So we decided to have a bit more time in Karatha as it seemed to be an interesting town with shipping ports to one side in Dampier and a ghost town called Cossack pretty close by. We went to this wonderful little town because “who doesn’t want to see a ghost town”? It is an old pearling town situated near Settlers Bay around 15 klms out of Karatha in a village called Cossack.. As you begin to explore it has numbered posts outside each building giving an indication as to some order in which to see them. As is always the case we kept tot the normal way and started at 3. It was a school house that would’ve fit only 20 or so students made of sandstone with timber inside. It burnt down at one stage and during the 6 month rebuild the kids were taken by horse and carriage 15 klms away for school (I love the combustion engine).
Court House
The town had its own functioning courthouse and Jail complete with pretty much nothing at all except a bed and a pot (kinda like camping) and some really big bars. It was not a place I would like to spend any time in at all, and if compared to todays prisons the guards probably lived worse than inmates do today. As we walked around it was hard not to appreciate the sense of history and the difficulty of every day task but the sheer ingenuity that people used to make life a little better. You could still some cyclone damage fro the storms that ravaged the state with the lookout areas roof down on the rocks below. You could see the surrounding bays where they harvested the pearls from as they had to move further and further from shore and into the Bay as the stocks became depleted.
They had the local store of course but it was no IGA but surprisingly large for a small town but even 15 klms to get more would take so much longer than today and the journey far more difficult. Today there is a cafe with all the usual touristy stuff made in China. The coffee is good but then so is our campfire coffee espresso maker which I have to say for an on stove device makes great smooth coffee except for the end of the shot when it has a coughing fit and tries to spray hot coffee on you. Any way I digress, after more exploring we found 2 cemeteries 1 for Asians and the other for Europeans about 50 metres apart from each other. This seemed to be an ongoing theme wherever we go. Not sure if it was racial, cultural or ceremonially driven but will look into that for another day. At least places like this provide the backdrop for exploring and learning who we were as a people and how we arrived at what we are today.
There were some lovely beaches but the water is starting resemble more of a brown milkshake colour rather than the crystal clear we are used to. As we continue to learn I will put up some updates for Mills National Park as it is said to be beautiful and contains a place called Python Pools which I am looking forward to seeing. Bye for now catch up soon.
