Cocklebiddy, Western Australia#Present day
{{Short description|Roadhouse community in Western Australia}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox Australian place
| type = town
| name = Cocklebiddy
| state = wa
| image = Cocklebiddy Roadhouse, 2017 (02).jpg
| caption = The Wedgetail Inn, Cocklebiddy, 2017
| image_alt = The Wedgetail Inn, Cocklebiddy, 2017
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| zoom = 8
| coordinates = {{coord|32|2|24|S|126|5|46|E|display=inline,title}}
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| established = 1879
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| postcode = 6443
| elevation = 94
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| area = {{cvt |input=P2046}}
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| dist1 = 1163
| dir1 = E
| location1 = Perth
| dist2 = 439
| dir2 = E
| location2 = Norseman
| dist3 = 273
| dir3 = W
| location3 = Eucla
| lga = Shire of Dundas
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| stategov = Eyre
| fedgov = O'Connor
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Cocklebiddy is a small roadhouse community located on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia. It is the third stop after Norseman on the journey eastwards across the Nullarbor Plain. Like other locations in the region, the site consists of little more than a roadhouse.
It is the nearest locality to the coastal feature of Twilight Cove, which is {{Convert|26|km|abbr=on}} to the south.{{Citation | author1=Murray, Ian | author2=Hercock, Marion | author3=Murray, Ian | author4=Hercock, Marion | title=Where on the coast is that? | year=2008 | publication-date=2008 | publisher=Hesperian Press | isbn=978-0-85905-452-2 }} Cocklebiddy follows the time zone used by Eucla of UTC+8:45.{{Cite news|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-08/this-remote-stretch-of-desert-has-its-own-custom-time-zone/10981000|title = Forget daylight saving, this stretch of desert has its own strange little time zone| newspaper=ABC News |date = 8 April 2019}} It is situated {{Convert|284|km|abbr=on}} from Border Village.
History
=1800s and 1900s=
Cocklebiddy started as an Aboriginal mission station, of which only the stone foundations remain today.
The area was thought to be a potential water source and, during World War II, Army engineers attempted to tap fresh water from the lakes, but it was found that a thin skin of fresh water overlay a vast volume of saline water.
The Eyre Telegraph Station, located {{Convert|49|km|abbr=on}} south of the settlement, operated from 1897 until 1929. Unlike most others, it remained in a relatively well-preserved state due to its isolation and protection from the Southern Ocean, and in 1976, when the State Government created the Nuytsland Nature Reserve, the building became the Eyre Bird Observatory, which opened in 1978. The observatory offers basic camping facilities. Over 230 species of birds have been recorded there.{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/Western-Australia/Cocklebiddy/2005/02/17/1108500208341.html|title=Travel – Cocklebiddy|author=Sydney Morning Herald|author-link=Sydney Morning Herald|accessdate=2006-10-17 | work=The Sydney Morning Herald | date=2004-02-08}}
=2000s=
File:Cocklebiddy playground, 2012.JPG
A new species in the Restionaceae (a family of tussock-like plants), namely Harperia eyreana, was discovered about {{Convert|20|km|abbr=on}} to the south-west of Cocklebiddy, and described in 2000.{{cite journal |last1=Briggs |first1=B.G. |last2=Johnson |first2=L.A.S. |year=2000 |title=New species of Harperia, Loxocarya, Onychosepalum, Platychorda and Tremulina (Restionaceae) in Western Australia |journal=Telopea |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=247–257 |doi=10.7751/telopea20013002 |url=http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/72775/Tel9Bri247.pdf |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091004214944/http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/72775/Tel9Bri247.pdf |archivedate=2009-10-04 }}
Cocklebiddy was visited in 2007 by the Australian comedic duo, Hamish and Andy.{{cite web|url=http://www.westernbelle.com/C.HTML |title=Western Australian Towns – C |author=Western Belle |accessdate=2006-10-17 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509190653/http://www.westernbelle.com/C.HTML |archivedate=May 9, 2006 }}{{cite journal|title=Cocklebiddy Cave Dive – The Worlds Longest|journal=The Scuba Diver Magazine|year=1984|pages=51–54}}
Caving
The Cocklebiddy area is noted for its caves, the most notable of which is Cocklebiddy cave – a single passage more than {{Convert|6|km|abbr=on}} long, of which around 90% is underwater and only accessible via cave diving. In August 1983, a French team set a world record here for the longest cave dive in the world. In October that year, the French record was beaten by an Australian team when Hugh Morrison of Western Australia pushed another {{Convert|280|m|abbr=on}} beyond where the French had tied off. In 1995 South Australian cave diver Christopher Brown went another {{Convert|20|m|abbr=on}} further again, and in late 2008 much of the cave's more distant regions were explored, mapped (using radio-location "pingers" designed and operated by Ken Smith) and videotaped by Craig Challen and Richard Harris et al using rebreather technology.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Chris |last2=Richardson |first2=Tony |title=Cocklebiddy Cave Diving History {{!}} Cave Diving Down Under |url=https://www.cavediving.net.au/index.php/history/82-cocklebiddy-history |access-date=2025-06-23 |website=www.cavediving.net.au}} (Challen and Harris would later be better known for their involvement in the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue.)
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- (1986) Nullarbor locals swim in the salt lake at the bottom of the cave The West Australian, 5 April 1986, p. 30
External links
{{commons category}}
- [http://www.dundas.wa.gov.au/eyre-highway.aspx Shire of Dundas – Towns of the Eyre Highway]
- [http://www.nullarbornet.com.au/towns/cocklebiddy.html Nullarbor Net – Cocklebiddy] including local information.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20091128111836/http://www.eyrebirds.org/observatories/eyre.htm Eyre Bird Observatory]
- [http://cavediving.net.au/index.php/history/82-cocklebiddy-history History of Cocklebiddy Cave Exploration]
{{Towns Nullarbor}}
{{Recreational dive sites|cavsit}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Towns in Western Australia
Category:Roadhouses in Western Australia