Gallipolli: read about and visited

I am currently reading Peter Fitzsimons excellent book about the Gallipolli campaign.  Not pleasant but very interesting.  So when I saw a sign to Gallipolli beach it had to be followed to see what was there.  That sub-expedition appears late in this post.

For the morning dog walk Frances suggested going along the beach towards the main part of Mount Dutton Bay.  As we left the house the resident Australian Ringnecks appeared.  As the vernacular name for this subspecies is Port Lincoln Parrot they should be expected round here. 

The weather was cool, approaching cold, and cloudy.  So the mist made nice shapes on the hills.

A bunch of small parrots showed up and on reading my phone field guide I decided they were probably Rock Parrots. On getting home and looking at the photograph I have confirmed that ID,  I think this is my second sighting of the species, the first being 6 years ago when we visited Coffin Bay.

A typical edge to the limestone at Dutton Bay.

I am not leg-ist.  Frances spotted this snail munching on unknown, but surely prickly to the gastropod, plant.

Two Pacific Gulls.  I have spent hours scanning the sea and shore at Mallacoota for this species with no luck.  Here they are very common (see below for more).

After a good rest and some lunch we headed off in the Pajero to a nearby area Frances had noticed on a map.  We noticed for the first time that the rock spat at us on Saturday had hit the edge of the windscreen T and started a crack.  Bugger,  The road passed Farm Beach and carried on South to a settlement called "Little Douglas".  I have no idea why it is so called nor have I noticed anywhere called Big Douglas!  As we got on to the beach this vessel appeared and tore off into the bay.  My guess is that the load is something to do with oyster farming, so the guys are performing a public service.

 Using big tractors to launch seems popular.

 At Farm beach there is an area full of these devices which didn't look in good condition: I guess being driven into salt water tends to lead to a bit of corrosion!  I have tried to get a price on these John Deere's but it proved a little difficult: however I found a somewhat larger device cost around $150,000 which seemed a huge amount to pay for something you're going to chuck into the sea!

Just off the shore was an emerging sandbank which was very well supplied with birds.  As well as the pictured waders - Red-capped Plovers (1) and Red-necked Stints (2) there were three species of tern: in ascending order of size there were Fairy (29); Crested (1) and Caspian (14).  And of course numbers of Pacific and Silver Gulls.

 A bit further down the beach, where Frances had picked up many shell treasures, were a pair of Australian Pied Oystercatchers.

 Barnacles seem to be an issue ....

 .. but if that worries you, just set up a chair or two in the dunes and relax.

 Heading back to Farm Beach two emus were spotted.

Farm Beach itself was well endowed with seaweed and about 29 Pacific Gulls which were paying great attention to some fisherpersons cleaning their catch.  A Kelpie was having great fun ensuring the Gulls kept alert.

 As well as the seaweed there was a good supply of these fibrous balls.  On consulting a book at the house they are some form of seaweed.

 The track to Gallipolli Beach was signed and noted as 4km.  As it basically went across the top of limestone cliffs it was in rather average condition, which caused a small lengthening of the crack in the windscreen.  (This was a matter of some concern but it didn't grow much more so we waited until getting home before replacing the screen - which already had about 5 chips in it,) Frances noted that dealing with such tracks is why we traveled here in the Pajero rather than the Jetta.

 This is Gallipolli Beach itself.  It was used for some of the shooting of the film "Gallipolli".  Certainly it looks rather like some of the photos I have seen of the Dardanelles.

As we left we crossed with another car going to the beach and had a chat with the driver.  He wondered how on earth Peter Weir had found the place to film.  Its not exactly on a main road!

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