Cocklebiddy - Places to See

Cocklebiddy Caves
Cocklebiddy is the centre of some of the most interesting caving country on the Nullarbor Plain. In 1983 a French team of speleologists set an underground record in the Cocklebiddy Caves when they made the deepest cave dive in the world. For details of how to get to the caves, which are only 5 km from the settlement, ask at the roadhouse.

Eyre Bird Observatory
The Eyre Bird Observatory is located 49 km south of Cocklebiddy on a sandy track which is hedged on either side by thick mallee scrub and is only accessible by 4WD vehicles. It is located near the old Eyre Telegraph Station which was built in 1897 and abandoned in 1927. Its isolation was enough to ensure that it wasn't vandalised and the sand dunes protected it from the storms and winds which are such a feature of the Great Australian Bight.

Thus when the Western Australian Government created the Nuytsland Nature Reserve, a vast 400 000 hectare region of the southern coast, in 1976 the old telegraph station was about the only building in the area. Two organisations saw the building's potential - the Post Office Historical Society (it had been a vital telegraphic link between Western Australia and the rest of the world) and the Royal Australian Ornithologists Union who saw it as a perfect wildlife bird observatory. It is a comment on the flexibility of both organisations that today the old telegraph station has been fully restored and houses both a Post Office Museum and the warden for the Eyre Bird Observatory. Since its inception the observatory has engaged in serious research into the birdlife of the area and has spotted about 230 different species including birds like the red?necked stints and ruddy turnstones which have migrated over 10 000 km from the icy wastes of Siberia.

The observatory was opened in 1978 and today it has facilities for camping and a number of ornithological activities occur every day of the year. It is advisable to phone the observatory on (08 9039 3450) before venturing down the escarpment and along the less than wonderful road to the coast.