Sunday, June 12, 2011

Hamlin Station

Another slow start to the day but at least there were no fish to fillet this morning. We left Kalbarri at 9:30 and headed over towards Highway #1, some 60kms east through Kalbarri National Park.
Heading north we stopped at Billabong road house to get food out of the caravan and filled up at the Overlander road house before pulling into Hamlin Station. All up we travelled about 250km today and were at our destination at lunchtime.


Hamlin Station is a working farming enterprise with camping facilities run by a couple who are travellers from Tasmania. A few facts about this station:
- It covers over 500,000
- Last year they mustered and sheared 10,000 Merino's.
- There 4000 sheep of another breed (not Merino's).
- Thousands of wild goat are harvested every year.
- 23 windmills supply water for stock.
- The "Mill Run" to check all windmills is around 300km.
- In summer they do two mill runs a week in winter only one.
- Food is ordered by fax from Geraldton (300km) and delivered every Tuesday.


The camp sites have no power or water but there is tank water available in the camp kitchen. The remainder of the property has bore water which is rather salty and emerges from a artesian bore with 30psi at 35DegC.
The station utilises the water pressure to drive a 2kW turbine which generates electricity to charge batteries. The battery power is then converted to mains by and inverter.

The camp kitchen is very nice and was converted from the old shearer's kitchen and the shearer's quarters have also been updated to guest accommodation. The tourist season starts in May and goes all the way through to November when the shearers come in, with their own cook, and work for around 6 to 8 weeks.
However, the shearing shed seems like it's a hundred years old and hasn't seen any improvements in a long time.


In the afternoon we went to the old telegraph station, the shell stone quarry and the Stromatolites. The shell stone is unique to this area and consists of billions of little shells bound together by the leached out calcium. The stone was cut into blocks in the quarry and used for building. It has excellent insulation properties and is comparable with Hebel blocks.

The Stromatolites consist of cynobacteria and are credited with generating the earth's oxygen thereby forming the foundation of life as we know it. They are still surviving in this area because of the high salt levels in Shark Bay.


Tonight's cooking (more of Ilse's fish) was done in the camp kitchen which is great place for social interaction with other travellers and that's where we picked up a lot of information from travellers on their way south.

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