Sunday, 14 June 2026
Last night I read that there is another memorial to the crew of HMAS Sydney II situated on the fascine (waterfront) in Carnarvon. We decided to drive back into town, to look at the memorial before continuing on the southbound leg of our journey. The memorial is a concrete octagon with an anchor atop it. One face of the octagon featured a poem written by Petty Officer, H. B. Shipstone who was serving onboard the HMAS Sydney II. The remaining faces had plugs in them indicating that they used to have plaques affixed to them. What has happened to the plaques commemorating the crew?
We walked over to the second memorial, featuring an Iron Cross, commemorating the Kormoran crew members who lost their lives. This memorial listed the names of the 262 German crew who lost their lives. This made the absence of the Australian names seem all the more strange. As soon as we were back in the truck, I Googled – When will the crew names be reinstated on the HMAS Sydney II memorial in Carnarvon? We literally just missed seeing the plaques. The plaques were taken to Perth sometime in the last 10 days for restoration works. Before we came away we knew about the HMAS Sydney II memorial at Geraldton and had planned to visit it. However, we did not know that there are other memorials along the coast. We didn’t realise that we needed to do more research on this.
With a photo taken of the currently incomplete memorial, we drove back out to the North West Coastal Highway with the SatNav set for Monkey Mia. The scenery along this section of the coast was desolate with low rocky hills and very low, scraggly bushes. We stopped at a so called ‘Scenic Lookout’ that took us to the top of one of the rocky hills. We looked out across the barren landscape to the waters of Shark Bay in the distance. After taking a couple of photos and stretching our legs, we resumed our journey.
We crossed several dry rivers, the largest of which was the Wooramel River situated between the station of the same name and Wooramel Roadhouse. It is very strange travelling on a bridge over a wide, dry river with only red sand to be seen below. At the Overlander Roadhouse we turned right onto Shark Bay Road. The road travels across the end of Hamelin Pool Marine Park before turning north to travel along the Peron Peninsula. We traversed the Taillefer Isthmus and stopped for one quick photo looking across Denham Sound towards Dirk Hartog Island.
As we drove today we saw signs warning of kangaroos and cattle, but what we actually saw was feral goats and one emu as we neared Denham. It was Sunday lunchtime when we arrived in Denham, so we had our fingers crossed that we would be able to find something to eat. Fortunately the Shark Bay Café was open for lunch. After a quick bite to eat, we popped into the Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery & Visitor Centre.
Out the front was … another memorial to the HMAS Sydney II crew. This memorial was much more contemporary in style and included the names of all who were lost when the HMAS Sydney II sank without any survivors. We found the name of Bernie’s Great-Uncle, Walter John Keane, Chief Ordnance Artificer. Which was interesting, as Bernie thought that he was a chief petty officer. As an ordnance artificer his role was more skilled and involved with maintaining, repairing and troubleshooting the weapons systems aboard ship.
We entered the visitor centre and asked Angela what we should do with one whole day in this area. Angela then gave us about four day’s worth of suggestions! Oh, no, another destination where we may not have allowed sufficient time to properly explore it. On the plus side, most of the Francois Peron National Park remains closed after the rain at the end of last week. There is a slim chance it could re-open tomorrow but, by the time the conditions are assessed and a decision is made to open it, we might be better off doing other things. Angela did encourage us to 4WD to the Big Lagoon this afternoon as that part of the national park is accessible and an ‘easy’ drive over sand??? Angela also alerted us to the fact that their theatre shows a 3D presentation about the HMAS Sydney II so we must try to fit that in on Tuesday morning before we head to Kalbarri.
Armed with umpteen brochures, our next stop was at the Ampol 24/7 bowsers to top up the tank before driving across the peninsula to Monkey Mia. With it now being mid-afternoon, we quickly unloaded the truck so that we could head straight back out again to attempt this sandy road to the Big Lagoon. Ross and Sharon had arrived with their caravan and had it set up, so we collected them from their van site on our way out.
Ha, back across the peninsula, almost to Denham, before turning off into the Francois Peron NP, named after the French naturalist and explorer who documented anthropology, oceanography, meteorology and zoology aboard Nicolas Baudin’s expeditions in 1801 and 1803. We drove as far as the Peron Homestead Precinct before letting the tyres down to 18PSI, as recommended by Angela and reinforced by the signs beside the road.
With nice, soft pancakey tyres we continued on the red, sandy road … which really wasn’t much softer than the road in from Monkey Mia Road. We arrived without incident at Big Lagoon. We walked along the water front which was very quiet and very pretty before Bernie spied a board walk heading to the top of a bluff. We walked up the bluff and into masses of midges. Aargh! We were all being nipped and nibbled by the wee beasties and, where was the Aeroguard? In the truck. We walked back to the truck with all of us wriggling around and slapping ourselves as the midges found our bare flesh. Until the midges, Ross and Sharon had been thinking about adding Big Lagoon to their list of possible future holiday spots because, despite the soft road in, there were lots of caravans dotted around the lagoon. They decided the midges are very off putting.
We drove back to the air hoses that the park has provided for drivers to re-inflate their tyres. On the one hand there has been information suggesting that the 4WD tracks are best left to experienced four wheel drivers. Then, on the other hand they have signs advising drivers how to prepare their vehicle to tackle the tracks AND they provide air for pumping tyres back up?? That just seems to be inviting tourists to get themselves stuck on the sand tracks. Anyhow, we made it in and back out again without any trouble. Thank you Bernie. Certainly better than our last attempt at sand driving in Innes NP in South Australia.
Back in Monkey Mia, Bernie quickly looked into booking us onto tomorrow’s full day marine safari with Shark Bay Eco Tours, in the hope that we will see some Dogongs. It will be very exciting to see a dugong in the wild if we are lucky? All booked, just in time to watch the sunset.
Bugger, sunset was a bust, despite Angela’s optimism that it was going to be a good one. There was far too much cloud about tonight so we had better hope for better conditions tomorrow. We are in the westernmost part of Australia so I guess it would be cool to be amongst the last people in the country to see the sun go down? Fingers crossed.
We have a small kitchenette in our cabin at the RAC Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort but no real cooking facilities beyond a toaster and a microwave, so decided to eat at ‘Monkey Bar’ the resort’s onsite pub. Ross and Sharon’s buzzer went off and Ross collected their meals. We waited a bit longer … and a bit longer still, then Bernie went to check on our order. Oh, no, it got lost. They were very apologetic and Bernie scored a free beer and very soon after that our prawns and calamari were ready for us.
Steps: 6,781 (4.33kms)
