It is a
well known fact around the world that Aussies are a lazy bunch when
it comes to certain things. The best example is that when we speak
everything gets shortened. Certain consonants such as 'd', 't', 'r'
automatically get omitted in our speach. This laziness flows into
other areas as well. The way animals and places are named is another
example. The Eastern Grey Kangaroo is found on the eastern side of
the continent and is a grey colour. The Port Lincoln Ring Neck Parrot was discovered in Port Lincoln and has a distinctive yellow coloured ring around its neck. The Great Ocean Road is a road
that follows the coastline between Melbourne and Adelaide and you can
see the ocean from most of it. Likewise, Wave Rock is a 14m tall rock
face that is shaped like a wave at the beach. So you see
identification is an easy process in the land of Aus.


Today's
post is about Wave Rock and the surrounding area. The actual name is
Hyden Rock and Wave Rock is just the section that is shaped like a
wave. Hyden Rock is located 3km east out from the small town of
Hyden, and roughly 340km east-souteast from Perth. It is usually
visited if people are going to Esperance from Perth, exploring
Western Australia's wildflowers, or perhaps have just crossed the
Nullabor and are heading west to Perth. Our last few posts have been
about our journey from Bunbury, crossing the Wheatbelt, and eventually
down to Esperance where we plan to spend the summer (but that will be
a post in a few weeks time).

Western
Australia often doesn't get as much attention from travellers as NSW
and QLD so if small towns want to experience the benefits of tourism,
the largest growing industry in Australia, they have to make an
effort to get noticed just like the
'Tin Horse Highway' on our
previous post. Wave Rock however first hit the world-wide tourism
scene way back in the 1960's. A photograph of Wave Rock was entered
into a Kodak International Colour Picture Competition in New York and
in 1964 amateur photographer Jay Hodges was announced the winner.
Shortly afterwards the picture was on the cover of 'Walkabout
Magazine' then later also featured in 'National Geographic'. This
photo paved the way for tourism to Wave Rock and the surrounding
areas. Not only is the shape of the wave realistic, but the vertical
colour contrasts add to it as well so it now appears as a wave that
has now turned into stone.

Hyden
Rock is one of many granite outcrops in the Wheatbelt. There are
quite a few walks around that you can do. We stayed at the Wave Rock
Caravan Park for two nights as a friend had told us that entrance to
Hyden Rock and Mulka Cave is included in the price. We got to the
park in the afternoon, got set up, looked at the maps, then explored.
From the park it is about 100m to Wave Rock. We were there just in
time to see some brilliant colours on the rock from the setting sun,
but not early enough to catch the sunset when we walked on top of
Hyden Rock, we didn't rush it as we were there two nights and allowed
for plenty of time the next evening.

The
following morning after breakfast we followed the rock and path
around to the left until we got to Hippo's Yawn and like Wave Rock,
the name fits the description. It was cool to see. From here you can
just go back to the car park, or continue on the boardwalk loop that
takes about an hour. After we had lunch, we drove out to 'Mulka Cave'
and 'The Humps' which is another granite outcrop nearby. There are
many informative signs along the walks, but the one I remember the
most was about how the local Aboriginals used traps to catch goannas.
It worked like a trap-door. A big slate piece of rock was rested on
some smaller rocks. The goanna would go under the slate, the hunters
would knock out the smaller rocks and the goanna would be trapped
underneath. Even today goanna is a favourite food for many Aboriginal
groups across Australia.

Hyden has
had to be resilient from the start due to lack of infustructure and
drought, but it has lead to an incredibly strong community spirit
that is still vibrant today. In recent years the town used the help
of an artist to help create some scrap metal sculptures, that look
comical, but each sculpture tells the story of the town and there
are plaques with each one. The first hotel opened in the 60's. Money
from the hotel has helped to fund and establish many of the other
facilities around the area too such as the Caravan Park, local shops,
the Wildflower Shoppe Cafe, the Wildlife Park, the Lace Place Museum,
the Miniature Soldier Museum, the Pioneer Museum and many other local
facilities.

If you
are road tripping in Western Australia, Wave Rock is worth a visit. For more of our posts from this area check out our
'Destinations' page where Cameron has made it easier to search our posts via location.
Happy
travels.
- Jeni
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