21st May 2012 visit to Point Samson

  We went out for a drive to check out the surrounding area Cossack and  Point Samson.


Cossack is located 12 km from Roebourne, it is an historic ghost town at the mouth of the Harding River...The townsite was officially declared in 1872 and by 1887 a horse drawn tramway had been built connecting the port with the town of Roebourne.


Cossack's importance at this time was twofold. It became the port for the pastoral industry which, by 1869, had over 39 000 sheep in the Pilbara. This role also brought hundreds of prospectors through the town when gold was discovered in the Pilbara in the 1880s.Cossack's life as a town was relatively short-lived. 


By the turn of the century the pearling fleet had moved north to Broome to take advantage of the pearl beds in the area. By 1910 the harbour had silted up and the once-thriving community had become virtually a ghost town. In 1910 the municipality was dissolved.


Quickly Point Samson became the main port for Roebourne.


People continued to live in Cossack until after World War II, but the failure of attempts to ressurect the pearling industry saw the virtual disappearance of the town. 


In 1976 a committee was formed to restore the town as a kind of museum.


We visited the some old buildings in the area ....the Court House ... we held a "mock court" and put John in the docks..hehehehe

 We then moved on to Port Samson which is a small fishing town that was once the principal port for the Roeburne district. It has a large commercial fishing fleet which  still operates out of the town. 

From there we went into a little town called Wickham for lunch I was so surprised to see all the shops and even the supermarket with steel cages on all the windows and doors to safeguard against break-ins...