Day 110 Esperance

Today we went into town to see the local markets. They were held in the Esperance Museum Village where a collection of small historical buildings which now house little shops (selling all types of wares), and the Esperance Visitor Centre. Located in the centre of town, the Museum Village is on the site of the town's old railway marshalling yards, and the buildings have been relocated from various sites around Esperance.














Skylab was America's first space station. Unexpected solar activity warmed the Earth's atmosphere and caused it to expand, pulling the 77-tonne station out of orbit sooner than planned. On July 12, 1979, the station broke apart in a fiery display. Pieces landed across the Shire of Esperance in the museum site and nearby areas like Balladonia. The actual documented debris footprint stretched 2,450 miles. The Shire of Esperance jokingly fined NASA $400 for littering. A US radio host eventually raised the money and paid the fine on behalf of a listener in 2009. This scale model of Skylab, a United States space station, was gifted to the Esperance Museum in appreciation for assistance given to NASA.



John ‘Black Jack’ Anderson was an African American who came to the Recherche Archipelago in 1835, setting up camp with a small crew of sealers on Middle Island, some thirty years before the Esperance area was first settled by Europeans.

Before that, Anderson was living on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. It is unclear how he got to Australia in the first place. The most likely explanation is that Black Jack Anderson deserted from an American whaling ship. Around this time, records also mention a notorious, lawless sealer called Abyssinian Jack who lived in Tasmania, and he may be the same person as Black Jack.

In 1835, a small ship called the Mountaineer left Kangaroo Island, traveling to the first settlement in the West: Albany. Anderson travelled with the Mountaineer, bringing his own whaling boat and crew. When they reached Middle Island, Anderson and his crew stayed and set up a sealing camp.

Middle Island, the largest Island in the Recherche Archipelago, is located about 9km off the coast of Cape Arid, and is about 6.5km long. Among Anderson’s crew were two Aboriginal women—Anderson had kidnapped them, after brutally killing their husbands and babies.



We went for a walk along The Esplanade to the Esperance Tanker Jetty, originally completed in 1935. The long-standing structure was closed to the public in December 2015 after structural assessments, and the Shire of Esperance delivered a revitalised 415 metre over-water replacement in March 2021 that includes interpretive elements acknowledging the original jetty.

Built primarily from concrete and steel, bent 1 – 10 forms the Esperance Jetty’s ‘heritage section’ and has been designed and built to pay homage the original Esperance Tanker Jetty's design. Elements from the old Tanker Jetty have also been included in the design, like the classic curvature of the jetty, diving platform and shelters. Tanker Jetty timbers were used in the interpretive features of the Esperance Jetty, mixing the old with the new.










Hannett’s Point is the exact coastal location where the historic Esperance Tanker Jetty (originally known as the Deepwater Wharf) was built in 1934 and officially opened in 1935. Today, it aligns with the area of the newly constructed Esperance Jetty on the foreshore.

It was named after early settlers Benjamin and Caroline Hannett. Caroline arrived in Esperance in 1869 with the prominent Dempster family party, and Benjamin drove the area's first team of cattle. Historical Significance: The Hannett family built a home at the point as early as the 1870s and were the only people living in that specific area for many years. They operated a dairy from the point, supplying much of the milk for the early Esperance township while their roaming cows and geese became a famous local feature.












Sammy the Sea Lion was a famous wild Australian sea lion that famously frequented the historic Tanker Jetty in Esperance, Western Australia, delighting locals and visitors for years by coming ashore daily and greeting onlookers. Unlike an attraction or captive animal, Sammy was a wild Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea), an endangered native species, who chose to make the jetty area a regular stop in his routine. Long remembered by the Esperance community, Sammy remains a nostalgic part of local history tied to the older days of the Esperance Tanker Jetty before its partial collapse and subsequent redevelopment.



After our walk we went for lunch in town and this was the street art we saw through the window.