Geraldton

Geraldton, a town 425Km north of Perth turned out to be much bigger than we originally imagined. Though with a only population of under 40,000, it has almost all amenities and infrastructure of a big city. 

We spent a night in Geraldton and stayed in a heritage guesthouse called Weelaway on Gregory. As we checked into the Guesthouse, the owner, Jackie was keen to tell us that we have chosen the right place to stay, a place of historical significance. This is the first residential house built in Geraldton town and was at one time occupied by the first mayor of Geraldton.

Weelaway on Gregory

Geraldton has a number of buildings of unique design and architecture. One of the buildings we had planned to visit is St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, a catholic church building completed in 1938. Unlike the old traditional single spire cathedral design that we are used to, this cathedral is built with a twin-tower and finished with a very distinct and striking brown orange mud color. It looks more like a castle than a church building. Before coming to Geraldton, I have read a lot about its stunning interior design. Unfortunately, we were unable to enter the building to see because it was closed for renovation.

St. Francis Xavier Cathedral

St. John Uniting Church

Just like the pioneers in New Zealand, the initial settlers in Geraldton from UK brought along their Christian faith and built churches to keep their faith and to have a center for communal interaction. The St. John Uniting Church built in the late 1800's (Foundation Stone laid on 26 July 1893) is a small church building. Now listed a heritage building, its symmetric, simple yet imposing design must have been a pride of the locals during the early 1900's. Christian influence clearly has declined over the years!

Regional Art Gallery and some of the paintings on display.

Queens Park Theatre

HMAS Sydney II Memorial (Day View & Night View)

Geraldton sits on a very flat piece of land. The only high spot in town is a little hill called Mount Scott which is about 35m high. On top of the hill is the HMAS Sydney II Memorial. This memorial is built to commemorate a naval cruiser, HMAS Sydney II which was sunk by a German raider HSK Kormoran off the Western Australia coast on 19 November 1941. The wrecks of both ships however are never found. The centre piece of this Memorial is the Dome of Souls. The domed roof is a flock of stainless steel sea gulls, 645 in total to symbolise all the crew of the sunken ship. We were there twice, in the afternoon and at night, to see the Dome of Souls and the sunset of Geraldton.