Tuesday Voice: Esperance, Western Australia

Watching it all from our place

By Vic Midyett

On our way from South Australia back to our home base of Bunbury, Western Australia, after three years away as "gray nomads," Shirley & I stopped at Esperance for a few days.

[click to enlarge]

    This was only the third time I’ve been to Esperance during my 44 years in Australia. What still strikes me the most here is the pristine clear waters of the South Ocean. You can see 50-60 ft down. It is stunning and amazing! This can only be topped by the color of the ocean. It is so crisp and vibrant!
    The population of this seaside town is almost 15,000. From its shores you can look out at some of the 105 islands in what they call the Bay of Isles, or the Recherche Archipelago.
    During the decade 1820 -1830 an American that folks called Black Jack Anderson lived on the islands. No one knew where he came from or how he got there, but he is considered to be the only pirate Australia has ever had. Ships didn’t come along that frequently and he killed seals for their pelts and to eat.
    Black Jack was a large brute and ruled with an unmerciful hand over his men or anyone who came into contact with him. Whenever he fancied an Aboriginal woman, he would shoot the husband and take her, beating her into submission and obedience for his harem. He carried several powder pistols on him at all times. By the end of his tenth year of meanness, mayhem, and pillaging, his men finally decided to murder him, which they did in his sleep. It is reported he never got the chance to open his eyes before being shot in the head. He is now referred to as the “once and only pirate.”

Esperance is reported to have the whitest beaches found anywhere in Australia.

    Esperance has a port for exporting iron ore (going mostly to China at the moment), nickle, and grains like wheat, barley, and canola. There is always a ship in dock being loaded, 24/7.

    Naturally, we found a place where we could sit, have a coffee or tea with something else yummy, and watch it all. This was our place.

    In the words of Shrek, “That’ll do, donkey!”

But one more very interesting piece of information. During our last roadhouse stay on the Nullarbor we saw pieces of the Skylab [US space station launched by NASA in 1973] that had fallen near there in 1979 after the craft broke up over the Indian Ocean. Pieces of Skylab crashed onto Esperance also, and Esperance has a large museum of artifacts from the site.

    I’m not sure if it was the state of Western Australia or the Shire (county) of Esperance that, for a joke, sent the American government a fine of $400 for littering. Would you believe, all these years later, Obama paid it!!

Copyright © 2014 by Morris Dean