Geraldton, The Sunshine City

The City of Geraldton is about 30 km from Nabawa on the Indian Ocean coast.  We've done a bit of sightseeing in the couple of weeks we've been here.  We've been able to do some shopping and fuel prices are the lowest we've seen since we left the east coast.

We did a tour of the Rock Lobster Factory which was very informative.  Because the season's quotas ended at the end of September, we were lucky to do the second last tour for 2014.  The chilled Western Rock Lobsters are exported primarily to China and Japan.  The lobsters go into "hibernation" when they are chilled and they are revived about 30 hours later when they arrive at their destinations.  We bought some lobster at the Fishermans Co-Op and has lobster thermidore for dinner one night - a real treat.






The port has a large grain loading facility.

The Customs quarantine area is home to a number of boats. Two of the notable boats are the small blue and white fishing boat which brought 66 asylum seekers into Geraldton in 2013.  The larger black ship was found to have an illegal cargo of cocaine on board.

The HMAS Sydney II Memorial is well worth a visit.  Its dome is visible all over Geraldton.  There are several sculptures, on the left is "The Waiting Woman" and on the right is a stylised ship's bow.

We've had fish and chips for lunch a couple of times at a park   near "The Yellow Submarine".

 This week has seen The Sunshine Festival in full swing with a street parade and markets.