Time for a drive today , we head south toward Greenough - an old settlement from the 1800's . But before that we head to the Greenough Rivermouth , and Double Beach .
We are only 10 mins down the road and we take the turnoff to the river , and arrive shortly after . The views up & down the river were typical coastal low shrubbery with a nice river flowing through .
Flowing might be a bit of an overstatement , because there is a bar of sand blocking it off from the ocean , but the flock of pelicans on the corner seem to like it .
We drove down to the beach to find - surprisingly - cars on the beach , some camping , others swimming and surfing and exercising their dogs .
Leaving the beach we take another road that follows the river for quite a way , then rejoin the highway and continue on to Central Greenough . On the way we pass another tree that has adapted to life here .
It's a river gum , and has been belted by the wind for all it's life , there are other trees like it around this area as well . The trees on Geraldton Golf Course aren't this bad , but you can tell which way the wind comes from in many places !
We pulled in to the National Trust Village of Central Greenough , paid the entry fee - $7 each - and wander into the site . The is a tar road going through the site , but is gated off to the general public . It is fenced off - to keep the alpaca's in I think - and all the buildings are accessible . We start at the school house , a small stone building , 6 windows & a door , with a shingle roof .
Onward with our walking tour , the next building was very large - it was the police station / residence / courthouse / jail and stables - even the stables had barred windows !!
Inside there is a small courtroom -
Some jail cells -
as well as a small kitchen , and a room for visiting doctors . There was a walled yard for prisoners with an outhouse ( thunderbox ) . The backyard has a wall all round , an old stable building and another outhous
Off next door to St Catherines Church - it is still in use as a church .
There is a small building beside that is The Greenough Roads Board Office , then St Catherines Hall . That was it for the eastern side of the road , now it was over the road to the west side . First up was Hacketts Cottage - built by Ned & Harriet , they ran the store , he was also the blacksmith , cobbler , carpenter and undertaker !! A versatile man !!
The next buildings were the Presbytery and Goodwins Cottage , then St Peter's Church - also still in use !!
Goodwins Cottage was built by the catholic church in 1890 , for retired policeman Ned Goodwin , till his death in 1912 , when it reverted to the church , and was used as a school till 1958 .
St Peter's Catholic Church was beside it .
Outside the church was a flowering tree - not sure what type , but here's a photo .
We walked around to the convent , before heading back to the cafe - which served as a store from 1886 till 1936 . It doubles a a gift shop as well .
We headed off to Flat Rock Beach for lunch , chatting to a surfer - about our age - from Geraldton .
Nothing jumped up and grabbed us here , so we took off toward the east toward Walkaway , and out to Ellendale Pool . We stopped along the way at a viewing area , to see all the wind turbines - there were over 70 of them . They have one of the blades on display , so you can get an idea of the size & scale of them - the ute is parked beside it .
You could park the ute inside one !!
Down the road and down the hill to reach Ellendale Pool - an area beside a beautiful section of the Greenough River . You can also camp here - it's $5 a night - pretty good value .
Back to Geraldton via Walkaway - a small village that used to be beside the railway , there's a tavern , a railway museum and a store & several houses .
We checked out the sporting facilities in Geraldton - horse race track , golf course , Afl ground , hockey , soccer , lawn bowls , badminton , little athletics , netball , basketball , tennis , a skatepark and an aqua-arena - they do there sports over here !!!
Back to Fishermans Wharf - not far from where we are staying - there are lots of boats in dry dock - lots of very large boats !!! Some were cray boats , but there were a lot of others as well .
The weather didn't change much all day , till we got some rain showers later - yes , Rain !!!!
Back to the RV for some salsa & a beer . Sorry I can't add maps at the moment .
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