28^th August: Geraldton

April duly arrived this morning while I washed. (Tissue in the sheets and then a line broke spilling all my towels onto the ground! Grass not red dirt thank goodness!)

We visited the HMAS Sydney II Memorial first. There have been a number of them along the coast but this is the most spectacular and the most moving. (For those of you who don't know the story of the Sydney, she was a light destroyer returning from delivering troops up at the Sunda Straits when she came upon a strange merchant ship. As the Sydney approached to investigate, the disguise was dropped and the Kormoran, a german raider, opened fire. The Sydney burst into flames and sank as she burned with all 645 sailors perishing.The Kormoran was badly damaged and the captain sank it with their own bombs (they were laying them off the coast to disrupt shipping) and all but 90 of the crew survived in life boats. It was the worst naval disaster Australia ever experienced as, apparently this was 1/3 of the navy!)

The memorial is full of symbols: the curved black walls containing the names of all 645 men representing the open arms of all Australia waiting to welcome them home; the seven posts (the states) supporting a dome made of 645 seagulls soaring up to heaven (the souls of the dead men); the upturned propellors (a sign of a dead ship); the eternal flames above; the intricate patterned mosaic floor made of polished granite (representing the waves and the comings and goings of the Sydney.

Add to this the bronze statue of a woman gazing out to sea, symbolising all the women who waited anxiously for sons, husbands, fathers, brothers. (Ironically, although put there in 2001, she is gazing in the exact direction of the site of the wreck of the Sydney discovered in 2008!) There is a stele representing the bow of a ship, the same height as the Sydney's and , again ironically, it mirrors the shape of part of the wreck. Searchers found that the ship sank because the bow had been sheered off by torpedoes and went straight down to stand in the sand like an arrow, exactly like the stele (or standing stone)

Since we went last time, there is an addition, “celebrating” the discovery of the wreck in 2008. It isvery moving too. The leader of the search team (the one involved in the search for that Malaysian aircraft in the Indian Ocean somewhere) thoughty that if he could find the Kormoran, he would find the Sydney and, four days after he found the German ship, he found the Sydney. This new part of the memorial is, instead of reaching for the heavens, is sinking into the depths. Like the concentric circles and steps up around the dome symbolising the circle of life and death ,this is concentric circle of steps down to a base which s granite inlaid in the outline of the coast and sea arfound Shark Bay. 644 seagulls fly around the bottom step and the 645^th stans 2 metres high on its wing tip indicating the exact location of the wreck and so the bodies of the sailors. (The co-ordinates are written there.) A waterfall around the base symbolises the water eternally flowing over the wreck.

It is brillant and very moving. (We went on the guided tour. A Rotorian, the guide told lots of little stories related to the main one.)

While we were there, we watched another ship dock in the port. This is a very busy port but not as large as the others. However, as well as iron ore from the centre, they are also a wheat and other cereals export facility and there many large silos and sheds for storage of grain. The next crop is due for harvesting soon and they are hoping to clear out some of the sheds.

In the afternoon, we went to the Museum. They have a fantastic display on the wrecks along the coast including the story of the Batavia. Glen and I have seen this (when we were stranded in Geraldton when the cyclone redirected our cruise 10 yrs ago) and so we decided to pay to see the Leornado Da Vinci display. A young guy and his father in Italy have made working models of many of the machines Da Vinvi drew and they are on display as well as digital copies of some of his paintings. Replicas of many of his war machines are there as well as a coupleof this flying machines. But the most remarkable are the instruments he designed to lift materials more easily as well as digging machines, many of which are the basis of many machines today. He understood the pronciples related to the lever, the pulley, gears and corkscrew and used them extensively. A fascinating display.

This is the first mobile, armoured tank!  Designed to hold half a dozen men who worked the gears to move it, there was a turret which contained a number of canons that could shoot in all directions at once.

 

 The first bicycle with a flexible chain.

We cut short our visit here as I had appointments for hair and nails. All new again! But it does take time. Hopefully, they wiill last for 6 weeks until I get home!