May 10th-11th
Nice Little spot by the King River
The Albany settlement was founded on 26 December 1826, as a military outpost of New South Wales to protect its interests from other nations with ambitions for this region. In the 1890’s the town served as a gateway to the Goldfields that were being discovered, ie Norseman. It was the colony’s only deep-water port, having a place of importance on shipping services between Britain and its Australian colonies. When Fremantle (Perth) opened up their inner harbour in 1897, the Port of Albany began to decline. Agriculture, timber and whaling became the main industry in this region.
The town also is the National Anzac Centre, because of its role during WWI. Albany was the last port of call for the troopships departing Australia in 1914 to fight in Europe. Over 42,000 Australian & NZ troops and 37 transport ships departed from Albany late in 1914 in the first two convoys. 11,000 horses accompanied the troops on these vessels and only four from NZ & one from Australia returned home
Est. 1836 Government Resident at Strawberry Hill
Spent a great day looking around the wonderful sights that Albany has to offer. Ian & Debb who we visited on Sunday highlighted a number of places to visit on a map. Wonderful choice & greatly appreciated. Nothing like a bit of local knowledge.
First stop the ocean coastline to the south, next stop Antartica, is majestic with granite rocks the only barrier to hold back the power of the sea. The Video below is the” Gap”
Ian said you should see this coast on a wild day. All the locals go down to witness this spectacle. Ian said the car park is drenched with sea water, wow would love to see that.
The Natural Bridge
The Gap
After 150 years of whaling, this last station closed in 1978. The two main whales captured were The Southern Right Whale, The Humpback Whale. They are still listed as ‘Endangered’ but numbers are encouraging, and can be seen all along the southern and eastern coast of Australia from May through to September during the breeding months.
Last Whaling Station 
King George Sound
Local Lizard sunning himself
Wind Farm 
Wonderful Coastline
Beautiful walk amongst the cliff top wind farm , through the natural bushland and dramatic rock formations.
Wise words E B White American Author
“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.”
Kayaking on the River
Town Hall 1887
On the other side of the bank is “The Tavern,” think we might wonder over for an ale on our last night.
Preparing for the last meal in Albany at dusk. Sunrise 6.53am, sunset 5.16pm. Albany boasts that they have no traffic lights in the town of 35,000 people. Lots of round-a-bouts, but traffic flows well and beautiful York Street runs down hill to the sea. Albany has a great feel to it, the layout, period buildings, history, its people, and extraordinary coastline and harbour surrounds. Top spot to visit.
Albany, has a Mediterranean warm climate whereas Perth, Western Australia has a Mediterranean hot climate. The mean annual temperature is 2.1 °C (3.7°F) cooler. That is where we are heading towards tomorrow. It is over 400klm via the coastal route, and we intend stopping along the way at some more beautiful places of interest. We have already spoken to Michael Marmo who I went to school with in 1970 when I first arrived in Australia. Looking forward to catching up with Mick & Jan ….more will be revealed soon, but I have told many many people about the spanner water metaphor, well Michael is the the person who revealed it to me.
