Ceduna Whale Flight: In the West Coast region of South Australia
The vastness of the wild West Coast of Eyre Peninsula really hits you when you're out on the open road. Among other things you encounter the southern portion of the dog fence, the great divide of wire which meanders all the way from South Australia to Queensland to separate the dingoes from sheep. Then, as you venture out of the mallee into the flat treeless terrain that is the Nullabor you could be forgiven for thinking that there's nothing here. But you'd be wrong.
Head south just before you reach the Nullabor Roadhouse and Motel and you'll come to some of the most spectacular coastline in the world which extends from impressive sand dunes to the imposing Bunda Cliffs.
Keith caught up with Sonny Pepper and Ken Burgoyne several years ago when they were working as rangers from the Yalata Aboriginal Community. For them this is a very special place. And from early May to October, rangers from the local community make a daily morning pilgrimage to check on the latest arrivals.
“We grab the binoculars and check every morning before we start work at about seven thirty in the morning. We go and open the gates. It's the greatest job you know.”
Specially built viewing platforms now take you to within metres of the action and even for the regulars the daily show come whale season is not to be missed.
It's great to watch from the cliffs but for a different view it pays to charter a flight with Whale Air. As we flew west along the Great Australian Bight the first thing we encountered was the constant sprawl of dunes which go on for kilometres after kilometres - some as high as 150 feet.
Our Pilot Brett Mayger's pilgrimage to the Bight coincides with that of the Southern Rights. When they arrive so does he and the many thousands of tourists who come to marvel at this annual spectacle.
“Every three years a group of whales will head off from the Antarctic and make their epic journey all the way to the Head of the Great Australian Bight. They'll stay here for about five months for breeding or calving and then they'll turn around and go all the way back. They seem to love it under the cliffs because I think it's fairly sheltered.”
The whales with calves may also shelter near the cliff because of the constant threat from White Pointer sharks.
“Occasionally we see sharks down here and the sharks do sometimes chase the calves around and they have also been known to take chunks out of adult’s tails.”
No-one's exactly sure why they come to the Bight but when we caught up with Brett during the last whale season the point in the three year cycle meant there were fewer of these leviathans of the deep.
“Some years we've had over a hundred whales out here. This year we've got around forty and we'd have about twenty five to thirty calves. The adult whales grow to around eighteen metres in length and they weight about eighty tons each. When the calves are born they are five to six metres long and weigh one to two tons each.”
No-one quite knows why they come to the Bight but maybe they aren't so very different to us - drawn to one of the world's truly stunning geological features which, from the air looks like a broken plate extending its jagged edge across so much of the Southern Australian coastline.
“The cliffs get to over three hundred feet in height. They are the Bunda Cliffs. They start here at the Head of the Bight and they head west for two hundred and seven kilometres to Eucla. They're unbroken for one hundred and eighty seven kilometres. I understand it as being the longest in the Southern Hemisphere.”
They make the most stunning backdrop for one of nature most stunning annual displays. The Whales begin arriving at the Bight from early May and stay until early November. A thirty-minute whale Air Flight from the Nullabor Roadhouse costs $85. To book contact 8555 4075. Accommodation details, www.sahotels.com.au/nullarbor or www.sahotels.com.au/bordervillage
