Jervis Bay Day 3

March 28th

He survived to go to Cairns with me unfortunately

Woke up early again to pack up the tent then drove to these nearby lighthouse ruins that lay upon a cliff.

Backside of the ruined lighthouse

More than 400 acres of land belongs to the aboriginal community based in Wreck Bay now. In fact Jervis Bay is considered a territory of Australia, much like the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory. Technically it is not in the state of New South Wales, even though it is in the southern part of it. This is one of the only cases similar to what we have in the United States, where large tracts of land are granted to natives. As I stated before, Barry's tribe was not a victim of the stolen generation because most Australians didn't even know his tribe resided in this bay and surrounding woods until much later after colonisation.

Lighthouse ruins

Anyhow, the lighthouse ruins are a prime example of white settlement on aboriginal land. When it stood it was poorly placed, and lead many ships to doom. They tore it down after a few years for this very reason and left only ruins.

Cliffs from above, would not want to fall down there

After walking dangerously close to the edge of cliffs, we drove to Hyams beach which has the whitest sand in the world according to the Guinness Book of World records and a few other sources. The sand was blindingly bright!

The whitest sand in the world

This weekend has been phenomenal. I've seen and pet wild kangaroos for the first time. In fact, I saw about a dozen of them. They really are everywhere in the Australian wilderness. Some other endemic animals that I saw were a possum (with a little baby riding on its back), parrots, bull ants, and the laughing kookaburra.

This Friday I fly to Cairns to go into the rainforest, and see the great barrier reef in northern Queensland!

Cheers!

Jono