Left camp at 8.30am, dropped by the shops then headed north travelling about 225km to Port Germein. Had lunch then went for a walk out on the old Jetty. Port Germein was originally built to export grain to Europe. Prior to the construction of the Jetty in 1881 goods from the area were loaded at high tide onto flat bottom barges then the grain was transferred to ships anchored in the channel. As you can see in the photos how far the tide goes out, therefore the big ships couldn’t get in hence building this extremely long Jetty. After our walk just relaxed and did some sorting out after our rushed unpacking yesterday.
This was mainly the scenery we saw on today’s road trip. These are the wheat fields which have recently been harvested.
This is an old tide clock which was erected at Port Pirie several kilometres down the coast. It is now sitting up at Port Germein on display.
This old photo shows how it was used sitting up high on pillars.
A few metal art pieces. The lighthouse originally was out past the end of the Jetty to indicating how far out the shallow water went. The tide was out a very long way out when we were there. Much much further than Snells.
Looking down the jetty it seems to go for ever. This shows how far out the tide goes. In 1882 the Jetty was extended by 400ft to measure 1680mts. This made it the longest Jetty in the southern Hemisphere . Wild seas and high tides have battered the Jetty causing severe damage loosing the last 130mts closed to the public. They never had the money to repair it so it was left to slowly break away due to the high winds they get here. These sorts of stories are told all around Australia where there are many places that have built these long Jetty’s in the shallow areas so the ships could deliver. I have gone on a bit re the Jetty but their stories fascinate me as we have seen a few in our previous travels.
We only walked half way down.what you see is only half the Jetty.
There were stairs going down to the water which was good to go down and get this photo.
We were not even half way out when I took this photo looking back at the very little township. Very quiet place these days. Had a pub, Post Office, camping ground, police Station and a store. It was a good quiet place to stay just for the night while travelling north.
These old photos show the old ships that used to come to the end of the jetty in the deep water to pick up the wheat grain to ship to Europe.
Off to Woomera tomorrow 480kms north of Adelaide, famous for missile testing and space exploration. The start of the outback. And the start of our adventure. Two days travelling to get there.
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