By Hamish Hastie and Holly Thompson
Exmouth locals and thousands of travellers from across the globe have witnessed the total solar eclipse, cheering as the moon covered the sun and plunged them into darkness.
At 11.29am the total eclipse began, lasting for around a minute. One traveller described the experience as breathtaking, and said everything had gone quiet, even the birds, as the temperature dropped.
In Perth, office workers filled the streets as the moon covered more than 70 per cent of the sun.
Speaking to 9 News Perth during the total eclipse Gravity Discovery Centre Observatory chief astronomer Rick Tonello became emotional describing the event.
“That is the most incredible thing I’ve seen. It is absolutely stunning,” he said.
“I’m lost for words, that’s a first.
“We seem to have lost something in modern-day technology. To go out there and simply look at the night sky or look at celestial phenomena like this really stirs something deep in the human psyche.”
Curtin Institute for Computation Director and astrophysicist Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt witnessed the eclipse in Exmouth and described it as astonishing.
“The pictures cannot adequately capture the experience of the temperature dropping and the light dimming to a completely different palette, which doesn’t exist at any other time,” she said.
“Then you see the Sun’s corona clearly and stars and planets in the sky in the middle of the day. It is an event you to need to experience to truly understand.”
How Exmouth prepared for celestial show
The population of Exmouth was expected to swell to 20,000 during the event and preparations in towns right across the Ningaloo coral coast began more than two years ago.
The start of the eclipse, as seen in Exmouth, WA. Credit: Toner Stevenson
These included major upgrades to ablution facilities, grants for upgrades to businesses and the organisation of major events from Coral Bay to Exmouth to mark the rare solar event.
WAtoday spoke to some businesses this week as visitors began streaming in and found the town, which is used to a huge surge of people during the Easter school holidays, was coping well.
Mechanics are in hot demand with the influx of travellers by road, but traffic management has been described as overbearing by some businesses.
A closure of Maidstone Crescent in the Exmouth town centre on Tuesday had some businesses irate at event organisers because it was diverting people away from their shops, but that was resolved on Wednesday.
Exmouth Japanese restaurant Bamboo is situated in the centre of town and has doubled up on everything to deal with the anticipated increase in trade including two spare receipt machines and a spare iPad at the restaurant’s point of sale.
Bamboo co-owner Theo Popis said earlier this week that numbers in the town had been more subdued than expected but on Wednesday business had started taking off.
“I think today it just feels everything’s gearing up,” he said.
“They’ve got spotlights running through the air at night and Federation Park is loaded up with entertainment. You’re starting to feel the excitement building up.”
People gather ahead of a total solar eclipse at a viewing site 35km from Exmouth, Western Australia, Thursday, April 20, 2023.Credit: AAP/Aaron Bunch
Popis has travelled up from Perth to help his son Andre over the week. He said they expected the busiest days in town would likely be Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
By Wednesday lunchtime Bamboo’s trade was roaring.
Exmouth Shire deputy president and owner of the Ningaloo Lodge Jackie Brooks said the volume of people coming into the town increased tenfold on Wednesday compared to Tuesday.
Her lodgings are at capacity and included an avid stargazer who booked as far back as five years ago.
“The guests are fabulous, we’ve got some good characters who have staked out their spots. Really loving it,” she said.
“It’s been a strange feeling working up to this for so long and the concerns about cyclones and weather events. [Fortunately] we have been blessed with the weather.
“I’m really happy with how the town has come together.”
They were coming regardless: Cook
Tourism Minister Roger Cook has been in the Gascoyne region for the past few days in the lead-up to the eclipse and will be viewing it at a specially constructed viewing platform on an old prawn processing factory 10 kilometres south of Exmouth.
He conceded the issues around traffic management had caused some angst with businesses, but they had been resolved, and the town was now buzzing.
“As Minister for Tourism, I never thought I’d get involved in portaloo management and water source management but everything seems to be going really well,” he said.
“If anything we have been over prepared and that’s where you want to get to.”
The government has spent more than $22 million in the lead up to the eclipse on preparations but he said it was money that had to be spent because people would have descended on the North West Cape regardless of whether they would be catered for or not.
“It really just came from the information we received from previous locations where total solar eclipses have occurred,” he said.
“Basically that people will come from all around the world, you don’t have a choice about whether people will be there, you’ve just got to make the most of it and prepare for it.
“Originally, we were told to expect anywhere up to 50,000 people.
“We knew that we had to actually invest fairly heavily to make sure that we can manage the flow of population.”