Israelite Bay

One of the last frontiers in the fishing world, on the South coast of WA, is Israelite Bay and ‘The Cliffs’. These are at the beginning of the Great Australian Bite. It’s where the keen fisherman go and brave the wind with the sand blasting and pull in Pink snapper, sharks and Mulloway off the beach (instead of having to be out in a boat.)

The track in is four-wheel drive only with parts being sand and other sections full of corrugations so deep, that I’m sure if you had false teeth, they would jar out!

The sea is a murky deep green, covered in white tops that the wind which never seems to cease whip up.

There isn’t any mobile phone reception and as you gaze out to the spot where the sea meets the sky, then turn around and see nothing but thick bush; you can feel that you are the only person on earth. But it’s not a place that you feel alone or lonely. There are always the odd ute loaded to the hilt with fishing gear, or the ‘locals’ (the people tend to spend six or eight weeks, at a time out there.)

The sand dunes, although not as big as out at ‘The Cliffs’, tower above you and often it’s your foot that first breaks the crust on the top of the sand!

We packed up the ute, threw in the tent for the kids and the swags for us and headed out there, last week. It really is an amazing experience, even though we have been there, many times before, there is still new things to be found.

The camp sites are well protected from the strong winds by native bush, although the bush flies tend to be very friendly there. There is an old jetty to explore as well as a crumbling telegraph station (more info on that, next blog), not to mention the old cemetery, kilometres of coast line, the sand dunes and salt lakes.

A couple of interesting spots were little crops of rocks that pushed out into the sea and made a small bay, calm enough to swim in. Although after a visit from a stingray, we decided that wasn’t a go-er any more! We came across a brown snake – probably a dugite – sunning himself on the rocks as the waves crashed in around him – I wondered what he would eat out there? And there was seaweed piled so high it looked like it had been made into bales of hay.

Anthony caught a whiting and as he reeled him in, he felt a tug at the line… when he got the fish in, there was only half of it left! Something much bigger, with sharp teeth and fins had obviously been hungry! (No swimming on that beach!)

Now, for the winners of ‘What Kate did next’ comp! They were: Kate Williams, Adelle and Angela! Thanks to all who entered and the three Kate books will be winging their way to the winners shortly! Lisa will be signing them before she puts them in the mail.