Esperance WA

Cruise Ship

Esperance also known as The Bay of Isles is a scenic town on the southern coast of Western Australia with a Mediterranean -  like climate and the whitest beaches  in Australia. Esperance is one of WA’s best destinations with an abundance of spectacular beaches, National parks, natural attractions,  water activities, islands, granite headlands, rugged coastal scenery and challenging walks. The endless perfect white luminescent sand acts as a stunning contrast to the turquoise water which is majestic to the eyes.

Historically a goldfields port, the Esperance port is now the service centre for the pastoral hinterland. The Dempsters, a pioneer family of Scottish descent, were the first settlers in the town of Esperance in the 1870s.

Esperance is blessed with spectacular beaches, a perfect climate and a relaxed, laidback lifestyle with kangaroos sun baking on the beach. the Recherche Archipelago is made up of a necklace of several hundred islands, enriching the coast of this beautiful region. 

Cruise Ship

Esperance Waterfront

Iron Ore Carrier and Cruise Ship

Jock and Freddy the Frog

Memorial Day

Skylab's demise was an international media event, with merchandising, wagering on time and place of re-entry and nightly news reports. The San Francisco Examiner offered a $10,000 prize for the first piece of Skylab to be delivered to their offices. 17-year-old Stan Thornton scooped a few pieces of Skylab off the roof of his home in Esperance, Western Australia and caught the first flight to San Francisco, where he collected his prize.

Esperance Windmill

Esperance Waterfront

Dempster St.

Town Centre

Towards Waterfront

Twilight Cove

Twilight Cove

Eight Mile Beach

Blessing of the Fleet - Bandy Creek

Bandy Creek car park

Wylie Beach

Wylie Beach

Niagara Dam and Leonora

Niagara Dam provides an unusual welcoming sight for visitors. It is an oasis in the wilderness which is a very popular camping and recreational spot. The concrete dam wall, constructed in 1897-98, is 225 metres across and 18 metres high.

When the dam was being constructed by the Railways Department, there was a nearby mining community called Niagara although flourishing was in desperate need of a fresh water supply. The locomotives that were soon to be steaming along a newly constructed railway heading north from Menzies to Leonora also required a lot of the precious liquid.

The dam construction required vast amounts of powered cement to be transported in barrels by camel train all the way from Coolgardie. Niagara Dam became a white elephant once completed as the town of Niagara was virtually deserted due to the gold having run out. Niagara, only briefly boomed as a gold centre, was unique in that the town’s main intersection had a hotel on all four corners – and each had a female publican! Vast supplies of artesian water had been discovered at nearby Kookynie. 

Camping sites and toilets

Beautiful Doggy

Picnic Area

 

Leonora Town Centre

Leonora High St.

Leonora is primarily a mining town of about 401 residents, about a third of whom are of Aboriginal descent. Although the area is too arid to support intensive agriculture Leonora is the service centre for the mining, exploration and well established pastoral industry. There are a number of major gold mines in the Shire, as well as the Murrin Murin laterite nickel project.The labour Government relocated asylum seekers from Christmas Island to a former mining camp in Leonora in 2010.

Menzies and Lake Ballard

This is what the beach in front of the cafe looked like after a storm a few weeks ago. Banks washed away. Play park has gone. Car park is closed. Our house will soon be on the beach front.

 

Quinns Beach after Storm

Jindalee Cafe

Shire Town Hall

Gold was discovered in the area in 1894, Leslie Robert Menzies, a Canadian-born prospector, and John McDonald (not Jocky babes) were the first to take up a lease here in October 1894. Menzies and McDonald found many very rich nuggets and quartz specimens studded with gold.

According to the writings of Warden Owen, it was estimated that in 1896 the population was 10,000, half of whom resided in the town and the other half in the surrounding land. Despite all these hardships, the people strived to make Menzies a vibrant profitable town. Water was carted to the town from surrounding lakes and underground supplies. The Government built a dam in 1897 and in 1901 this supplied water to the residences. The railway line between Kalgoorlie and Menzies was officially opened on 22 March 1898.

Menzies at this time boasted 13 hotels, 3 banks, its own breweries and cordial factories, a Post Office with a staff of 25, a school with 205 pupils, a public library (in 1904) and 4 churches.

It is a town that has seen many changes over the years. The population is generally low (less than 100); however this can change - and has changed rapidly as mines open and close in the local area. There is a pub with food, small shop and cold beer, a Post Office, a beautiful caravan park and the old state battery, which is in mint condition and worth a look. 

Roadhouse covered in Registration Plates

Menzies Hotel

Cobber - my latest painting

Baker's Oven

Prisoner in Handcuffs

Madam

 An eerie sight in the WA Goldfields near Site 20 of the Golden Quest Discovery Trail are the 51 life-sized statues that form the "Inside Australia" exhibition by internationally renowned artist Antony Gormley through an initiative of the Perth International Arts Festival. The Statues are situated on part of the major salt Lake system for the Northern Goldfields - Lake Ballard near the town of Menzies.

The work is an installation of black abstracted steel figures standing in a 7 square kilometre area of Lake Ballard - a salt-lake which is an extreme example of the beauty of the Western Australian outback. Sunrise and sunset are the best time to walk through this extensive installation of sculptures in the landscape.

Locals in the Menzies community contributed by having their naked bodies scanned. The resulting scans were used as the basis for making accurate concentrated forms which allow attitudes and emotions embedded in posture to be revealed. The resulting sculptures cast in a special alloy of elements taken from Western Australia are life-size in height but reduced to one third of their original body volume. They are intense, taut, stick-like body-forms that will stand out against the brilliant white of the salt-lake.

Lake Ballard

Stickman at Lake Ballard

Lake Ballard 

Goongarrie Salt Lakes