terbang wrote:
Karri gum trees in the Valley of the Giants
Terbang
your wonderful photo of the eucalyptus (gum) trees reminds me of a very important painting by an early Australian colonial artist John Glover.
Early colonial artists really struggled with the sinuous wavy forms of Australia’s native trees, but Glover captured them perfectly. Except that viewers back in Europe refused to believe that trees could look so ‘weird’. The Glover paintings are also an important record of Aboriginal life, which was soon after severely ‘disrupted’ by European settlers.
Early colonial artists really struggled with the sinuous wavy forms of Australia’s native trees, but Glover captured them perfectly.
That‘s really interesting! We were intrigued by these trees from the first moment, especially Mrs. terbang. We once talked to a very nice lady in Melbourne, the wife of a fellow pilot. She is very well traveled and spent a lot of time abroad. She told us, she didn’t suffer much from home sickness but when she did, she thought about these trees, their unique shape and grey green color.
Up the West Coast
Unfortunately January is not the best time to visit the northern part of Western Australia, on the contrary. We would have loved to see the inland but it’s unbearably hot there that time of the year, there are frequent thunderstorms and bush fires. Therefore we decided to stay near the coast. Attractions on the way are few and far between, therefore legs to Broome were rather long.
Up the Western Australian Coast
We left Perth on a sunny but windy morning for Shark Bay, YSHB. Despite the wind it wasn’t too bumpy, so we stayed down low once again. Vegetation gets scarce quickly north of Perth and the outback desert starts to reach the sea.
Leaving Perth
Fremantle
Bushfire close to the coast
Along the coast
Approaching Shark Bay
Holy crab, cross wind 🤣
Shark Bay is a world heritage area at the very western end of the Australian continent. The bay is shallow and it’s the largest area of seagrass on the planet. This supports an abundance of marine life – not only sharks but also sea cows, turtles and dolphins can be seen. Peron Peninsula protrudes into the bay and this is where the action is. YSHB is located in the center while the town of Denham is to the West and the resort of Monkey Mia is to the East of the peninsula. We stayed in town and visited the resort just for a day. It’s famous for dolphins showing up each morning. On shore there are allegedly some very nice hikes and many kangaroos and emus might be spotted, but it was simply too hot to do any serious hiking. A few short walks had to do.
The dark areas are seagrass
A short walk along the beach
Emus are abundant
Dolphins at Monkey Mia
There is no fuel at YSHB, so we had to fly over to Carnarvon, YCAR, not far to the northeast. However, we had skipped the scenic flight around the bay when we arrived, so we did it on departure. We were told that the bay is spectacular from the air but unfortunately it was very hazy that day. One interesting feature is the solar salt operation in the western part of the bay. The area goes by the funny name Useless Loop.
Little Lagoon on Peron Peninsula
Useless Loop
Monkey Mia
Faure Island in the eastern part of the bay
Short final 18 at YCAR
Carnarvon is the only settlement of any size on the central west coast and it’s an easy walk from the airport to town so we decided to spend a nite there. However, besides the old jetty interesting sites are scarce, so I had some time to do a write-up for EuroGA before dinner 😉.
Carnarvon’s waterfront
The old jetty
The only place with some tourism infrastructure on the coast between Shark Bay and Broome is Exmouth, so that was our next destination. There is a small field close to town, but there are no rental cars available and there are no taxis either, therefore we flew to Learmonth, YPLM, about 30 kilometers to the south. It was still a bit hazy, but not as bad as the day before. It was another nice low level flight along the coast.
Leaving Carnarvon
McLeod Lake
Pelican Point
Turning final 18 at YPLM
The town of Exmouth was only established in 1967 to support the nearby US navy base. Today it’s famous for visiting whale sharks, but they don’t visit in January. Again there are nice hikes in the area, but it was too hot again and – being closer to the tropics – quite humid. For the technically minded the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station is quite interesting. It’s a huge VLF transmission facility that can send messages to submerged US submarines in the Indian Ocean.
Bundegi Beach north of Exmouth
Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt
Wreck of the steamer Mildura, off the coast
Our last domestic leg in Australia took us to Broome, YBRM. It was a rather long flight and we decided to do it at 5500’ to avoid the worst of the thermals. Nevertheless we could enjoy the scenery as the haze had finally cleared up a bit. We followed the coast one last time. It got greener and greener again and there were some impressive ports and mines to be seen.
Take-off at YPLM
Burnside and Simpson Island Nature Reserve
A closer look at the mangroves
Sino iron ore mine between Mardie and Karratha
Port Headland
Turning final 28 at YBRM
Broome came to life as a pearl hunting base. Today there still are pearl farms in the area but it’s mainly a tourist town now. The climate is very hot and humid but the town is a pleasant place. We visited a few of the tourist attractions, but we mainly prepared our long return trip that would commence here. And of course we had to say goodbye to Australia, a country we really fell in love with.
Gantheaume Point near Broome
Mangroves
Salties at Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park
Two last pints of Australian ale
My last Vegemite sandwich
Early morning departure
Our Australian loop
Within a little over two months we flew all around the Australian continent and landed at 32 different airfields – needless to say, it was a great adventure! Besides all the overwhelming experiences we made, one thing sticks out: the friendliness of the Australians. This applies to people we met in everyday life, but even more so to fellow pilots. Especially the community spirit (as @RobertL18C put it) of Australian Mooniacs was unbelievable. Their hospitality left us humbled and deeply impressed.
The other thing I’d like to mention is how much we enjoyed the landscape during our flights. The pictures I posted here can’t do the real beauty justice, but I hope you get an impression.
Our Australian loop
A few practical aspects
Picking an ideal season to visit all of Australia is impossible. During the European winter it’s nice in the southern parts of the country but it’s brutally hot in the center and the west while it’s rainy and stormy in the north and northeast. Any other period of time would have drawbacks as well, so there will always be compromises to be made unless you can spend a whole year down under.
In retrospect we would again choose the southern summer and skip the European winter. We were rather lucky with the weather. Only four of our flights were under IFR – one just as a test and two in the very south. It has to be mentioned though, that a tropical cyclone delayed our journey for almost a week up in Queensland. We had a few windy landings, but that has probably to be expected if you land at so many fields close to the coast. The thermals in the interior can be really bad but you don’t need a degree in meteorology to expect that 🙂. We just tried to fly early and climbed high enough to make it bearable.
Except for a few really quirky regulations and this dreaded ASIC card, flying in Australia is nice and easy. The upper limit of airspace G is generally FL125 but we never had to climb that high while we flew domestically. There are layers of controlled airspace (E, D, C) around terminals but this is no different from other countries. ATC was always friendly and helpful, they offer US style flight following for VFR flights as long as they have you on the radar. Otherwise procedures and radio phraseology is closer to Europe. One remarkable difference to the US as well as to Europe is that instrument approaches into uncontrolled airports are completely in G. Therefore it’s A2A communication not only in the pattern or close to it but well before that. However, ATC has radar and will provide traffic information to IFR aircraft and others that are on the frequency e.g. for flight following.
Looking for a vacation destination?
It’s a major endeavor to fly your own plane to Australia of course. However, it’s possible to rent an aircraft in the country. In fact we did this fifteen years ago, so this wasn’t the first time we flew down under. Validation of an EASA or US license/certificate by CASA requires quite some paperwork but it’s rather straightforward. The ASIC card will require some planning, but with good preparation (and unless you do it from Darwin), you can hold it in your hands three or four days after arrival. You will need a few days to acclimatize and to do the checkout anyway. If you have the chance, do it, I highly recommend it!
The underground Orthodox church is cool, and also the photos of the salt lakes. That dirt road in the desert is so straight it must have been built by the Romans 
Interesting on the Western perception of the gum trees.
Thank you to terbang and Buckerfan for all the background information and cultural knowledge. The continent is obviously deeper than Crocodile Dundee
Jeez, I hope there was a fence between you and those bloody salties!! Those buggers are nasty.
Tried twice in my twenties… once from CH, and later as a resident from the UK, to emigrate to Australia… obviously I didn’t make it, but your reports once more remind me of what I was looking for. What a place! How anyone could prefer overcrowded polluted Europe over marvelous Australia beats me real good, but well…
Thanks for the tour, looking forward to reading about the return
As usual, I’m at loss for words. But keep it up! You still have the trip home to tell.
terbang wrote:
Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt
What was the transmitting frequency and power? (The resolution of the picture in EuroGA is not good enough to read the sign.)
One remarkable difference to the US as well as to Europe is that instrument approaches into uncontrolled airports are completely in G.
There are many places in Europe where IAPs into uncontrolled airports are (usually) entirely in G. E.g. Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK…
What was the transmitting frequency and power? (The resolution of the picture in EuroGA is not good enough to read the sign.)
About 20kHz and 1MW! Of course no audio signal can be transmitted, but interestingly with some clever modulation they manage to transmit 300 bit/s.
There are many places in Europe where IAPs into uncontrolled airports are (usually) entirely in G. E.g. Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK…
That s correct of course!
