Thursday, August 9, 2012

Days 30-31.... Derby

This morning we left Larrawa Station and headed for Derby. The landscape changed considerably again....after Fitzroy crossing it levelled out a fair bit. It's a shame so much of the bush is burnt. Every day we see distant smoke, and burnt out scrub along the road. A lot of it is the work of arsonists unfortunately.
We had a picnic lunch in the car and drove on to Derby where we booked into a caravan park.
Once we had set up, we went for a drive around to see some of the sights.
This boab tree was said to have been used as a prison back in the 1800s. There are thousands of boab trees out here...they do look nicer with leaves, but they're deciduous trees, so no leaves at present.
Back in the old droving days, the stockmen would water their stock at this trough....it's on a big common just out of town, near the prison boab tree.
We visited an aboriginal art gallery. The centre is pretty new with great artworks. The centre was built by the commonwealth govt....we saw a similar one in Kununurra. As well as the gallery, there's an outdoor area where they hold various celebrations as well.
After doing a bit of grocery shopping, we went down to the jetty, where various products are exported. There's a conveyor belt and shute for loading grain, and a big wharehouse where barramundi, that is farmed out from here, is processed before being shipped out.

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