h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dude, you read the history! You know about the sealers, the murder and the abductions. You know about Major Lockyer too, but did you know he had three wives and fourteen children? The youngest wife was 21 when he married her. Guess how old he was... 72! Way hey.. Did you know that Collet Barker, who was a friend of the Minang natives too left Albany and went to South Australia. When he was there he was speared by aborigines (and killed) while walking trouserless along the beach. This is known to be true because one of the Aboriginal girls abducted by the Sealers- the same infamous ones as before - came from there, and got back home to tell both stories. Did you know that Wylie, another Aboriginal, walked with Edward John Eyre (a very famous Englishman) across the Nullabor Plain (from the Latin nullis-arbor - meaning no trees) in 1841. It's only 1500 miles from Adelaide to Albany and this is when there were no roads, just horses and drays. I could go on, but won't. That thing about Dog Rock? So true. Most people think it's a joke but take the obligatory photo anyway. It's not till way afterwards, when they're looking at those photos commenting on the great disappointment that was Dog Rock, when the tourists come face to face with an image they don't recognise. An image of themselves standing in front of a rock that looks exactly like a bloodhound with its nose in the air. Expectation's a killer, ain't it? Albany is a ghost town, full of things of the past. Its haunted and beautiful at the same time. Like walking through a painting knowing its hanging in a gallery and people are looking at it at the same time. Go there, it'll knock you dead.