Albany - Mount Clarence - The Long Walk

Albany - Mount Clarence - The Long Walk

10 March 2020

Today we decided to walk the short 2km to the Anzac Centre and Princess Royal Fortress on nearby Mount Adelaide that overlooks Albany.

King George Sound at Albany is a large deep water harbour, and it was here that both the Australian and New Zealand troopships assembled in the First World War before sailing to the United Kingdom.

The shortish walking route to the Anzac Centre, found on the internet, did not exist so a slightly longer walk was required.

The Anzac Centre provides a captivating interactive experience, telling the story of the many thousands of Australian and New Zealand soldiers who left for Europe, many of whom did not return.

We then visited some of the remains of Princess Royal Fortress, the fortress and gun emplacements that guarded the deep water harbour at Albany.

The two 6-inch heavy artillery guns are still in situ and would have provided good defensive capabilities, but were never needed.

We took a walk to the viewpoint at the summit of Mount Clarence passing more WW1 memorials and seeing rare honey tailed possums, before taking a trail down the side of the mountain (getting off route a couple of times) into the centre of Albany.

After getting some shopping we discovered the buses to Middleton Beach stop running at 2pm, so we walked the 3km back to our accommodation. In all we walked @16km today.