Carnarvon (Western Australia)

Carnarvon is the capital of the Gascoyne region of Western Australia and has about 4550 inhabitants. It lies at the mouth of the Gascoyne River in the Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometers north of Perth. In the city there is a sea port.

History

The city was founded in 1883 and named after the British Colonial Secretary Lord Carnarvon. It served primarily as a port and supply station for sheep farms in the area - 1930 lived 1.4 million sheep - as well as the administrative center for the Shire of Carnarvon. The wool of the sheep was brought by camel caravans to the port. Those caravans is due to the unusual width of the Robinson Street, also known as Australia's widest street.

Agriculture

In the surroundings of fruit and vegetable is cultivated on large plantations. Among other things, pineapples, avocados, bananas, beans, jojoba seeds, mangoes, melons, oranges and tomatoes are grown. About 80 percent of the fish consumed in Western Australia Carnarvon bananas come from.

One problem is the irrigation of plantations is: The Gascoyne River flows only about 120 days a year. Outside this period, the groundwater of the Gascoyne River is used because this is all year round available.

Attractions

Carnarvon Space Tracking Station

The satellite observation station "The Big Dish" was built in 1964 and used in the Gemini and Apollo program. Even with the Apollo 11 mission, she played an important role. The former site of NASA was closed in 1974 and can be visited today. The museum is located five kilometers south of Carnarvon.

Blow Holes

75 km north of Carnarvon Blowholes are about 30, narrow openings of sea caves, from which inject the incoming surf waves about twenty feet into the air. This Gischtwasser collects in small hollows and then evaporates very quickly, so that in these wells forms a salt water brine and the settling salt crystals can be exploited easily, which is a very good table salt results. In a few hundred meters south gelegenem marine nature reserve, one located behind a coral reef shallow lagoon, not allowed to fish; the removal of Pacific oysters considerable size, however, is allowed.