Esperance, Western Australia
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Esperance () is a town in Western Australia, located on the south coast around half-way between Albany and the South Australian border. Its population is around 14,000 people, and its major industries are tourism, agriculture and fishing. The Shire of Esperance has an area of 43,000 km², and in 2002 had a population of 13,329 people.
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[edit] Attractions
Approximately 7.5 hours' drive or a 1.5 hour flight from Perth, the state capital, Esperance is a popular destination for medium term trips for families based there. It is also around 4 hours' drive south from the Goldfields mining town of Kalgoorlie, and offers a convenient get-away for weekends for the mine workers.
Near the town itself are many attractive beaches, offering surfing, scuba diving and swimming. Also nearby are a number of salt lakes, including the Pink Lake, which gains its rosey hue from red algae living within its waters.
There are five major national parks near the town. A major nearby tourist attraction, 56 km from the town center, is the Cape Le Grand National Park, which offers a picturesque coast of largely granite terrain and sheltered white sand beaches. The park is a popular spot for recreational fishing, as well as four wheel drive enthusiasts and hikers.
[edit] Climate
Esperance has a mediterranean type climate typically with hot dry summers and cool wet winters. In summer the average maximum temperature is in the mid 20s (degrees Celsius), however on occasion hot, dry northerly winds can blow off the arid interior of the state to the north-east, raising temperatures upward to around 45 degrees and above.
The winter climate is generally less prone to extremes. The dominant influence is the cool, moist winds from the Great Southern Ocean to the south, bringing lower temperatures and the bulk of the annual rainfall in cold fronts. The average maximum temperatures are in the high teens.
[edit] History
European history dates back to 1627 when the Dutch vessel Gulden Zeepaert, skippered by François Thijssen, passed through the blue waters off the Esperance coast.
French explorers are credited with making the first landfall near the present day town, naming it and other local landmarks whilst sheltering from a storm in this area in 1792. The town itself was named after the French ship, the L'Espérance, commanded by Bruni d'Entrecasteaux. Esperance, roughly translated, is French for 'hope'.
In 1802, British navigator Matthew Flinders sailed the Bay of Isles, discovering and naming places such as Lucky Bay and Thistle Cove.
Whalers, sealers and pirates followed, as did pastoralists and miners, keen to exploit the free land and cash in on the gold boom in the gold fields to the north.
In 1979 pieces of the space station Skylab landed here after the craft broke up over the Indian Ocean. The government fined the United States $400 for littering.
In January 2007, Esperance was struck by two highly unusual events.
First, a torrential storm with wind gusts of up to 110km/h brought 155mm of rainfall within 24 hours, causing significant flooding. More than 100 homes were damaged, several boats were destroyed, trees were felled and 35m of bridge on the South Coast Highway, the main road linking Esperance to Perth, was washed away. The Western Australian Government declared the area a natural disaster zone. Over 37,000 sheep were killed in the storm.[1][2]
Secondly, commencing just before the storm, thousands of birds (including wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, New Holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, and some crows, hawks and pigeons) fell dead from the skies. As at 10 January 2007, no scientific explanation had been arrived at for the cause, man-made or natural, for the phenomenon.[3]
[edit] Esperance Port
The only port in the south east of Western Australia, the Esperance Port Authority completed an A$54 million dollar upgrade in 2002. The upgrade made the port one of the deepest in Southern Australia, capable of handling Cape class vessels (up to 180,000 tonnes) and fully loaded Panamax class vessels (up to 75,000 tonnes).
Exports for the year ending June 2005 were 7,394,155 tonnes, including 1.7 million tonnes of grain, and 5.3 million tonnes of iron ore which is railed from Koolyanobbing.
[edit] Schooling
Esperance has a wide range of school choices such as:
- Our Lady Star Of The Sea Catholic Primary School (students - 255) - Located up in West Beach
- Esperance Primary School (students - 600) - Located in the town centre
- Castletown Primary School (students - 800) - Located in Castletown, the suburb
- Nulsen Primary School (students - 400) - Located in Nulsen, the suburb, across the road from the Esperance Senior High School
- Esperance Christian Primary School (students - 50) - Located behind the Esperance Senior High School in Sinclair, the suburb
- Esperance Senior High School (students - 1200) - Located in Nulsen, the suburb, across the road from Nulsen Primary School
The Angelican Schools Commision is in the middle of building an Esperance Angelican High School, so that parents can have another choice for secondary schooling for their children. The school is planned opening day for Feburary, 2008.
[edit] Twin town
[edit] References
- ^ "Esperance declared a natural disaster zone", WA Business News, 2007-01-09. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ "Esperance area storm kills 37,000 sheep".
- ^ "Thousands of birds fall from sky over town", The Australian, 2007-01-10. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
