The Principality of Hutt River is Australia’s oldest micronation. Prince Leonard I and 30 other residents officially seceded from Australia in 1970, in an act of self-preservation, after the government technically threatened to take away both their livelihood and property. We follow the gracefully ageing Prince on a busy day in his Capital, Nain.

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Coming up in next week’s episode of The Inland Sea: We visit Prince Leonard and the Hutt River Province, who seceded from Australia in 1970.

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Port Hedland is the biggest town in the dry, harsh, and iron ore-rich Pilbara region. It’s a sleepy ghost town the first week of New Year. The port is quiet, the town seemingly empty. Rusty old machinery is scattered everywhere around town, and we can’t make up our minds as to whether we think it’s like an open-air museum for the mining industry or more of a graveyard for obsolete technology.

Only minutes away, on Cemetery Beach, a natural spectacle is taking place that makes us forget all about the iron ore.

The name Pilbara is derived from an Aboriginal word for 'dry'. (Image from Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation Licence).

There are seven species of sea turtles. The Flatback turtle is the only one that is exclusive to Australia. Unlike other sea turtles, the Flatbacks don’t undertake long oceanic migrations, and their habitat only stretches around the coast from Western Australia to Queensland.

 Check out our image gallery of the nesting Flatback turtles here.

Sea turtles have been around for an estimated 65 million years, but it appears that numbers across species are declining.

Currently all sea turtles are regarded as protected. However, the Flatback turtle is quite understudied. It is regarded by the IUCN as data deficient, and it’s therefore difficult to properly assess its status.

Beyond collecting data, raising awareness is another important part of what the local environmental group Care for Hedland is doing. As the local mining industry and the township itself is fast developing, Care for Hedland is out there every day to catalogue the turtle activity and to try and make the human impact on the creatures as small as possible.

The town of Port Hedland was founded in 1863 Captain Peter. For obvious reasons at the time, he originally named it Mangrove Harbour, but the Surveyor-General renamed it shortly after in the good Captain’s honour.

However, it wasn’t until gold was discovered locally in 1883 that the town begun to slowly develop, and a jetty was built to provide the first export point in Australia’s northwest.

Since the 1960s it’s more about the iron ore, and after recent developments and dredging the deep water port is now Australia’s busiest.

You’ll now find 260,000 tonne, 315-metre cargo ships docking here. They are a quite a noticeable presence in the small town, as is the 7-kilometre freight train that runs between the town and Newman 426 km to the south, transporting iron ore from the mines to the port.

Image gallery from the industrial town of Port Hedland here. 

You could easily fit the entire population of 15,000 aboard that train. Call me naïve, but I find that somewhat remarkable.

In a way I think that mental image paints a picture of how BHP Billiton appears to be positioned in the community, as the main player in the local mining industry.

Perhaps, a suitable nickname could be “(BHP) BillitoWn”?

Just a thought.

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Coming up in this week’s episode: We observe Flatback sea turtles nesting on Port Hedland’s Cemetery Beach. Kelly Howlett, chairperson of local environmental group Care for Hedland, explains observer’s code of conduct.

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The week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve was something of an endurance contest for us, as we drove more than 2,000 kilometres in three days through some of the most spectacular landscapes that Australia has to offer.

We met local bull enthusiast Tex Kitchen at Willare Bridge Roadhouse. And as we finally arrived in Broome we farewelled the old year from the camel’s back and went looking for 120 million year old dinosaur prints.

Cruising through Kununurra, we stopped at the wonderfully scenic Lake Argyle, Australia’s biggest artificial lake, and the second largest water catchments in the country. While in the south people are desperately trying to plan for future droughts, the scarcely populated top end of the country is laughing. Lake Argyle remains Australia’s most under-used lake.

See our photos from the road here.

It may be under-used by people, but freshwater crocodiles love it here. The area has the highest density of fresh water crocodiles anywhere in Australia. Apparently these beasts are safe to swim with – and the lake certainly looks like the perfect place for a dip – we are carefully reminded (twice!) by the official Lake Argyle website that “swimming in Northern Australian waterways is totally at your own risk.” And, if you’re really unlucky there could be a saltwater croc or two hiding amongst their more humble relatives.

Shun the thought!

We crossed the majestic Kimberleys in three days. If we could redo the trip, we would have spent more time here. And we would have probably also done this stretch at a different time. Between Darwin and Broome, entire townships had shut down between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, making it a bit dull to travel through beyond just taking in the spectacular sights of course.

Entering Broome was something entirely different. This is tourism central. Apparently the population almost triples here during tourist season. Seeing as we were having something of a holiday while in Broome – we wanted to do something really touristy. Hence, we opted for the camel safari, which really wasn’t a safari at all, in the dictionary sense of the word. Oh well, at least we did something we had never done before. We sat on a camel, on a beach for about 15 minutes in nice and hot weather – and we had an air-conditioned bungalow to go back to afterwards, and it was New Year’s Eve. So who were we to complain?

See our photos from Broome here.

But, while we’re still on the topic of camels, as mentioned in the episode, the wild camel stock has grown so big many regard it as a threat to the fragile inland ecosystem. And there have been two main suggestions as to what can be done in terms of culling the population. When Kevin Rudd suggested launching an air strike against this unnatural enemy, outrage rippled both at home and across the sea. In the US, CNBC’s Erin Burnett, most famous for her market reports, lashed out at Rudd, calling him a serial killer on live TV.

Then of course, there was the other option of making camel meat more approved in Australian households.

You can read Eirik Laugerud’s take on the camel’s place in the Aussie cuisine in his blog Don’t smoke the camels, eat ‘em!

And if you want more in-depth information about Australia’s issue with the ‘feral ships of the desert’, read Nicholas Rothwell’s article No country for old camels.

Beyond being one of the top-end’s major tourist machines, Broome – and more specifically Cable Beach, on which we were sitting on these camels – has had a particular historical significance for Australia. This very beach was the point from which, in 1889, Australia was first connected to the rest of the world; with an underwater telegraph cable to Java in Indonesia.

The white sand beach stretches 22 scenic kilometres, and the sun dips into the ocean every night. It looks perfect for a swim, but then again, like with the inland lake Argyle, there are things that keep you from jumping in. Between November and April there are small, yet very deadly box jellyfish present around the coast, and of course there may be saltwater crocs.

Still, people do seem to enjoy the beach life in Broome, and there are still a few daredevils that do go near the water. And, for the keen public undresser, the north side of Cable Beach offers Australia’s most famous nudist beach. Speaking entirely for myself here, and not the rest of the crew, it’s probably more likely you’d find me in the water than sprawling on the north side.

Happy New Year!

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The silly season is upon us as we enter the Northern Territory! In Darwin we catch up with Melbournian migrant Steven Noble who is working as a local tour guide. It’s Christmas Eve, and a fortunate coincidence made us cross paths with another local man, Craig West, who shows us some local fauna. If Rudolph were here, he probably would have been eaten by now. Merry Christmas everybody!

Check out our image gallery of jumping crocs and whistling kites here.

 And read Eirik’s Christmas cooking blog and get his special recipe here. 

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Alien spacecrafts! Abductions! Government conspiracies! Yes please, and a powered camp site for the night, thank you!

Four hours north of Alice Springs we find the self-proclaimed UFO capital of Australia. Wycliffe Well is more like a themed caravan park than a town. As we arrived in the off-season for tourism, we possibly doubled the overnight population when we pitched out tents. But we were well provided for, and they serve up a decent feed with a side of mystery there. We caught up with manager Russell Perry who reckons he’d spotted a whole handful UFOs in the last year – at least. As for our own UFO spotting adventure… you’ll have to watch the episode below and find out.

Wycliffe Well recently received an honourable mention in TIME magazine as one of the hottest UFO spots in the world. Apparently sightings are so common that you’re considered unlucky if you don’t see one. On top of that there are numerous accounts of attempted government cover-ups that feed into the traditional conspiracies surrounding the myths.

Earlier this year, The Herald Sun reported that  Australia’s Department of Defence had apparently lost most of its UFO files. So, when the planned three-day UFO convention at Wycliffe Well in March got cancelled because the park got flooded…. well, it got cancelled. But for the sake of spinning an argument, let’s just say that someone didn’t want a bunch of UFO ‘scholars’, abductees and cryptozoologists to get together. Who knows what they’d come up with.

Check out our image gallery from episode 6 here.

Regardless of whether you’re inclined to believe in the myths or not, the UFOlogy scene is alive and kicking in Australia. There are several UFO groups located around the country. Should you at some point be spotting some undefinable, big bright fireball in the night sky, there’s a national hotline you can call and report the incident. It’s operated by the Australian UFO Research Network, and they will put you in touch with a local expert.

You may also want to contact the UFOlogist magazine for a write up about your supernatural experience!Tweet

As travellers it is exciting to get up close and personal with local wildlife. But some species are better kept at a distance. We have run this video past a number of professionals, who are largely in disagreement about what kind of snake this really is. About half have said it’s a brown snake, famously known as the second most venomous snake in the world. On the other hand, some have said they reckon it’s not a snake at all and, on the contrary, they think it’s a legless lizard. In any case, they’ve all agreed on this: “When in doubt, don’t get up too close, and leave it up to trained professionals to deal with whatever that is.”

Check out our image gallery of other local creepies and crawlies here.

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Molly Clark talks about the function of shortwave radios in the bush before there were telephones. As well as providing a lifeline in times of need, they also served a community function for people living on isolated homesteads.

Watch Episode 4 | Uluru and Molly Clark here. 

Episode 4 in pictures here.

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After a quick stop at Australia’s most famous landmark, Uluru, we head to Alice Springs in search of 87-year-old Molly Clark. This was an interesting turn in our travels, as we had all thought that at this point on our trip we would be spending more time sightseeing than running around in a town chasing a story. But, there we were …

Amongst other things, Molly was the founder of Alice Springs’National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame, and this was the starting point in our search for the outback legend. In the often male-dominated outback it was important for Molly that women’s achievements were also recognised. And today, the Hall of Fame features more than 40 women from all walks of life.

Molly has spent most of her life at Old Andado station, an old cattle ranch 350 km south east of Alice Springs, on the edge of the Simpson Desert. During the last 30 years she was there, she lived by herself. When Molly’s declining health forced her to move to Alice Springs in 2006, she decided to still keep the old place open to travellers. She only asks a small donation from visitors – and that they visit the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame if they pass through Alice Springs. The place is kept intact by these donations and by working bees and a big annual outback party fittingly called ‘Molly’s Bash’.

Watch an extended interview piece of Molly pondering the importance of the shortwave radio in the bush here. 

In our conversation with Molly, it became apparent that the old phrase ‘home is where your heart is’, applies well to her situation. Molly’s heart is surely still at Old Andado. Were it up to her, she would still be living out there. But her family insisted it was time to move closer to modern conveniences and in the end, Molly complied.

Check out an image gallery from along the road in episode 4 here.

Part of the impetus for our trip was to explore the notion of community outside of the metropolitan areas of Australia. When we heard about Molly, I got very curious about her story, and about life on a geographically isolated homestead as a contrast to urban city life. What keeps people wanting to live in places where you have to drive for hours to see your nearest neighbour? Where you rarely have face-to-face contact with anyone

Much has been written about Molly. She is featured in at least three books and there have been a number of stories about her in the media. Still, I was very fascinated by this old lady, and felt privileged to be able to chat with someone whose background was so very different from my own. Judging by Molly’s replies, the distance between metropolitan and outback Australia is not only based on geography. Molly has few good things to say about city life. ‘It’s artificial’, she says. At the same time she’s not interested in glamorising life in the bush, because it’s ‘damned hard’. But it’s life. It’s her life, their life. It’s real life. Real, in the sense that you have to learn how to live it according to the environment you’re in, and having to learn how to survive in it. Life is a challenge, and challenge is what makes life a real life.

It’s that hardship that fuels the Australian national image to a great extent – at least that’s how it appears to me (I touched on this in aprevious blog post). It’s that proud notion that men and women have overcome it, and are living the unliveable. But, of course, it’s only really a tiny percentage of the population who are living and creating this myth for the rest of society, who hear their stories and make them their own.

I have plenty of friends in Melbourne who regularly reflect on the harshness of the country they live in, but have never experienced the outback first hand. And, they’ve often told me quite frankly that they have absolutely no interest in going there either. But, no doubt the land itself – or at least the idea of it – was instrumental in shaping their character!

One friend remarked before we departed Melbourne: ‘Why the hell do you wanna drive through the desert? There’s just nothing-towns with nothing in between them. Nothing ever changes. It’s gonna be hot and miserable. I’d never go out there!’ This underscored with that peculiar sense of pride that he’s living in one of the harshest countries in the world.

I’m not going to dwell any longer on the notion of who and what made me and you, but isn’t it funny how, in the end, we are all products of our imagination?

P.S.

Check out this virtual tour of Old Andado by Ivan Sanders on YouTube.

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