Australian bush is littered with the ruins of old buildings and the rusting remnants of curious structures. All too often, grey nomads and other travellers meander across the landscape without fully understanding the significance of what they are seeing.
It’s a big, big job, but there is no shortage of people striving to change this and draw attention to the historical significance of some of these often unspectacular looking curiosities. For example, a conservation project to showcase the history of the abandoned coastal settlement of Old Onslow in Western Australia has just seen new interpretive signage installed around the heritage-listed site.
A set of 21 interpretive panels, explaining the history of structures around the old townsite and directional signs for tourists have just been erected. It’s part of the wider $1 million Old Onslow Conservation and Tourism Development Project which aims to re-activate the historic site’s tourism potential.
“The new signs are both informative and visually striking on the landscape,” Pilbara Regional Council chief executive, Tony Friday, told the West Australian newspaper. “More importantly, they allow visitors to understand and engage with local stories from this historic site.”
The West Australian reports that the Onslow townsite was established more than 120 years ago as a major port servicing the wool industry at the mouth of the Ashburton River. However, residents abandoned the original town, moving about 20 kilometres away to where Onslow now stands at Beadon Creek, after it sustained extensive damage in a cyclone in 1925.
Initial stabilisation works on the old townsite were done in January 2016. The West Australian says the project’s next phase of conservation works, on the police station and jail complex structures, are due to start in coming weeks.
