Day 80: Thu 6 Jun 24 - Carnarvon

Thu 6 Jun 24 - Carnarvon

12 to 27 Deg, Clear, sunny and no wind - the glorious weather continues.

We had another sleep-in this morning, then after breakfast and some cleaning and washing, we drove into town for a morning brew then out to the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum about 4km out of town. This was the highlight of our day, where we learned about the little known history of the role Carnarvon played in the manned space program and in the Australian communications industry. 

The Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum focuses on two parts, the Carnarvon Tracking Station and the OTC Satellite Earth Station, each playing separate roles in the early space industry.  From 1964 – 1975 Carnarvon hosted a NASA tracking station 10 km south of town that played an important role in communications and telemetry relay for NASA’s Gemini, Apollo and Skylab missions. It was the last station to communicate with the space capsules leaving the earths orbit, and the last in contact before splashdown. With 220 staff at the height of operations, it was the largest manned space flight tracking station outside the US.

In 1966 the OTC Satellite Earth Station (now the museum site) was also built to support the Apollo missions to the Moon. The OTC Satellite Earth Station was established to meet the need for more reliable and higher quality communications for the Apollo Program. NASA contracted Australia's Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) "to provide an earth station near Carnarvon to link the NASA Tracking Station nearby to the control centre in the USA". 

After about two very interesting hours, we returned to the van for lunch. Tomorrow we had planned to pack up and leave for Quobba Blowholes campground, about 80km, for one night before continuing on to Coral Bay on Sat for a three-night stay, but we decided that we could stay put in Carnarvon for an extra night. We're happy with the caravan park and it's very quiet, and as there is not much to see or do in Carnarvon, it's a perfect opportunity for some much needed down time. We'll do Quobba next trip. After paying for an extra night, I dropped Noel at Woolies to buy ingredients to bake a slice, while I went out to the harbour to the seafood market for some fresh fish for dinner. At $70 per kg for snapper, about $40 for one piece, I decided I would try elsewhere. They had very little stock, none fresh and I thought everything was way overpriced. I went to woolies, and they had nothing, so I drove to IGA, the only other option,  near our caravan park, and bought some frozen prawns and a frozen small piece of snapper, which was a little more reasonably priced. Apparently Carnarvon supplies about 80% of WAs Seafood, yet what I bought would have cost me half as much in Canberra. Very disappointing. I could have unpacked one of my fishing rods and gone out to catch my own fish - or more likely not. 

After an afternoon brew at the van, and a few calls, I went for a pleasant bike ride around the foreshore and out to the historic jetty, before returning for another quiet evening. My grilled snapper did taste very nice.

Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum 

Very interesting display describing the functions of each of the eight units of the Apollo Saturn V. The red arrow points to the Command Module to give an indication of it's size in relation to the rest of the spacecraft  


Apolla 17 Command Module replica

Inside the Command Module replica for take-off

Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum (Replica Command Module in the background)

Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum


Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum


Apollo 17 Lunar Module Replica

Full scale replica of a Mercury-Redstone rocket

The OTC Satellite Earth Station established at Carnarvon to meet the need for more reliable and higher quality communications for the Apollo program.

Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum

Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum - History of manned Spaced Programs


The OTC Carnarvon 42-foot Casshorn is the last remaining example of this design of antenna anywhere in the world

The OTC Carnarvon 42-foot Casshorn is the last remaining example of this design of antenna anywhere in the world

An interesting and fun visit to the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum

An interesting and fun visit to the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum

Carnarvon Street Art

Carnarvon Street Art

Carnarvon War Memorial

Carnarvon

Carnarvon Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church 

Carnarvon Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church 

Carnarvon Fascine - the most aesthetically pleasing part of Carnarvon. It almost looks out of place compared with the rest of town which has many closed and or run down businesses.

Carnarvon’s central waterway, known as the Fascine, was named after an 1800s building technique used to construct the embankment on the south arm of the Gascoyne River. Fascine means “water held back by a pile of sticks.” I assume the palm trees are the sticks.

Carnarvon Fascine

Carnarvon Fascine

Carnarvon - Our home for 3 nights. Very quiet and plenty of space around us.






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