Northam WA ICEM Northam, Western Australia, Australia
By Dezzabills on 31-Jan-19. Waypoint GA13511

Northam is a town in Western Australia, situated at the confluence of the Avon and Mortlock Rivers, about 97 kilometres (60 mi) east-northeast of Perth in the Avon Valley. At the 2016 census, Northam had a population of 6,548. Northam is the largest town in the Avon region. It is also the largest inland town in the state not founded on mining.

The area around Northam was first explored in 1830 by a party of colonists led by Ensign Robert Dale, and subsequently founded in 1833. It was named by Governor Stirling, probably after a village of the same name in Devon, England. Almost immediately it became a point of departure for explorers and settlers who were interested in the lands which lay to the east.

This initial importance declined with the growing importance of the nearby towns of York and Beverley, but the arrival of the railway made Northam the major departure point for prospectors and miners heading east towards the goldfields.

A number of older buildings have local heritage significance and still serve the community.

Northam is also a very popular place for hot air ballooning in WA.

White Swans - British colonists first introduced White Swans to Western Australia in 1896. Shortly afterwards in the early 1900's, Northam's Mayor, Oscar Bernard (a Jewish Russian settler) brought swans to Northam, which over time happened to be the only place in Australia that the species survived, and it to this day the only place in Australia that they will breed naturally in the wild. There were at one point around 80 swans on the Avon River, but today that number is considerably lower. Care has been taken to protect the remaining birds, and the last few years have seen a number of new cygnets on the river.

The White Swan became a protected species in 1950 under the Department of CALM Wildlife Conservation Act. This means it is illegal to remove a White Swan from the wild, keep a swan as a pet, or release a swan into the wild without the appropriate license. The swan is a protected species and in Northam they are cared and watched over by our local Shire Rangers and a number .

Information courtesy of wikipedie and Northam Shire website

I've Cached Everywhere, Man is the largest cache series hidden in Australia. It is made up of the locations made famous by Lucky Star in the song "I've been everywhere" in 1962, lyrics by Geoff Mack.

It would appear that "I haven't exactly been everywhere" and so verses 5, 6 and 7 have been added by hookline and Trigg-A-Nomics to cover Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania. The community's grateful thanks go to those geocachers for helping to cover most of the populated (and less populated) parts of Australia.

GCA Verse 5 by hookline
I've cached in Narrogin, Leeuwin, Corrigin, Carnarvon Kalbarri, Kalgoorlie, Narembeen, Geraldton, Burrup, Manjimup, Munglinup, Kununurra Gillingarra, Badgingarra, Meekatharra, Peedamulla Albany, Jindalee, Karijini, Yalgoo Bindoon, Mingenew, Northam, Ningaloo... cached there too!

I was in Northam and realised that there were no GA caches here at all, so i decided it needed one for all the travellers passing by or through Northam.

You are looking for a regular size cache.

Enjoy watching the swans or maybe take a hot air balloon ride.

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