Beautiful Albany

Albany's Little Beach

Albany is a city of about 30,000 people and is one of the oldest towns in WA. It was actually settled before Perth, in 1826, and is WA's first white settlement. We booked into one of the better van parks at Emu Point which is a recreational area on Middleton Bay at the entrance to Oyster Harbour.

One of their nicest beaches is Little Beach which is some 35Km to the east on Two Peoples Bay. The stairs from the car park lead directly on to the northern end of the beach.

Little Beach

It is a beautiful walk along the beach to where a giant rock stands alone against the sea. Little Beach is somewhat sheltered by the headland and is blessed with bright turquoise waters and pure white sand. We could just imagine what it would be like in the summer when the water and air temperatures were warmer.It would be perfect for families or oldies to relax on the beach and a swim in the crystal clear water.

Little Beach - Two Peoples Bay

The rock formations make this beach different from any other - they are unique and make for beautiful pictures. The surf itself is ordinary as far as good waves are concerned but the scenery more than makes up for that. This is one of the must see places when visiting Albany.

Waterfall Beach

We stopped in to see another beach near Little Beach called Waterfall Beach.Waterfall Beach is a short walk over the headland from the south side of Little Beach in the Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve.
A small waterfall winds its way to the ocean through a rock crevasse. This is a very small waterfall and in the drier weather you might even miss it. As you can see from the photo, the water is a beautiful turquoise, and the bay is sheltered from the sea.

Albany Coastline from Mt Clarence

Albany has many great walk/cycle ways and one of these went from Emu Point right along the waterfront and around Mt Clarence. We did a bike ride along here for about 10 Km and took in the magnificent views over King George Sound. Albany is located on one of the most beautiful natural harbours in the world. It would certainly rival Sydney harbour for beauty and its hard to understand why this place didn't become the capital of WA.

Albany Coastline at Entrance to Princess Royal Harbour

Albany has a medium sized port and the main use seemed to be grain. They have a large grain elevator complex which is used to ship out the products grown in the southern region of WA. This region is very fertile and has many prolific crops growing. The scenery is just fantastic and in stark contrast to the central and north of the state.
Albany was discovered by Captain Vancouver in 1791 and settled in 1826 - around 50 colonial buildings have survived and these now house museums, art and craft galleries and restaurants.

University Buildings at Albany

The photo shows one of the old buildings down near the waterfront which has been taken over by the University of WA. What a great building and location.

Replica of the Brig - Amity

One of Albany's attractions is the old brig, the Amity. This is a replica of the ship that brought Albany its first settler and convict cargo. The project to build a replica of the brig Amity commenced in 1972. When you see this full-size replica, its hard to imagine more than 50 men, together with stores, sheep and pigs, sharing this small vessel in a difficult journey that took more than six weeks.

Natural Bridge near Albany

To the south of the town and the Princes Royal harbour is a long peninsular, much of which is taken up by the world famous Torndirrup National Park. On one side of the peninsular is the local yacht club and various water sport facilities. On the southern side there are numerous natural attractions including the Gap, Natural Bridge, blowholes and a rugged coastline. The Natural Bridge is a large piece of granite rock which has been eroded over time by the huge seas of this area to form this arch.
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Albany Coastline near the Gap

This coastline has some of the roughest seas in the country with the southerly winds whipping up waves from deep in the Southern Ocean which end up crashing into the shore here. At the time of our visit the water was relatively calm but evidence of  erosion of the rocks from large waves could be easily seen. We saw a few people fishing from the rocks here and they would have to have their wits about them as the sea can change very quickly. There were numerous signs warning about the dangers.

The Gap near Albany

Next to the natural bridge is the Gap. This is a sheer chasm which you can see from the safety of a steel caged viewing platform. The spray from the crashing sea 30m below sometimes reaches the platform. It's not quite the Gap in Sydney but spectacular nevertheless. I was able to get closer than the platform to get this photo.

Diane & Peter at the Gap - Albany

Whale Cooker for Extracting Oil

Probably the most popular tourist attraction in Albany is Whale World. Whale World is situated on the site of the old Cheynes Beach Whaling Station, located on the picturesque southern coast of King George Sound in Albany. The whaling station ceased whaling operations and was decommissioned in 1978.  Now an international tourist icon and educational attraction, it is also acknowledged as one of the State's most significant tourist attractions.

Skeleton of a Blue Whale

We joined a guided tour of the operations which took an hour and a half. This was most informative and we couldn't have got the information without doing the tour. We can recommend this tour. We saw how the whales were captured just of the coast of Albany, how they were dragged out of the water and onto the cutting platforms. It was a gruesome environment with blood and whale meat everywhere.

Wildflowers at Whale World

Whale Chaser Cheynes 1V

In its heyday, the whaling station had 4 whale chaser ships which spent about 8 months a year capturing whales. It must have been a hard life as the ships were very cramped and the crew worked long hours. They were well paid though but still most of them didn't last too long in the job. The ship above was used up until the station closed in 1978.

Whale Processing Area

The tour was very descriptive with visual and interpretive displays and sound recordings of what it was like to work here. One of the ladies on our tour had toured the operations here 40 years ago as a schoolgirl and she most remembered the smell. Apparently fresh whale meat and blood has a very distinctive and horrible smell. This didn't stop the workers who mostly wore shorts and singlet with little or no protective gear.
In addition to the tour there are 3D movies, a museum, photo gallery and a whale skeleton display. It is eye opening to see up close the size of the blue whale, the biggest species.

Cheynes Beach near the Whaling Station

The picture above is the beach next to the whaling station. When the station was operating there were sometimes dozens of whales floating in these waters waiting to be dragged ashore to be processed. Our guide told us he could remember the water here being red with blood and with a continual foul smell. Seeing the beach now, this was hard to imagine.
This was the last whaling station in Australia to cease operations so it was decided to make the place into what it is today to show the public how whaling was carried out. The whale meat was processed into oil to be used in a large number of products. This use has long since passed. Although sometimes eaten, whale meat was not sought after as it apparently is in Japan today.

We could have spent more time in Albany as there was lots more to see and do, but we had to move on and headed north again up to the Stirling National park and on to Wave Rock.