Coral Bay Holiday 1969
August school holidays 1969 was first time heading north, after looking at broacher’s they decided Coral Bay was the place to go, so off we went in our HR Holden station wagon towing a hire caravan, after some 12 hours 1125kms on the road we arrived at Coral Bay only to be confronted by a caravan that had just burnt to the ground in the caravan park, it was a very dry and dusty place that looked nothing like the broachers we had bases our trip on.
We took a short look around before mum deciding this was not what we thought and hit the road back to Carnarvon to see what we could salvage from the trip. From here we did day trips to the sites around: The blow holes, Fisherman’s harbour, One Mile Jetty.
After spending a few days in Carnarvon, we took to the road again travelled back down the coast, deciding to take a chance by turning off at the Overlander road house into a fishing spot call Nanga Station, further down the same road was Shark Bay & Monkey Mia, after travelling about 80km over the worst corrugated gravel road that rattled the living death out us, car and caravan we arrived at Nanga Station, 773kms from Perth, we set up camp and settled in to stay here for a few days, we when down to the beach to see what catch fishing boats were bringing in, this were where we saw some of the biggest snapper we had ever seen coming in on boats from about 10km out to sea. It was at this point dad said, “We’re coming back here next year with a boat!”
Nanga Station had a hall type area with a pool table and table tennis setup for guesses to use, they all so had a small shop that was only open at certain times of the day for, making it very popular for you basic’s like milk, bread and ice creams of cause. While at Nanga Station we did a bit of beach fishing, also hired a row boat but with little success, it was obvious we needed a bigger boat to get out to the big ones, we did sight seeing around, Shell Beach, Hamelin Pool and Shark Bay
Once again it was time to hit the road, back over that 80km of corrugated road back to the overlanded roadhouse, travelling back down the coast we turned into Kalbarri, you guested it 60km of just as bad corrugated gravel road.
Over the over the next few days we explored all the sites in and around Kalbarri national park, Nature’s Window, Gorges, Red Bluff, Blue Holes, Murchison River, Chinaman’s Beach. Fishing in the Murchison river, swimming at the beach, pulling up a cray pot at Blue Holes, getting us some crays for a meal, Graham had a new wet suit and went snorkelling. Climbing up and down Gorges like a herd of goats.
Hitting the road homeward bound we believed somewhere between the Kalbarri turn off and Geraldton, although the story is a little vague as my brothers and sisters all seem to have different versions of what happen on the trip, but based on picture and dates I have researched, this is the most likely version I have come up with.
It is when the ride of a life started, the caravan, all of a sudden and luckily on a straight section of road heading down a hill with no oncoming traffic, it began to sway violently, throwing the old HR station wagon all over the road. It took dad all of his driving skills and the whole road to bring the car to a very gentle stop, without applying the brakes as he didn’t want to make things worse. All the time mum was screaming to stop with four children in the car, Graham, Judy, Doug and Brian. After finally bringing the car to a gentle stop, pulling over to the side of the road, a very much shaken and slightly white faced family got out of the car, opening the caravan door to find the floor covered in pots, pans, cups and plates. Dad inspected the van to find the axle U bolts had come loose on one of the axles, allowing the axle to move back causing the violent swaying to start, this may have been the result of driving over 100kms of heave corrugated road in and out of Nanga Station and Kalbarri, With limited tools and some fencing wire removed from a nearby fence, dad wired it back into place. From here on the trip was very slow heading home. Note we never hired another caravan again. But were all very excited to get back to Nanga Station the next year to see if we could land some of those Hugh snapper.
