5/2/26: York-Yanchep NP-WA's Boola Bardip Museum

Just up the hill a few minutes from our B&B in York, Western Australia, was the Mt. Brown Lookout, also known as Wongborel or Sleeping Woman to the Indigenous Ballardong Noongar people. The viewpoint overlooked a hill called Walwaying, meaning Place of Worship.

After the Avon Valley was first sighted by European explorers in August 1830, an exploring party searched the area, led by Ensign Robert Dale. He led the first settlers to York the following year. A year later, the flock of more than 500 sheep was doing very well.

Back in the first inland city of York again, Steven and I marveled at the serene view of the Avon River until the harsh, screeching sounds of white cockatoos disturbed our peace! 

On the Avon Swing Bridge:

Wanting to escape the deafening birds, we walked around York, a popular tourist town 100 km east of Perth in Avon Valley. We first came across the historic Castle Hotel, built beginning in 1853. Located on Avon Terrace, York's main historic street, the hotel was the oldest surviving inland hotel in the state.

The first two sections of the Central Buildings along York's charming streetscape were constructed in1892, with the third added in 1907. Unfortunately, because of the sun, the  '1907' inscribed on the pediment didn't come through clearly.

The earliest buildings in the York Courthouse Complex were cells dating to 1852.

The historic Sargent's Pharmacy building was erected in 1884 for Obeitho Sargent, a dentist and pharmacist, who established a prominent practice in York. He was also one of the few early York residents to own a camera and document local town history.

After being in such remote areas for what seemed liek a long time, it was both welcome and odd to be in a tourist hub again, and seeing coaches full of Asians toting cameras and posing for pictures by the heritage buildings.

The prominent, Edwardian-style York Town Hall, also located on Avon Terrace, was built in 1911. 

We had a two-plus-hour drive ahead of us to Yanchep National Park north of Perth, as we hadn't had time to stop after touring the stupendous Pinnacles Desert in Nambung about a week earlier. 

I almost made Steven slam on the brakes before turning around when we drove past the murals on the Northam Silos on the Toodyay Road on the way to Yanchep! They were the first grain silos in Australia to be painted in March 2015 as part of the PUBLIC Silo Trail. If you've been following the blog, you'll remember the remarkable silos in Ravenshorpe from several days ago.

We drove along another part of the massive 1903 Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, widely known as the Golden Pipeline, that stretched 566 km from the interior of Western Australia to the Perth hills. It reminded us of Alaska's famous oil pipeline, which we were lucky enough to see in May 2023. 

As we drove north from Perth along the Great Northern Highway, also part of the National Highway 1, we were again reminded of the striking and innovative lights.

Views of the historic McNess House Visitor Centre at Yanchep:

As koalas were so difficult to spot in the wilderness, the park had introduced a small colony from Australia's eastern states in 1938. We were fortunate to easily spot some lazing in trees as we meandered along a boardwalk in a gated area.

When Miffy, a 9-year-old Southern Koala, arrived in the park from Victoria in 2024, she was the first to do so since the late 1980s.

Koalas naturally live in tall forests and woodlands of eastern Australia. They were listed as Near Threatened because forest clearing, disease, and fires have divided and reduced the wild koala population. 

I had been lucky enough to see koalas on an earlier Australian trip with a friend in 2019, but Steven hadn't. I'm so glad we made the effort to drive to Yanchep so we could see one of the country's favorite animals in a natural environment.

Koalas are nocturnal, meaning they feed at night when it's cooler, which helps protect them from predators such as eagles and dingoes.

Seeing the banksia also brought back memories of the spectacular banksia murals on the Ravensthorpe silos.

Another striking park building:

As we began hiking along the park's Wetlands Trail, we came to these viewing platforms. They sure looked like diving platforms, so Steven posed accordingly! 

According to AI, the bright blue bird was an Australasian swamphen. 

We read that the park's Loch McNess and surrounding wetlands were home to rakali, or Australian water rat, which feed on a wide range of prey, including insects, frogs, fish, and mussels. They often carry their food to a feeding platform, such as a log or rock on the bank.

I loved the different shades of green along the trail.

We'd never seen woolgrass, a native wetland-dwelling sedge, before.

The trees were very similar to the Spanish moss that drapes from trees in the southeastern US.

Walking on the path felt like walking on feathers; it was so soft, unlike the mostly concrete trails we'd experienced in other Australian parks. 

Time for a break:

As much as we enjoyed the trail, it was odd to us that there wasn't a single sign identifying any of the plants or trees. It felt like a missed opportunity.

As we headed south along the Pipidiny Road toward the WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth, it was refreshing to view the decorative sound barrier fencing.

On our way to the museum, we passed Perth's small Chinatown.

Part of the museum's cultural precinct included the historic Old Perth Gaol, built between 1854 and 1856. The distinctive octagonal-designed building, the museum's oldest, was constructed using convict labor. 

Translated as "many stories" in the Whadjuk Noongar language, Boola Bardip was exactly that, as it delved into WA's rich history over eight sprawling permanent galleries. As I pointed out in an earlier post, the Noongar people, made up of 14 distinct groups, were considered the traditional owners of WA's southwest region. They have been bound together through language, culture, and shared histories. As one elder said, "We see ourselves as part of nature and all things natural as part of us.

We started our tour of the museum in the Ngalang Koort Boodja Wirn Gallery, as it celebrated ancient Aboriginal culture, traditions, and spiritual connections. The Kangaroo Skin artwork depicted traditional fine dot art, concentric circles, and line work.

The Kylie, or fish boomerang, from Busselton was used by Noongar people to chop and slap the water surface, directing schools of fish into nets.

Exchanging cultural items and knowledge along Aboriginal trade routes has been part of their cultural economy through singing, painting, and passing down through generations, adapting where necessary for present-day life. 

The Kimberley Pearl Shell, from far northwest Western Australia, was a powerful item of regional exchange, a process known as wurnan among some Noongar people.

Kimberley craftsmen quickly added European materials when making these delicate flaked Glass Points. They were similar to plainer ones made for generations and frequently sold to European traders.

Hanging from the ceiling was a model of a huge Leatherback Sea Turtle, the largest of the seven sea turtles that swim along the WA coast, and can weigh up to 740 kgs.

Also suspended from the ceiling was the Cygnet V, a surfboat, launched in 1978 and used for racing until 1985.

Called Transparent Sea, the majestic whale shark represented WA's marine emblem.

We were curious how the Changes Gallery would treat the environmental and cultural impacts of WA's mining industry. The introduction promised an exploration of how past actions have transformed the state's landscape, and how today's choices determine our future.

As those who explored, charted, and named the state's land moved boundaries, they forever changed the lives of the Aboriginal people, the traditional owners of the land, and did more than mark a map. 

Camels were introduced to Australia from Asia as a vital mode of transportation for early explorers. But as transportation methods advanced, unwanted camels were released into the wild, where they damaged fences, flattened rangeland vegetation, and fouled water holes. Trapping and shooting have had little success in controlling about a million feral camels living in the country's deserts.

But the people in the Ngaanyatjarra lands, some of the world's least populated regions, faced an immense environmental challenge because of the camels. They took a different approach than culling, by corralling and selling them to the Middle East camel racing industry. The camels were no longer viewed as pests, but as a means of sustainable employment and an economic opportunity. 

To tell the story of the first Ngaanyatjarra ranger who chased camels from a helicopter, another Ngaanyatjarra elder made camels from Tjanpi, wild-harvested grass, yarn, and wire.

Pastoral stations in Australia are vast, remote landholdings that can cover thousands of square kilometers in the arid outback, and are leased from the government and used to raise livestock like cattle or sheep. As the stations expanded, Aboriginal people sustained them as stockmen and domestic workers on what was once their traditional homelands. Although conditions were often harsh, they endured to stay close to family and their Country. 

Over 600 Aboriginal men, women, and children walked off 27 stations in May 1946 in the Pilbara, demanding fair wages, improved working conditions, and control over their own lives. Although they did not achieve all their demands, the three-year Pilbara Strike showed powerful determination. To coordinate walk-off day, jam tin labels were secretly distributed to workers to mark the days leading up to strike day.

Aboriginal people made and wore yakapiri, or bark sandals, to protect their feet from the desert landscape's harsh heat. These were traced to about 1907.

We must have missed the mining exhibits altogether in the Changes Gallery, which was strange, as they were supposed to be the primary focus!

It was odd to us that more Indigenous art was on display in an adjacent building. There we admired art depicting creation and dreaming stories that have traversed the continent. One gargantuan piece was Dream Song of Water and a Frog, an acrylic-on-canvas artwork created in 2005 by Shane Pickett.

Younger generations of Aboriginal people, guided and supported by elders, mentors, and their communities, have begun to rise up and overcome significant challenges. Their aim is to build stories of hope, belonging, and strengthening others' spirits

Fourteen women from the Langford Aboriginal Association's Art, Yarning and Nooridty Yoka Group created this Noongar Textile Cultural Map of Langford. Each woman embroidered a piece of cloth to show places her ancestors cared for.

Since the proclamation of the original Swan River Colony in present-day Perth in 1829, WA's Aboriginal people have resisted European control. Colonial expansion, Acts of Parliament, and overt racism have resulted in dispossession, poverty, and the death of many Aboriginal people.

It was heartbreaking to read how thousands of Aboriginal women and girls as young as 14 were forcibly removed from their families and Country and trained to work in White homes and institutions as domestic servants throughout Western Australia.

The Aborigines Act 1905 created the Protector of Aborigines position in Western Australia, so every Aboriginal child up to the age of 16 was 'looked after' by the legal guardian. The Act, which gave permission for authorities to detain Aboriginal children in institutions or send them to work, was in effect until the 1970s.

Until that same period, Aboriginal children of mixed descent in Western Australia were routinely removed from their families to be brought up in 'White' institutions. "The official intention was to 'assimilate' children into White society, destroy family links, and eradicate all knowledge of Aboriginal society and culture."

Like Blacks in the United States, Aboriginal people die at an alarming rate in custody because they are incarcerated at a disproportionate rate. Though there were a slew of deaths in custody, and there was the 1987-1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, no one has ever been convicted of any Aboriginal death in custody.

In the frontier wars that continued until the mid-20th century, massacres became a defining strategy to eradicate resistance to European settlement. As a result, thousands of Aboriginal men, women, and children were killed, with evidence in their oral history and in printed and archival colonial sources.

The Massacre Map was drawn from evidence from the first recorded massacre in 1794 to 1930. It includes only events with sufficient verifiable information. The museum pledged to add more locations when research into documentary evidence warrants their inclusion. 

It's appalling that so much tragedy occurred in Western Australia, with the same story being repeated time and time again throughout the world, with White men invading an independent territory and subsequently enslaving the native population.

I don't recall ever visiting a museum with as many separate buildings as Boola Bardip, which often meant there was no one to check tickets as visitors moved from one to another, or even any security guards in some buildings. I guess an honor system was in effect.

The 24-meter-long skeleton of Otto, a blue whale, was posed as if it were about to lunge through a swarm of krill. With some adult blue whales reaching over 30 m in length and weighing up to 200 tons, they are the largest animals to have ever lived. However, they feed on tiny, shrimp-like creatures called krill, which congregate in swarms and sometimes strech for kilometers in every direction. 

Otto was located in the Treasures Gallery in a particularly stately building. What seemed unusual wasn't the absence of security, but that the gallery seemed like an afterthought, with very few exhibits. No wonder there was scarcely anyone else there.

However, what was intriguing were some Customs Seizures confiscated over the past few decades, as we'd never seen any before. Most were protected or endangered plants and animals. The WA Museum was often asked to provide advice on the identification and rarity of particular items. 

As we left the museum, we saw a Dance Circle and knew it was important to Whadjuk Noongar people as a place to share stories, knowledge, and dance. It reflected their importance to Country and to each other. Visitors were encouraged to remove their shoes to feel the sand underneath and understand how important connecting to Country is for all Aboriginal people.

Next post: Perth's Art Gallery of Western Australia & R&R on Cottesloe Beach.

Posted on August 24th, 2026, from our home outside of Denver, as we bid a tearful goodbye to our daughter and her family until we hopefully see them again in mid-December at their home in Chicago. Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.