Albany/Denmark

They call this area down here The Great South and I'll give the tip it is fairly magnificent. Full of history too. As those of you that may be more knowledgeable of modern Australian history will know Albany is where the expeditionary fleet that sailed to Gallipoli set off from, 36 ships and 20,000 men from Australia and New Zealand in late November 1914 from King George Sound.. The following month a further 20 ships and 10,000 men set off and sadly for many of them this was the last time they saw Australia. 

We learnt an awful lot from the Princess Royal Fortress museum complex atop Mount Adelaide. The Albany barracks now shares the sight with the HMAS Perth interpretive centre, Australian Light Horse Museum and the Military Heritage Centre. Really well restored and laid out and the kids (and adults) had fun climbing on the naval guns and moving them about. Finn gave one of the missiles a very close inspection, or was he having a sulk.

There is a great view of Princess Royal Harbour and King George Sound from Mount Clarence which is surprisingly close to the city centre. Apparently Albany has a very deep harbour and it was deemed critical to the defence of Australia during the latter half of the 20th  century hence the big gun batteries pointing out to sea. Apparently we were fearful of Russians at the time but fortunately the guns were never fired in anger.

Callam wrote quite well about Whale World which we visited and it must be said it is an impressive exhibition with plenty to see and do. Be warned though the big oil vats that have not been used in 30 years still have a bit of a smell about them especially on a warm day. A must see though if you ever get down here. Here are some more pictures of the place to give you a nautical taste.

 A flag

 A sperm whale without flesh

 Something to do with a ship with Norweigan writing.

 A view from the flenching (cutting up deck).

 A ships hand break.

Part of a dead whale, too big to get it all in.

Some rope.

We also went to the Valley of the Giants which Marley has also covered in her blog. If you don't like bouncy walkways 50m above the forest floor it may not be your thing but if you like very old and very big trees you will be impressed. 

On the way back back to Denmark we visited Dinosaur World....where they had a really cool collection of birds.