate home to Amsterdam, where it is still kept in the Rijksmuseum.

Dirk Hartog Island - Wikipedia

Dirk Hartog Island National Park

Apart from several campgrounds around the island, the old sheep station homestead and allied buildings are used as fully-catered lodge accommodation: Visit Dirk Hartog Island | Wirruwana. That is our destination.

There is a back-story to this trip. Originally, I booked it last year as a surprise for PJM’s birthday earlier this year. At that time DHI was only taking group bookings at the lodge during school holidays. PJM still works, being a specialist visiting consultant teacher of deaf children in the WA Education Department. That restricts normal leave to school holidays and its specialised and demanding nature, and staff shortage, severely restricts substitutes. However, I knew that she had some long service leave accrued, so I took a gamble that she would be able to snare just a few days’ in-term LSL.

In the meantime, PJM and her daughter had a credit for an Intrepid trip to Kakadu they had originally planned for 2020 but was cancelled because of covid. Behind the scenes, PJM redeemed the credit for her and me instead and surprised me with it for Christmas.

Coincidentally, my DHI booking was for the week preceding Kakadu. She had already secured some LSL for Kakadu; long story short, and not surprisingly, she could not secure extra time for DHI.

Too much secret squirrel stuff! What to do?

Rather than attempt to cancel or re-schedule, it didn’t take much for my brother’s SWMBO to grant him a leave pass . In the meantime, with the previously secretive nature of the plans now in the open, discussing it with my brother and SIL, and some friends, we have booked again for three couples in the September school holidays next year, as DHI no longer have the school holiday group booking restriction.

Win-win. My brother and I will be the advance recce party this year and we’ll ace it next year. Sweet.

Tomorrow we will drive to Denham to overnight, then on Saturday out to Steep Point to camp in preparation for the early barge vehicle transfer to DHI where we will be for five nights.

Part of the road to Steep Point is a sandy 4WD track that takes some time to traverse, so a leisurely drive out from Denham early in the day is a more sensible option than trying to barrel in direct from PER, especially in the late afternoon heading into the sun.

It also allows time for scoping Steep Point which my brother has not previously been to. The last time I was there was in 2017 when @JessicaTam and I coincidentally crossed paths at Denham and took a day trip out there (see posts 146-7: Way into the WA wilderness).



To be completed upon return.

 

[love_the_life]

Looking forward to your adventure.

 

[Major]

Also looking forward to photos of any Lechenaultia macrantha should you come across them.

 

[JohnM]

Also looking forward to photos of any Lechenaultia macrantha should you come across them.

Not possible, I’m afraid. It doesn’t occur there or anywhere along the route. In any event, it’s been a dry season around DHI and there are few wildflowers compared with the cracking last two years.

We pulled out of DHI yesterday morning and are overnighting in Dongara. Just about to hit the road for the run home.

 

[craven morehead]

 

[JohnM]

OK, home yesterday after a sensational trip. We’ll be back at DHI in 13 months and 3 days, but who’s counting!

PJM and I are shooting through to Kakadu on Tuesday, back next Sunday. I’ll only get a little more of this TR done before Tuesday and the remainder will follow after the Kakadu-do.

Day 1

Perth-Denham. We were out from my place just before 0700h and lobbed into Denham just after 1500h and 800+ clicks later.

We had time to go to the visitor centre and museum, which is well done and highly recommended. The geography, biology and history of this World Heritage Area is very deep and is covered well in the museum.

A replica of Dirk Hartog’s 1616 plate.



The French did a lot of sniffing around the west coast back in the day.



An example of the concreted shells that were commonly used for building construction.



Stromatolite information. We called in to Hamelin Pool on the way in and were disappointed to see that the boardwalk, destroyed by Cyclone Seroja in April 2021 still has not been replaced. The temporary star-picket and sheep-wire mesh fence is being easily breached by people and they are wandering over the stromatolites (just like we did in ignorance in the 1960s).



Information and replicas of the two plates: Hartog’s and Vlamingh’s replacement which, in turn, was pinched by Freycinet, but is now back in the WA Shipwrecks Museum at Fremantle.

The de Vlamingh Plate – Joy of Museums Virtual Tours

Hartog & de Vlamingh | Western Australian Museum

 

[JohnM]

Day 2

Denham-Shelter Bay campground, Steep Point.

We fuelled up and loaded another 30L of diesel on the roof. It is possible to obtain fuel on DHI but at about twice the usual cost. They advise bringing extra of your own and notifying them in advance if you have a large order for fuel.

Then back south before turning onto the Useless Loop road.



Air-down station before getting to the sandy track. Recommended tyre pressure 16-20psi.



After detouring south to False Entrance and its blowholes, which were not working on such a benign day, we returned to the main track to traverse the sand dunes. Then, rather than take the most direct route to Steep Point, we meandered along the, in places, very rocky coast track from Thunder Bay to Steep Point before setting up camp.



Whales active. We were to see many more…

 

[JohnM]

Scoping False Entrance beach.



Then back to the track towards Steep Point.



Diplolaena spp., most likely Tamala Rose, D. grandiflora (Tamala Rose). Other species are variously known as Dampier’s Rose, Kalbarri Rose, Yanchep Rose and possibly others common-named (Diplolaena - Wikipedia).



Nothing technical in the sand before the rocky coastline and more blowholes, with a whisp of action, at Thunder Bay.

 

[JohnM]

The Zuytdorp Cliffs and the monument for the Nor 6 tragedy/miracle (Nor 6 - Wikipedia).

 

[JohnM]

Close to the cape and peeling off the rocks to loop around to Steep Point the conventional way. DHI in the background.



After a full day exploring, we arrived at our designated camping spot in Shelter Bay nicely before dusk. Only several hundred metres from the barge landing site for our transfer to DHI in the morning. A beautiful evening with barely a breath of wind.



Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

 

[JohnM]

Day 3

Cometh the dawn, heralding another stunning day.



Breakfast, pack up and around to the barge landing. A car just being loaded; we’re next when the barge returns.

 

[JohnM]

We’re off the barge and onto DHI, while the barge sets off to its mooring in a protected east-side bay as there are no more transfers.

A maximum of 20 vehicles camping are allowed on DHI at any one time. Staying at the private settlement, we fell outside that National Park restriction.

 

[JohnM]

The settlement, being the site of the old sheep station homestead and ancillary buildings, is about 20km from the landing point at Cape Ransonnet. The first detour on the way is to Surf Point at the SW corner of DHI and directly across from Steep Point.



A very calm day at Surf Point, with the mainland in the distance.

A wander along the beach, with ghost crabs scuttling everywhere.

 

[JohnM]

Back to the track; next destination the Blowholes. A bit of yee-hah over the dunes on the way in.

Just as we got there, the guided day tripper excursion group from Denham rocked up.




Calm seas, so the Blowholes were not firing but they were still ‘breathing’ with lusty roars. Unlike the blowholes south of Steep Point, which are on top of the cliff, these are lower down.

 

[JohnM]

Steep Point in the distance; then whales!



Then to the settlement via ‘Anthony’s Lookout’ with its quirky gym gear.

 

[JohnM]

The Lodge - the old shearers’ quarters converted to six guest rooms.

 

[JohnM]

Inscription Bar and Café and list of station leaseholders. Sir Thomas Wardle, the last leaseholder and the driver for destocking and conservation, was famous in the 1950s for introducing the supermarket concept to WA through his ‘Tom the Cheap’ chain. He also went on to become Lord Mayor of Perth.



A walk along the beach in the afternoon and a large baler shell with the gastropod inside.



Bliss…



Cooking up some of the whiting that Shark Bay is famed for.

 

[RooFlyer]

Looks fantastic.

 

[OZDUCK]

View attachment 340851

The Lodge - the old shearers’ quarters converted to six guest rooms.

View attachment 340852View attachment 340853View attachment 340854View attachment 340855View attachment 340856

Some pretty interesting names on that 'visitors' board.

Dirk Hartog - leader of the second European expedition known to have landed on the Australian coast.

Willem de Vlamingh - named Rottnest Island, named the Swan River and was apparently the first European to lead a voyage up it.

William Dampier - English pirate and adventurer who was the first Englishman to explore the Australian continent. Also the first man to circumnavigate the world three times. Wrote a famous book about his travels and rescued Alexander Selkirk from a remote island in the Pacific. Selkirk is usually considered to have been the inspiration for the creation of Robinson Crusoe.

Francois de Saunt Alourn - claimed possession of Australia for France at Shark Bay in 1772.

Nicolas Baudin - was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific." Met Mathew Flinders in Encounter Bay South Australia in 1802.

Louis de Freycinet - was on Baudin's voyage mentioned above. was a French Navy officer. He circumnavigated the earth, and in 1811 published the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of Australia.

 

[JohnM]

Day 4

The big day today – the expedition to Cape Inscription. The island is about 80km long, but this is going to take all day. We were on the track by about 0745h, armed with a great packed lunch from the Lodge.



Barchan dunes (Barchan - Wikipedia).



Sand, interspersed with rocky sections and a lot of corrugations.