Week37/52 - escape Wyndham's heat at Marlgu Billabong

Hi everyone, and welcome to week 37 of my 52 week tour Downunder Western Australia, where I take your around my magnificent state.

This week we go to the most northern port in Western Australia Wyndham. It was a very hot day when we were there - around 35C and the hottest place in the State that day - and it certainly felt like it - hot and still and not a breath of moving air. The heat radiated off everything and we felt enveloped by the heat haze. After taking in the sights, we were glad to be able to escape with a visit to beautiful Parry Lagoon and Marlgu Billabong along with a host of water birds, beautiful waterlillies, and the resident salt water crocodile looking for lunch! .....so we won't be swimming!

But first Wyndham. 101 kilometres north of our last destination, Kununurra, and established in 1886, Wyndham was originally a tiny port used mainly for exporting cattle to Perth and overseas. The State's first gold rush at Halls Creek boosted the town, and in 1919 a meatworks opened. The meatworks has long since closed and Wyndham today survives on tourism.

Here is a photo of the wharf - now used mainly to service fishing boats heading out into Cambridge Gulf and the Timor Sea. The plants growing on the edge of the water are mangroves. Can you see the heat haze and feel the heat?

From Western Australia

I thought this floating jetty was rather amazing - it floats up with the tides which rise many metres every day around here. The jetty is connected by collars to those poles and floats up as the tide comes in - amazing.

From Western Australia

A visit to Wyndham is not complete without a visit to The Bastion Five Rivers Lookout. From here you can see Cambrdige Gulf and the convergence of the Forrest, Pentecost, King, Durack and Ord Rivers. They say it is best viewed early morning, however we were there at mid-day - hence the heat haze. In the foreground on the RHS of the photo you can see the mud on the tidal flats as the tide has gone out.

From Western Australia

And this would have to be one of my favourite photos - boab trees on the way to Parry's lagoon. I love the starkness of this scene - very Australian.

From Western Australia

After Wyndham's heat it was a relief to visit Marlgu Billabong in the Parry Lagoon Nature Reserve south of Wyndham. The reserve covers 36,000 hectares and part of the extensive Ord River flood plains. The fragile wetland system is recognised as an area of international significance. It is a wonderful place for bird watching (including migratory birds) and there is a board walk and bird-hide.

Here is a view of the Billabong from nearby Telegraph Hill where you can see the ruins of the old wireless station built in 1914 built to assist ships entering Wyndham and also used during WWII. In the foreground you can see some more boab trees - native to the Kimberley. They sometimes grow in clumps - probably from where seeds have dropped. They get their bulbous shape from the water that is stored in the wood of their trunk - the older the tree the bigger the bulge.

From Western Australia

a closer view of the Billabong.

From Western Australia

Wading birds at the Billabong - they "walk on water" by stepping from lilly pad to lilly pad.

From Western Australia

Another one of Australia's native birds - the brolga. Pairs do a beautiful mating dance.

From Western Australia

well the afternoon has passed blissfully by but not without some drama - here are some shots on the Billabong....

As we were sitting enjoying the scene from the bird hide, this is what we saw sliding through the water - this is a salt water crocodile - the dangerous kind and definitely not to be messed with...these will eat you!..... he was looking for dinner.... We wondered why the bird hide was lined with steel mesh!!

From Western Australia

He stalked some birds on the bank but I don't know if he wasn't serious or they bluffed him, but he didn't get one - not while we were watching anyway.... I wished I had my bigger zoom and that he wasn't so well hidden in the shade.....

From Western Australia

This photo is not from the Billabong, but one I wanted to share with you from south of the Billabong at "The Grotto" - these are the roots of a rock fig tree - amazing how they cling to the rock walls looking for a tiny crack to reach some nutrients.....

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And I found this road very interesting. It is called the Old Halls Creek-Wyndham Road. It was built around 1894 at the time of the Halls Creek gold rush. The stone blocks were laid down by convicts. The rocks helped identify the track during the dry and helped to relocate it after the wet!

From Western Australia