Albany

We had our first grey and slightly damp day today. Not a lot of rain, certainly didn’t stop us from getting out and about.


We set off to find Albany Whale World, which is on the site of the last whaling site in Australia. It’s a very fascinating place, and definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in this part of the country. We did a guided tour, about 40 minutes, which gave us a very good outline of the history of whaling here, from the very early days when it was Albany’s main industry to the later times when it became much less viable due to increasing costs and falling demand for whale products, not to mention the quotas imposed by the International Whaling Commission. When the local company finally decided to close down, the workers heard about it first on the ABC news one Friday night. Very well done – not!

We were there for a bit over 3 hours, and managed to see nearly all of it. There is an excellent 3D movie about whales, the different types of whales (some have teeth and some don’t) and different breeds (humpbacks, blue, sperm, etc). There’s also a film about sharks that’s very interesting too. It’s a great place and very easy to spend 3-4 hours there. I think the smell of whale still lingers a bit!