The
first inhabitants of Australia arrived from the
north approximately 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. Over
thousands of years they eventually spread across the
whole landmass. These Indigenous Australians were
well established throughout Western Australia by the
time of European explorers began to arrive in the
early seventeenth century.
The
first European to visit Western Australia was a
Dutch explorer, Dirk Hartog who on 26 October 1616
landed at what is now known as Cape Inscription,
Dirk Hartog Island. For the rest of the 17th century
there were many other Dutch travellers who also,
usually unintentionally, encountered the coast. By
the late 18th century, British and French sailors
had also begun to explore the Western Australian
coast.
The Swan
Bells:
The
Swan Bells are a set of eighteen bells hanging in a
specially built 82.5 metres (271 ft)-high copper and
glass campanile in Perth, Western Australia. Taking
their name from the Swan River, which their tower
overlooks, and forming a sixteen-bell peal with two
extra chromatic notes, they are one of the largest
sets of change ringing bells in the world.
Twelve
of the set are historic bells from St
Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square in
London; six others, cast in recent times by the
Whitechapel Bell Foundry, round off the set. The St
Martin-in-the-Fields bells were donated to the State
of Western Australia as part of the 1988 Australian
bicentenary celebrations; the additional bells were
cast with a subsequent donation of metals mined in
Western Australia.
The
six newer bells include five which were presented to
the University of Western Australia, the City of
Perth and to the people of Western Australia from
the City of London, the City of Westminster and a
consortium of British and Australian mining
companies, and one bell commissioned by the Western
Australian Government.
An
in-laid path made of ceramic tiles surrounds the
tower. These come from nearly every school in
Western Australia and are arranged alphabetically by
school name. Each school's tile lists students at
that school in the year of 1999. Each child has
written his or her name as a contribution to the
Swan Bells.
Monkey Mia:
Monkey
Mia is a popular tourist resort located about 800 km
north of Perth, Western Australia. The resort is 25
km northeast of the town of Denham in the Shark Bay
Marine Park and World Heritage Site. The main
attraction is the daily feeding of the bottlenose
Dolphins that have been coming close to shore for
more than forty years. Rangers from the Department
of Environment and Conservation carefully supervise
the process .
Mia is
the Aboriginal term for home or shelter, while the
Monkey part of the name is allegedly derived from a
pearling boat called Monkey that anchored at the now
Monkey Mia in the late 19th century, during the days
when pearling was an industry in the region.
However, the Nomenclature Advisory Committee of the
Department of Lands and Survey has stated that the
most likely origins are either the pet monkeys owned
by early Malay pearlers who camped at the location,
or as a colloquialism for "sheep", or that it was
named for a schooner called Monkey that arrived in
1834.
The
area was originally gazetted in 1890 and used as a
base for the pearling and fishing industries. In the
1960s, a fisherman and his wife began feeding
Bottlenose Dolphins when returning with their catch.
As news of the dolphins coming inshore spread,
visitors started to come to see them.
In
1985, an information centre was built, and in 1988,
a special state government grant was provided to
develop roads, car parks, and facilities. In
November 1990, the waters adjoining Monkey Mia were
declared a Marine Park managed by the Department of
Conservation and Land Management. In recent years,
more attention has been given to the Aboriginal
roots of the area and their knowledge of the local
land. For visitors, the most visible evidence of
this change is the culture walks, where visitors are
taught to respect the land .
Bungle
Bungles:
Bungle
Bungle Range is the landform that is the major
component of the Purnululu National Park in Western
Australia - it is often used as a direct synonym for
the national park area.
The
distinctive beehive-shaped towers are made up of
sandstones and conglomerates (rocks composed mainly
of pebbles and boulders and cemented together by
finer material). These sedimentary formations were
deposited into the Ord Basin 375 to 350 million
years ago, when active faults were altering the
landscape. The combined effects of wind from the
Tanami Desert and rainfall over millions of years
shaped the domes.
A 7 km
diameter circular topographic feature is clearly
visible on satellite images of the Bungle Bungle
Range (Google Maps image). It is believed that this
feature is the eroded remnant of a very ancient
meteorite impact crater and is known as the
Piccaninny impact structure.
The
Horizontal Falls:
The
Horizontal Falls, also called Horizontal Waterfalls
are a natural phenomenon in the Kimberley region of
Western Australia, in Australia. Despite their name,
the Horizontal Falls aren't actual waterfalls but a
very fast moving tidal flow between two narrow
gorges of the McLarty Range located in Talbot Bay in
the Buccaneer Archipelago.
The
northern-most and seaward gorge is 20 metres wide
and the inner one is 12 metres. Above each of the
gorges are natural reservoirs of between 6 and 8 km
long which fill and empty with seawater through the
gorge openings. As the water cannot escape quickly
enough due to the narrow openings, changing tides
can give rise to a couple of metres height
difference in the sea level between both sides of
the gorges.
The
direction of the flow reverses with each turning
tide. As the tides in the Kimberley can run up to 10
metres, the flow through the Horriez (local
name) on a large tide is spectacular.
The
Pinnacles Desert:
The
Pinnacles is contained within Nambung National Park,
near the town of Cervantes, Western Australia. The
Pinnacles are limestone formations. The raw material
for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from
seashells in an earlier epoch rich in marine life.
These shells were broken down into lime rich sands
which were blown inland to form high mobile dunes.
This represented the raw material for the formation
the Pinnacles. The mechanisms through which the
Pinnacles were formed from this raw material are the
subject of some controversy.
The
Pinnacles remained relatively unknown to most
Australians until the 1960s, when the area was added
to Nambung National Park. The best season to see the
Pinnacles is spring from August to October, as the
days are mild and wildflowers start to bloom.
The
pinnacle formations are best viewed in the early
morning or late afternoon as the play of light
brings out the colours and the extended shadows of
the formations delivers a contrast that brings out
their features. Most animals in the park are
nocturnal, but emus and kangaroos can also be seen
during the daytime, more commonly in the evening or
early morning.
