As usual in this part of the world there is a busy port exporting actively exporting not just grain, but the very country itself in the form of ore. In the middle ground is Possession Point where Captain George Vancouver RN took possession of the whole of Western Australia for the UK in September 1791 (to forestall the French). The indigenous people were not consulted of course. This is the same Vancouver whose name appears in Canada; the Rn used to get about a lot in those days.

In more recent times Albany has become a part of Australian cultural history because it was from here that the ANZACs set off for the Middle East (actually they set off for France, but got diverted when they reached Suez). Albany is now home to the Australian national ANZAC memorial and

 museum.

Here is the very splendid memorial:

Stupidly your photographer did not notice at the time the radio mast in the background. The story of this memorial is rather interesting. It originally stood on the banks of the Suez canal at Alexandria in ‘British’ Egypt. During the abortive suez invasion by the UK & France in December 1956 a mob attacked the monument and destroyed the bronze statue. The plinth was later rescued and re-erected here in Albany with a new bronze cast from the original mould which had survived. 

Also here is a Mediterranean Pine, Pinus pinea:

When the ANZACs arrived at Gallipoli in April 1915 there was a solitary pine growing prominently on an important hillside. It became known as Lone Pine, the name persisting even after the tree had been blasted to smithereens by shellfire. in August 1915 the Australians attacked the Turkish positions at Lone Pine, losing 2000 men in four days of fighting; the Turks lost 6000. 

Two Australian soldiers recovered cones from Lone Pine in the overrun Turkish trenches and smuggled them home. Six trees eventually grew from their seeds and have been planted throughout Australia, becoming part of the national folklore. This pine at Albany is a descendent of one of those six, planted in 1974. I think it’s a really simple and poignant reminder, and absolutely appropriate.

And to make an interesting visit perfect the bush around the memorial is littered with huge (for a skink) skinks, soaking up the sunshine (and it was hot). These are King’s Skinks, Egenia kingii which can reach 500mm and weigh 250g: