Week Commencing 25.10.10
Monday 25.10.10 - Today we visited the following attractions:
• St Francis Xavier Cathedral – This building was designed by Monsignor Hawes who arrived in Geraldton as a parish priest in 1915. The foundation stone was laid in 1916 and the building completed in 1938. We attended a guided tour which we found very informative. Notice the stripes of orange and brown inside the church.
• WA Museum – It had magnificent displays on the Abrolhos Islands maritime history and the HMAS Sydney II ship wreck.
• HMAS Sydney II Memorial – The memorial pays tribute to the 645 men lost in battle with a German Raider off the coast of WA during World War II. The memorial is made up of 645 seagulls.
Tuesday 26.10.10 – Rest day – John played golf with Tony and he and his wife Judy invited us to dinner. Lobster – yummy it was all very nice. A very late night for us oldies, I think we got home around midnight.
Wednesday 27.10.10 – Up early as we planned a day trip with Bev & Bernie to the Chapman Valley and Mullewa.
The shire of Mullewa has a population of about 1200, of whom some 60% live in the town. Rainfall averages 425 mm a year, and the district has become one of WA’s primary agricultural areas with broad-acre grain farms producing in excess of 250,000 tonnes annually.
Town Heritage Trail – A walk through the town looking at and gaining information about the town’s built heritage (and some of it’s characters)
Monsignor Hawes Heritage Walk – This takes you along a path giving details of Monsignor Hawes life and ending at Our Lady of Mt Carmel a church designed by him. Fantastic building
Oakabella Homestead – This beautifully restored homestead is situated 30km north of Geraldton and exudes historical charm. Build in 1860, the site includes a 13 room homestead, cookhouse, barn, shearing shed, stables and blacksmith’s workshop. The museum on the property has an impressive display of relics found onsite including a mid 1800’s bottle collection.
Our tour guide Loretta, a mad Irishwoman was very entertaining with her stories of ghosts and strange things that has happened to her and others. We had great fun.
Thursday 28.10.10 – John played golf and Bev and I visited the arts and craft centre which is at the Old Gaol.
Friday 29.10.10 – We had a tour of the Bureau of Met which was very interesting. We got to see them let off the weather balloon. Each Bureau in the world does this at the same time each morning and evening. We then went to the Art Gallery to view the Small Town Collection.