Rivers with fresh water are rare in Western Australia. And along the length of the west coast there is only one that in its natural state was never blocked by a sandbar. The Waychinicup. It is less than 20kms long, alas…

The above photo is interesting because it is an old sealers’ oven, built about 1800 —  prior to white settlement of the western half of Australia. Apparently constructed as a semi-permanent structure by visiting sealers of diverse nationalities to bake bread.

This southern coast was a surprisingly busy place around this period — the nearby Two People’s Bay was named in 1803 when American whaling ship and a French ship found themselves in a bay at the same time…