Day 70: Mon 27 May 24 - Geraldton

Day 70: Mon 27 May 24 - Geraldton 

14 to 27 Deg C, mostly clear and sunny with a light NE wind.

After another late-ish night, it was a slower start to the day. At 09:00 after catching up on the blog from yesterday, with Rick and Sharon both working today, I went for a 2-hour bike ride around the foreshore past the harbour silos to the Point Moore Lighthouse and back through town, stopping occasionally and enjoying the sights on another glorious day. Meanwhile Noel stayed back at the van to catch up on some cleaning and to finish washing. On return to the van, I collected Noel and we headed back into town to Coles to buy groceries, then to BCF for a few camping essentials. After another quick visit to the Museum for the HMAS Sydney II exhibition, and refuelling the ute, another day was almost done. Dinner tonight with Rick and Sharon was at the Wintersun Hotel, very conveniently located about 150m away. It was a Monday night Mexican menu, and all the meals were delicious. Another very enjoyable day was had in Geraldton.

Tomorrow morning (today as I write), we leave Geraldton to continue our trip north to Kalbarri for a three-night stay. 

Morning Bike Ride along the foreshore


Morning Bike Ride along the foreshore

Morning Bike Ride along the foreshore

Morning Bike Ride along the foreshore

Morning Bike Ride along the foreshore. Geraldton has more than 400 Norfolk Pine Trees that were planted over 90 years ago. Many are in bad health due to fungal disease, underground works which has damaged the root systems and plagues of corellas. Sadly many, if not all may need to be removed. 

Morning Bike Ride along the foreshore. 

Morning Bike Ride along the foreshore - Point Moore Lighthouse

Morning Bike Ride - Railway Station

Morning bike ride past the historic Victoria District Hospital which operated as a hospital from the late 1800's to 1966.

Morning bike ride past the historic Victoria District Hospital which operated as a hospital from the late 1800's to 1966.

Morning bike ride past the historic Victoria District Hospital which operated as a hospital from the late 1800's to 1966.

Morning bike ride past the historic Victoria District Hospital which operated as a hospital from the late 1800's to 1966.

Visit to the Museum for the HMAS Sydney exhibition. Text from the Interpretative signs on display are copied below. 

Visit to the Geraldton Museum 

Visit to the Geraldton Museum

Museum - HMAS Sydney II Interpretative Sign #1:

On 11 November 1941, the Royal Australian Navy's light cruiser HMAS Sydney (il) left Fremantle on escort and patrol duties and was due back nine days later. The German raider HSK Kormoran was off the West Australian coast, taking care to avoid warships while on the hunt for allied merchant vessels and planning to lay mines. Late in the afternoon on 19 November, about 100 nautical miles off Shark Bay, the two ships met by chance. In the ensuing battle, both ships were sunk. Eighty-one men from Kormoran were killed and 318 survived, but all 645 on Sydney were lost. This was the worst naval disaster in Australia's history. Families and communities all across the country grieved for the men who had simply vanished. There was shock and disbelief at the complete destruction of this famous warship by an apparently inferior opponent. The location of Sydney was to remain a mystery for more than 66 years. In 2008, the Finding Sydney Foundation, - working with shipwreck expert David Mearns, found the wrecks of both ships off Shark Bay at the great depth of 2,500 metres. Images from the 2008 expedition provided the first visual insights into the fate of the ships. Since then, advances in subsea imaging technology have been dramatic. In 2015, WA Museum and Curtin University, with DOF Subsea, formed a partnership to go back to the wreck sites.


Museum - HMAS Sydney II Interpretative Sign #2:

WITH DEEP REGRET I HAVE TO INFORM YOU...

Sydney had on board eight ship's boats and seven to nine oval-shaped life rafts known as Carley floats. Despite this life-saving capacity for hundreds of men, there were no survivors. After suffering catastrophic damage from shell hits, small-arms fire and a torpedo, Sydney was ablaze. It is likely that the boats and Carley floats not blown off in the battle were mostly useless - damaged, inaccessible due to the raging fires or, in the case of some of the boats, unable to be lowered with the crane out of action. For any Sydney men who may have been still alive after the encounter with Kormoran, prospects of survival were bleak. Four long days passed before a search began, when news of the sighting and rescue of German seamen brought the realisation that something had happened to the Sydney. Two Carley floats are known to have made it off the ship. One was found floating, empty, a week after the battle. A few months later, a float carrying the body of a sailor was recovered off Christmas Island. The first journey down to the wrecks in 2008 captured a forlorn image of two ship's boats lying together, one on top of the other. The 2015 expedition saw that the top boat had since collapsed, indicating that timber has a limited life on the ocean floor and the boats will eventually disappear.


Museum - HMAS Sydney II Interpretative Sign #3:

Repeated signalling from Sydney drew delayed and deliberately fumbled responses from Kormoran, which was disguised as the Dutch merchant ship Straat Malakka and hoping to bluff its way out of an encounter with the Australian warship. After about ninety minutes, Sydney, aiming all its six-inch guns, drew parallel and signalled "Show your secret sign". Sydney was now about a kilometre away, well within range of Kormoran's concealed weapons. The Germans did not have Straat Malakka's secret call sign. With no way out, they hauled down the Dutch flag, raised the German naval ensign, unmasked their guns and torpedo tubes, and attacked - a rigorously rehearsed transformation achieved in a matter of seconds.  At close range, the opening salvoes from Kormoran devastated Sydney's bridge and destroyed the central command structure. Fierce firing raked the upper deck, torpedo tubes and anti-aircraft guns. Sydney's forward gun turrets were quickly knocked out and the ship's aircraft was hit, igniting its fuel tanks. Shells from Sydney hit Kormoran's funnel, wiped out the radio room and scored decisive hits in the engine room. A torpedo then struck Sydney, ripping a hole in the bow and flooding the front of the ship. Kormoran was soon at a standstill, its engines useless, but kept firing. Mortally damaged and ablaze, the Australian cruiser drifted southwards and disappeared into the night. Explosive charges were laid in Kormoran, surviving officers and crew took to the boats and, at about half-past-one in the morning, the German ship blew up.

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