Day 109 - Around Exmouth

After household duties this morning we did an afternoon jaunt around some of the features closer to the town of Exmouth.

Exmouth is a town of around 2500 permanent residents.  It claims to have 320 days a year of sunshine and today was no exception.  It is about 30km from the tip of the peninsula - North West Cape.  It is a famous tourist destination where swimming, snorkelling, coral viewing, looking for whale sharks and whales, surfing and fishing are the chief attractions built around the famous 300km long Ningaloo Reef and Marine Park.  The Cape Range National Park on the western side of the peninsula provides additional tourist attractions.

Exmouth also is the service centre for the nearby offshore oil and gas industry.  

Today we ventured about 35 km north and took in Bundegi Beach, Surfers Beach, the Mildura Wreck and the Vlamingh Heads Lighthouse.  Each of the beaches has the Ningaloo Reef off its shore and the water colours were beautiful.  Sadly there were very few breakers and the surfers were not having a whale of a time.  The Mildura wreck is that of a cattle ship which foundered on the reef in 1907.  It was used for bombing practice by the allied air forces. We were able to see, but not photograph (too far away), three offshore production platforms, 16-20km off shore, from the Vlamingh Heads Lighthouse.

240714 Bundegi Beach looking north

240714 SS Mildura wreck

240714 Surfers at Surfer's Beach

240724 The Vlamingh Heads Lighthouse

240714 View from the Vlamingh Heads Lighthouse looking NW

During the trip we passed by the Australian Naval Communication Station Harold E Holt.  Built originally jointly with the US in 1967, it plays a communication role with Australia's submarine fleet.  The US is still involved with the centres operations.  The centre comprises the world's largest Very Low Frequency transmitter and contains the second tallest structure in the southern hemisphere, a tower called Tower Zero which is 387.6m tall.  There are twelve other towers surrounding Tower Zero. It was very difficult to photograph.

240714  Sign for the communications centre.
Note the antenna design with Tower Zero in the centre

240714 The Australian Naval Communications Station Harold E Holt

240714 The Australian Naval Communications Station Harold E Holt