DiNo's Travels Around Australia - 2014/2015/16/17: Day 129

Today was caravan service day so that is done - except - we found the reason for tyres scrubbing and wearing unevenly on one side. The wheels need alignment so that is now the Friday task. The upside is that we are becoming very proficient at coupling and uncoupling the van.

As usual the imagination of people never ceases to amaze us. Check out the numberplate.

130814 A number plate of which any Lexus owner would be proud

Today we visited the HMAS Sydney Memorial on a hill behind Geraldton. The memorial is quite impressive, not solely for its site and appearance or the way it is maintained but also for the symbolism in the way the elements have been designed. The focal point is a sphere comprising 645 stainless steel seagull cutouts, one for each sailor lost in the sinking. Within the sphere are a red and a green light, as on a ship, which burn perpetually. Surrounding the sphere at ground level are two granite walls into which have been etched the names of each of the sailors, their jobs on the ship and their state of origin. At the front of the site there is a three faced steel pillar, a stele, about 20m high, symbolising the bow of the ship. To one side there is a sunken fountain symbolising the depths to which the ship sank and a seagull with wings outstretched with one wing tip touching the fountain base, at the points of latitude and longitude that mark the site of the sinking. To the north, a bronze statue of a woman gazes desperately out to sea as she awaits news of the ill-fated Sydney.

The wreck of HMAS Sydney was found in March 2008.

130814 The HMAS Memorial at Geraldton

130814 The seagull in the sunken fountain

130814 The bronze statue of a woman waiting on the shore waiting for news

130814 Geraldton from the HMAS Sydney Memorial site

We also had time to visit the museum and were entertained by a staff member who related the story of the Batavia, shipwrecked on the Zuytdorp cliffs near Steep Point. One interesting aspect was that some of the Batavia's ballast, sandstone from Germany, was to be used to construct a portal on one of the forts in Batavia. The sandstone ballast was recovered from the wreck site and reconstructed in the museum.

130814 The reconstructed portal planned for the fort at the original island of Batavia

The museum also had a display featuring the machines invented by Leonardo Da Vinci. There were fifty of them which are doing a world tour currently. We were quite selective about the ones we photographed. What a man he must have been.