Point Samson is a delightful little coastal town, tucked away on a Point north of Roebourne, although our first impressions were of a stark and exposed place as we arrived in blustery, cold winds. But we soon realised, as the winds eased, that there are beautiful beaches here, and that it is a great place to explore this region steeped in history.. In the end we could have easily spent another day or two enjoying this sparkling place.
We visited the area between 13-15 July 2018
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting There
Karijini > Whim Creek (379km) > Point Samson (104km) – total ~ 483kms
Day 1 – 12 Aug – to Whim Creek
It is again cold and windy as we wake. Given we have a longish drive, we actually got away by 7.15 – amazing. The drive north is a return journey for us as far as the North West Coastal Hwy, about 300km north, where we turn west. The ridge we crossed before we got to the Auski Tourist Park is still just as spectacular as on the way down.
We filled up at Auski as we do not see any fuel along the Coastal Hwy. It did not take long before we started meeting road trains again – they are fairly constant. The landscape gradually turns less interesting as we head north. After we turned onto the Coastal Hwy, it is flat country in all directions. Only as we near Whim Creek do we see distant ridges. But the road trains are no longer.
Whim Creek is a pub a long way from anywhere else. It is hard to see that the Whim Creek Hotel was once the centre of a thriving mining town. While the rest of the town has passed into history, this iconic, historic inn is going well. The building has seen murders, been destroyed by cyclones and even been home to an infamous beer drinking camel.
Whim Creek was established in 1872 when copper was discovered nearby. It was an important town in the Pilbara, and in its heyday the town had two pubs, a Post Office, Bakery, Police Station and a population of 400. Initially the ore was carried by rail 20km to the port of Balla Balla. Sails were attached to the loaded rail wagons, in order to use the trade winds. The jetty at Balla Balla was used until the decline of the copper mine in the 1930’s and was finally blown away by a cyclone in 1956. The hotel was first built in 1886 but the structure was destroyed by a cyclone. It was rebuilt in the early 1900s using steel. The building was erected at its current site on the banks of Whim Creek, where the steel frame has stood ever since. The facade has, however, been blown off twice.
In July 2014, two local Aboriginal corporations bought the Whim Creek Hotel. The Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation Limited and the Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation, both of Roebourne, purchased the facility in a joint venture. The partners use the hotel to promote education and training opportunities for their members, and to return profits from its operation to the local community to improve health, education and welfare among the First Nations population.
We arrived at about lunchtime and there were quite a few vans in the massive front carpark, of good solid stony dirt. We went inside to book a powered site and were surprised to see so many people – obviously caravaners – having lunch. It was all very busy. We had decided that after our days without power we would have a powered site – it cost all of $20 a night. I knew that people could free camp out the front if they had a drink or meal at the pub, but spendthrifts that we are, we splurged out on the power.
So we were directed around the back and told the power was on the “dongers”. Off we went, and we found a large and empty dirt/stony area that looked nothing like a van park. And we could not see what I had assumed were “dongers” – the pedestal type things you plug your lead into for power.
After a few minutes looking around to make sure there was not a lovely level and flat grassy space with great facilities hidden around a corner, I went back into the bar to enquire.
“I could not find any power outlets,” I said.
“They are on the dongers,” she said with a puzzled look on her face.
“The dongers,” I asked with an even greater puzzled look on my face..
“They are the accomodation units on this side of the fence,” she laughingly replied.
Back out in the stony expanse, I found that on each end of the units, or dongers as they are commonly called, there were external power points. Problem solved. We hooked up and found that, though we had to put a leveller under one set of van wheels we only needed to lift the front up and not uncouple The Cruiser completely.
We had Telstra coverage. The toilets and showers were at the pub, which is right on our doorstep. Two other vans joined us for a night with power. Later, out front, I was surprised that there were not so many vans free camping.
Then we went into the pub for dinner. But first, some pool. I say with pride that I won all 3 games, the first leaving 6 of Kerry’s balls on the table. She was not happy. This was so embarrassing – I don’t think I have EVER lost 3 games in a row – let alone with 6 balls still on the table!!!
The meals were all ok, what you would expect for a country pub – Kerry went with calamari, me with meat-lovers pizza. We did have an enjoyable night. The pub had a great atmosphere and they even had little bottles of bubbles.
Day 2 – 13 Aug – Point Samson
Guess what? On wakening we found the wind blowing strongly. Will it ever ease off? But it was not as cold as we had been at Karijini. We did not have to be away early as we are not supposed to present ourselves to the van park at Point Samson until 11am. But once we start packing up it takes no time as we had not even uncoupled. We left around 9.
It is only a 100km drive and the landscape is flat with distant hills as we head west.
We drove through Roebourne, then up the peninsular to Point Samson. We were going through a true coastal region – flat lands with occasional hills, mudflats, coastal lakes, etc. And with the wind seeming to increase in strength, it all looked extremely wild and exposed.
Though gazetted in 1908, Point Samson really came to prominence from 1902 with the construction of the jetty, designed to service the newer and larger vessels for which the jetty at Cossack was inadequate. The original ‘T-head’ jetty was almost 580m long, though it was destroyed in a cyclone in 1925. At its peak, Point Samson was the third largest port in WA, after Fremantle and Geraldton. Some remains of the jetty were rebuilt on land as a tribute to the port’s history. I think I read somewhere that Cossack silted up completely – thus the move of the port to Port Samson.
In contrast to its early years as a busy pastoral port, the town today is a relaxed and picturesque coastal village famous for its fish and chips and fresh seafood.
As we were early, we pulled up on a beach side parking area next to our van park looking at a very wild sea.
We went to the office and were told it was OK to come in. But given the apparent bleakness of the area I had being having second thoughts about spending 3 nights here. If we survived the first night in the howling winds what is there to do here? So we booked for 2 nights.
The site is a good one – they all seem to be here – with a concrete slab for the caravan and the awning, and a gravel based parking area for The Cruiser. Unfortunately it was not so simple to get Mobi parked – reversing in from the road. At one stage, a car came up clearly wanting to get through the road we are blocking. I looked at the driver and he was indicating to us to keep going. I went up to him and said: “ We don’t work well with an audience – this could get ugly”. He understood, and went around another way.
The wind was relentless, so much so that we were reluctant to get out of Mobi. But we had a quick drive around town and it looks a nice place – nothing really in the village – a tavern, general store, another van park, and lovely concrete pathways we could scooter around. We had planned to have the next day as a history day, going back to Roebourne and then out to Cossack. Then we saw a brochure on the Resource and History Tour put on by Rio Tinto. We reckoned that might be interesting so we booked that for Wednesday, then booked the extra night in the Park. It looks a lovely area – the beaches look gorgeous with soft white sand and some shells to ponder over whether to collect or not.
In the afternoon I went for a scoot as I had had little exercise that day. Honeymoon Bay is a short distance on the pathway and would be delightful on a calm day. The historic wharf – a land based section of the old wharf – is a really well maintained structure in startling white. It now forms a lookout over the beach. Then I went through the village, if you can call it that, with a lovely park behind an expansive beach. I am getting to like this place, it could be very nice indeed.
I had a look at the rules of the van park, and there are many, spanning 2 pages. We must not drive on any grass as it may damage the reticulation system. If any reticulation is damaged “…you will be charged a minimum of $20 to fix and replace reticulation.” Cars, boats and vans are not to be washed on sites – we must use the wash bay. If we are caught washing in sites ”…you will be charged $20”. The problem is that the coin operated facilities in the wash bay are out of order – a regular I was talking to said they had been for years. But there is one hose available – coin operated at $1 for 2 minutes. It is not a pressure hose, just a normal one, so I find that outrageous. $50 will be charged to to anyone using a red fire hose. No children are allowed in the adult retreat/theatre room – any children “…caught in this room will be charged a $20 cleaning fee per child.” People cannot take towels to the pool from a chalet – anyone caught doing so will be charged $30 a towel. Have a nice day!
There is no FTA TV here, but we have both Optus and Telstra, so have good internet. I finished the Karijini post and we went to bed praying for an easing wind.
Day 3 – 14 Aug – Roebourne & Cossack
Our prayers, or whatever, have been answered – the winds have dropped and it is quite a pleasant morning. We drove into Roebourne to the Tourist Information office – about 20km away. The drive back down is much nicer without the howling wind. We stopped at a lagoon, which is tidal, and also to look at some mudflats.
At Roebourne, we went to the tourist office and paid for our Resources and History tour ($40pp with seniors discount). We were also able to pre-order lunch at the cafe at Cossack. The brochure says that we must come attired with long pants and a long sleeved shirt with collar. This latter item is something we don’t have, but the lady explained that the long sleeved bit is what really matters. It’s all the OH&S requirements they have at the loading terminal.
The Roebourne area is home to the Ngarluma people. It was first explored by Europeans in 1861, and in 1866 Roebourne became the first gazetted town in the North West, with 106 lots. Until the 1960s, Roebourne was a non-indigenous town operating as a regional administrative centre, with strict controls and curfews placed on movement of First Nations people to, from and within the town. Most First Nations people were confined to camps and reserves a few kilometres away. However, with changing attitudes to First Nations welfare at governmental level in the late 1960s, Roebourne became a majority First Nations town as people moved out of the crowded camps and reserves, and from the outlying stations.
In more recent years, Roebourne became synonymous with the struggles between Aboriginals and police that were documented in a federal report dealing with Aboriginal deaths in custody. The 1980s report showed that Roebourne (with a largely Aboriginal population of 1,200) had ratios of police to citizens that were five times that of towns in more settled parts of Western Australia. Roebourne is famously the final resting place of John Pat, a teenager whose death in police custody shocked the community and many other Australians. On 28 September 2017, the John Pat Peace Place opened, a memorial garden intended as a place of healing for the community and to continue bringing awareness to the topic of deaths in custody
Currently Roebourne serves the passing highway traffic and tourism, especially as the gateway to many national parks in the interior. To read the early history of the town, click here
We got 2 town maps – one dealing with a trail around town identifying plants and describing how First Nations people use the plant; the nature trail; and the second a heritage walk to see the old heritage buildings. We did a section of the first one but did not cross the river. It was really interesting and a good initiative. The only problem is that at some places it was difficult to identify the actual tree or bush being described, and being winter, not that many plants were in flower or fruit, so a bit difficult to pick what was what.
Opposite the Tourist Office is the ruins of the Bakery & Store run by Freddie Yee Pack. From the mid-1870s many Chinese were recruited to the area as labourers, in many cases from Singapore. Legislations in 1884 ensured that no Asian or African could get a miner’s right until 5 years after the goldfield was declared. These few ruins are the last structural links to the role the Chinese people played in Roebourne. Yee Talk died in the town in 1963, aged 75. He died a pauper – a type of audit was done in around 1958 and found that he only baked around 50 loaves of bread a year…
Next door is what is thought to have once been the butchers shop. In 1960 it became the “We Care For Life” centre of the Aboriginal Church, providing outreach and counselling services.
The Victoria Hotel was the first 2-story building in town. A newspaper ad in 1894 claimed the hotel was the “finest and most commodious in the North”, boasting “spacious balcony, plunge and shower baths, good stabling, attentive ostlers”, and there were “loose boxes for race horses”. In 1971 the Hotel had increased its staff from 13 (1969) to 64 due the the influx of mining workers. It became one of the top 5 liquor outlets in WA. Buses were organised from the work camps and there would be 500 or 600 people crammed into the beer garden where only jugs were sold. However, those days did not last, and it closed its doors in the 1990.
There is also a sad Indigenous side to the story. The 1967 referendum granted citizenship rights to Aboriginal people, which became knows as drinking rights, as they had been prohibited from drinking alcohol before that. This led to despair and alcohol abuse for communities. As well, the influx of the mining workers led to racial abuse. The poster board has a reflection of one Aboriginal woman: “I was here when the mining people came here working for money and just coming to the pub. They came into Roebourne and turned the town upside down, taking the young girls. It destroyed Aboriginal families.”
At the time we were there, the hotel was covered in scaffolding and restricted by safety fences as it is being completely refurbished. It will be stunning when it is finished, with lovely rock walls and tiled verandas. We were told it will be a community centre and library. NOT a pub – we were told that although the town was not a dry town, there was simply nowhere to buy alcohol.
Next is the Roebourne Council building, which was once the Union Bank building built in 1888. However, the bank was closed in 1929, leaving the town without a bank. Since then the building has housed various staff for the City of Karratha, formerly the Shire of Roebourne.
Next to that is Dalgetty house, built in 1889, and now housing the Yinjaa-Barni Aboriginal Corporation.
Nearby is the Post Office, with lovely stone walls. A weekly mail service between Roebourne and Cossack started in 1875, but the PO was not built until 1887. The board tells us that: “With a workforce of 3 stonemasons and numerous Aboriginal prisoners as labourers, the project was completed in 3 months”. I immediately thought – what an amazing BnB this place would make… Glorious old stone, high ceilings, near the centre of the village…. but then, maybe not so good for a start-up business… I suspect most people who visit this town come by caravan and don’t require accommodation in a building.
The old police and goal area look really interesting but are all fenced off. The old court house is open but we were told we cannot go in there. There were workmen in there repairing the roof rafters, so fair enough to keep out.
It seems a shame to have this out of bounds for tourists. The information board tells a sorry story. The legal precinct – the police station, gaol and court – served the entire north west of the then WA Colony. Gangs of prisoners detained in the Gaol were used to develop regional infrastructure, particularly roads. The board tells us that: One of the most distressing pieces of evidence of the treatment of Aboriginal prisoners ca be seen by the bolts and rings on the interior walls where Aboriginal prisoners were shackled at night. They cannot be found in the white or “coloured” cells.”
The old hospital is a lovely building and has been incorporate into the modern hospital. Back in the day, the general health was poor – for example, in 1886 there were 10 cases of typhoid and malaria and 4 deaths. Dysentery and diarrhoea were common as was scurvy in the pearling fleet. It waa not until 1884 that a timber hospital was built, but it was deemed inadequate soon after opening. A new stone building was completed in 1886, making the hospital the second oldest in WA. However, no thought had been given to the treatment of First Nations people. The information board quoted from a retired nurse that in 1929, every 8 days a doctor and the nurse would row out to Cossack Leprosarium to treat Aboriginal victims of leprosy.
Opposite that it the the original school built in 1891. It remained the school until 1964 when it became a baby and childrens centre.
From there we went up to the lookout at Mt Welcome – great views in all directions. Here there are great views across Roebourne, the coastal plains and the surrounding hills. At the lookout, we took in the silhouette statues of six Aboriginal men all with a spear in one hand and standing on one leg. These statues represent the immediate neighbours of the Ngarluma people, and they face towards their country – looking home… perhaps nostalgically?
The drive in to Cossack from the Point Samson road skirts around a number of coastal lagoons, with a definite pink tinge to them.
Cossack derived its name from the HMS Cossack, the ship which brought the WA Governor to the area in 1871. As the first port in the north-west region, Cossack played a vital role in the development of Roebourne and the surrounding areas. All supplies for the new region were shipped to Cossack. Gold and pearling were also major industries in the 1870s, when up to 80 luggers were operating. In 1888 hundreds of prospectors streamed through Cossack to seek their fortunes.
Cossack’s growth spanned nearly 40 years, but as the pearling industry moved to Broome and the gold rush declined, it began to dissolve. The harbour silted up, and by the 1950s the town was virtually abandoned, a ghost town. Today only 5 or 6 stone buildings remain. Back in the day, when Australian communities moved en masse, they took the wooden houses with them and only the unmovable stone buildings remained. That’s what happened to Cossack. Today, during daytime, the population equals the number of visitors – at night-time it’s the number of those staying at Cossack Backpackers.
We know we will be here again tomorrow on the Resources & History tour so we only really looked at the Galbraith’s Store building, built in 1891. The company were merchants, shipping, stock, mining and general commission agents who also dealt with pearls and pearl-shells. This was the first blue-stone building, rather that the precious sandstone buildings.
On the way to Settlers Beach, only a km or so out, we stopped at the cemeteries, including a Japanese section. This tiny cemetery was quite poignant…. so many tiny graves.. Not many people lived to adulthood, let alone a ripe old age. I found it really quite upsetting looking at the headstones of so many babies and small children.
A short distance further on we came to Settlers Beach, but went up to Reader Head for some spectacular views of the Beach and surrounds. Stunning place. The first light beacon for Cossack Port was a timber framed structure from which was hung an oil lamp. A proper lighthouse was built on Jarman Island in 1888, making it the 7th in WA and the only one north of Geraldton. It was de-commissioned at some stage and apparently was re-commissioned after repeated requests from the locals because so many ship wrecks occurred.
Back up at Point Sampson we took the scooters out for a look around in perfect weather. It is a short distance to Honeymoon Cove, which is just a beautiful little beach. On the western side are some swirling multi coloured rocks – very different to the black rocks elsewhere – very similar to the tiger rocks near Kunnanurra.
On the main town beach we folded the scooters up and carried them as we walked along, finding shells for Kerry. It was a stunning afternoon. What a delight it was to walk along this lovely crescent shaped beach. Not that many great shells, but a sunny day, warm soft sand and enough little shells and tiny bits of coral to keep me looking at my feet.
Day 4 – 15 Aug – Resources and History Tour
We were at the Roebourne Tourist office at 9.15 to get going on our tour. There were about 12 of us on board the bus – they needed 6 for the tour to go ahead. Firstly, we drove around Roebourne past all the heritage buildings we had looked at yesterday. Our guide, who was excellent, gave a running commentary. Towards the end of this part she stopped in front of a little Anglican church this is being completely restored. She got married there 37 years previously and it obviously means much to her. But it was covered by scaffolding, so we could not see it.
From Roebourne we headed back out the Point Samson Road to Cape Lambert, where Rio Tinto exports iron ore. This is a massive operation – looking at it from a distance from Point Samson, we had no idea of the sheer scale of this. We drove through the facilities and the trains amazed me. Rio Tinto gets ore from 16 mines – including Tom Price and Pannawonica as the main ones – and there is a rail network of 1,700kms of rail line. There are 193 locomotives, each trains has 236 ore cars and carries over 25,000 tonnes of ore, and it takes 3 locos to haul 2.5kms of ore cars. Imagine a train 2.5km long – you do not want to be stopped at a level crossing. I was at a level-crossing in South Hedland when one of these came through – I was the first car stopped as the boom gates came down. An amazing length of train came through – 2 massive diesel engines at the front, and just as I thought it was gone because things had quietened down, there were another couple of engines…. followed by another huge long length of ore carriages, followed, finally by another engine. It takes 3-4 hours to unload a train and we watch as each car is hauled up, picked up and emptied onto conveyer belts. One of the “carriage tippers” was not working properly while we were there, down time seems like it would have a massive impact in this place.
We stopped at a point where we could overlook the loading area with a beautiful beach in the background that nobody is able to use. Peter Dutton’s terrorists are just waiting to strike here undoubtedly hahaha
The loading facilities are awesome. The wharf at Cape Lambert is 3 kilometres long, 30 metres high and one of the highest, longest and deepest wharves in Australia.
From there we went back to Wickham and toured the town. This is essentially a Rio Tinto town – where the people who make the port work, live. Really interesting is the static display at the entry to the town. It appears as a series of vertical steel posts with black lumps welded onto them.
But, very cleverly, if you stand at a point, it actually forms a ………..
From there we went to Cossack. We had a drive around, including up to Readers Head, but did not stop there, before returning to the town. We had preordered lunch so had that sitting out in a lovely courtyard. Then we walked around the remaining buildings – the post and telegraph office, the store, and customs and bond store and the old gaol.
In the Gaol we saw a poster describing the Leprosarium, and it made awful reading. The first suspected case of leprosy in the area was that of a Chinese cook who had worked on several pastoral stations and where the disease subsequently appeared. In 1910 land near Cossack became a Quarantine Reserve. Communication was by flags. In the next year Bezout Island, off the coast of Cape Lambert, became the new Leprosarium. But being on an island presented many problems, and only a year later it was abandoned. Back to Cossack. Patients worked up to 2 hours if they could being rewarded with additional supplies. There were strict procedures for a lugger used to transport patients. It has to be submerged in Cossack Creek from low tide to the next low tide and was then scrubbed with Lysol and then fumigated. The Leprosarium was closed in 1931. I also found something else in the Gaol …….
We also looked through the museum, now in the old Court House. Such an interesting place. We learned that pearling began in Cossack in the 1860’s, initially focusing on the shells, collected by walking the shore. Then smallish boats were used before pearl luggers to free dive for pearls. Aboriginal divers were used, especially female divers, who could dive deeper to over 18m. The water police were meant to regulate the use of female Aboriginal divers. I also read later, that they mainly used Indigenous women and children to dive for the pearl shells.
Back at Mobi, we rested and I scooted down to prepare for a drone shot at Honeymoon Bay. But then we could not find the cable that goes from the controller to the iPad. Bugger – how many options for a drone activity have been ruined by annoying things like this..
During the day another van had moved in behind us. We started talking to them – Jenny & Gary from a small country town in the south of WA. They were real good company, and we went together around to the Tavern for dinner. As we approached the entrance it was so quiet we thought that it would be deserted. But around the corner was a loud, packed and boisterous place – we were lucky to get a table. But we did, and had a great evening.
To see photos related to this post, click here