Day 351 – Fitzroy Crossing, WA (30 August) – Week 52

Geike Gorge
Monday morning we went into town.  Fitzroy Crossing has a population of about 1500 people with 80% being indigenous.  Not much at all in town, two petrol stations and a very rough incredibly expensive and very makeshift supermarket.  The supermarket burnt down in July 2009 and the new one won’t be ready until October 2010.  In the afternoon we went on a boat trip down Geike Gorge.  The boat trip is run by DEC (Dept Environment and Conservation) with a indigenous ranger guide.  “Geikie Gorge is situated at the junction of the Oscar and the Geikie Ranges. The mighty Fitzroy River has carved a 30 metre deep gorge into the remains of the ancient limestone barrier reef that existed here in the Devonian period.  When the Fitzroy is in full flood during the wet season it covers the whole national park. Those floods rise over 16 metres up the gorge walls and the continuous rise and fall of the water has left the bottom of the walls bleached white.”  Geike gorge is a lovely gorge with a variety of colours ranging from white, pinks, oranges and browns.  There are two walls of note, the east and the west, the west being the most photographed because of its colours.  Our guide gave a very thorough commentary about the geology, fauna, flora and the indigenous history. Unfortunately the river is not without its problems.  River vegetation is slowly being taken over by introduced noxious weeds. One has leaves like a cabbage has that has a burr that burrows into everything particularly sheeps wool and eventually into their bodies and organs and they die a painful death. The plants were bought into Australia by the Afghans to feed their camels when the Afghan train runs were used in the early 1900s.  Such a shame as the flower is quite pretty.  An introduced creeper vine has taken hold and it slowly strangling many trees along the riverbank.  It was very warm on the water with no shade on the boat.  We saw quite a few freshwater crocodiles including juveniles cooling off on the river banks.  The cruise lasted an hour and was very good.  It probably is the only way to see both the west and east walls of the gorge which are the highlights.  Can kayak the gorge which would be interesting as there are many caves at water level which could be worth a closer look.  We have some lovely red tailed cockatoos in the caravan park which we don’t see very often, they are so noisy but good to see them.