Cossack - Roebourne

Cossack – Roebourne

Sunday 18 August 2013

Today I spent the day exploring the area in and around the historic port of Cossack and the inland town of Roebourne. For some time I had wanted to locate the old tram track that ran between the two towns from the late 1870s through to around 1900. The history books document the difficulties the early settlers had with building the track in and around mangroves and on the salt flats. Anyway I soon found evidence of it and traced it from Cossack to where it originally crossed over the current causeway into Cossack and then proceeded into Roebourne. I was surprised to see just how well some areas of the track have withstood the elements with some of the embankments simply covered in spinifex. The other surprise was the number of gullies and crossings that had to be built – of course these have all disappeared with few traces of the timber. Some of the photos taken are shown below.

Old bridge crossing Cossack side

Remains of ballast on crossing Cossack side

Causeway across saltflats Cossack side

Tramtrack site terminating in Cossack

 

Embankment Roebourne side

Embankment now a trail bike track near Roebourne

Embankment near Roebourne

Remains of culvert crossing Roebourne side

 

I also managed to have a revisit to the old town of Roebourne that brought back memories of my time growing up there.

Old Roebourne gaol

View from Mt Welcome looking east

View of Roebourne looking west

Building remains looking at old Victoria hotel and Jagers shop

Harding river near police station (many memories)

 

The town has certainly transitioned over time – many of the earlier problems in the 1970s and 80s with the local indigenous population appear to have been resolved especially the alcohol issues. I saw no evidence of alcohol abuse. In fact it would be fair to say that in nearly all of the towns we visited including Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing, the towns were all well maintained, clean with no evidence of alcohol abuse. We found it was impossible to purchase alcohol in most Kimberley towns as there was no pub or hotel selling grog. Even in Broome, we found the retail establishments selling alcohol closed until 1130am each day and closed on Sundays and there were restrictions on how much you could buy. We were sometimes able to purchase alcohol at bars but we had to drink it on the premise and were not able to buy alcohol to take away. The restrictions appear to be working.

Jarman Island from Reader Lookout

View to Roebourne from Reader Lookout

Cossack view from Nanny Goat Hill

 

Cossack Courthouse from Tien Sin Viewpoint

View of Jarman Island from Reader Lookout

Cape Lambert from Reader Lookout

I am heading south tomorrow and will be home by the end of the week with my trip now all but over. I intend to do one last post once I am back in Perth. Cheers.