Day 64 – Kalbarri to Latham – Travelling the Big Island

14 August 2019

It rained quite heavily in the early hours of this morning. We’ve definitely come too far south….

It rained on and off all day, so the day didn’t pan out the way I had planned. On leaving Kalbarri, via the bakery for donuts, we went to Hutt River Province. I’m still a bit confused by this place, as I haven’t conducted any independent research, however according to the information of the owner (Prince Graham) the large agricultural property seceded from Australia in 1970 and is now an independent country. Of sorts. The owner at the time (father of the current Prince) cracked it with the WA government in 1969 when they brought in wheat quotas. My take on it all is that back then, the government didn’t seem to believe in the concept of a free market. They controlled the wheat market by being the only entity that a farmer was allowed to sell his grain to. Then, in 1969, they set quotas, telling farmers how much land they were allowed to put in to wheat. However, they did this after the wheat had already been sown for the year. So, Hutt River, which according to their information generally sowed around 13,000 acres of wheat, were told by the government they were only allowed to sow 100 acres for the year. Anyway, regardless of the truth to the story, I believe it is absolutely disgraceful for the government to have controlled the market in such a way, and I too would be jolly annoyed to be told who I could sell my produce to, and how much of a certain crop I was allowed to grow on my own land. Anyway, after much rigmarole, Hutt River province seceded. They have their own currency, postage stamps and flag. The real kicker though is that he showed us passports that citizens of Hutt River have travelled on. Which means that other countries recognise it as a legitimate country. Hmmmm. It all seemed like a bit of a joke, and the fella who introduced himself as Prince Graham a bit of a tool.

I had intended for us to visit the Pink Lake at Gregory next, but the stupid rain and clouds wouldn’t go away. So we headed to Northhampton for a quick look and then to Geraldton for lunch. It was still raining, so we didn’t have our customary picnic lunch, instead having potato cakes and chips. Good potato cakes though, scored a 4/5 as part of the #huntforaustraliasbestpotatocake

The upside of the crummy weather was that we were able to do more km’s that I’d originally planned, and we made it to the teeny tiny wheatbelt town of Latham to camp. It was a free camp, with toilets and hot showers! Such a thing is almost unheard of. The countryside around Latham is beautiful, and the area very aptly named the wheatbelt. At times there were just immense paddocks of crops that went as far as the eye could see, and railway line connecting the small towns with enormous grain storage sheds along side. The towns all looked pretty down and out, and it was sad to see so many empty shops.