Cervantes, a town in Australia whose streets are full of Spanish names

Australia, with an area of ​​7,741,220 square kilometers, is the sixth largest country and the only one that occupies a continent.

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On top of that, Australia is a huge distance from Spain. Spain's easternmost territory (the island of Mahón) is more than 13,000 kilometers from Australia's nearest mainland (the North West Cape). But there's one town in Australia that should catch the attention of many Spaniards: Cervantes, located 14,471 kilometers from Madrid's Puerta del Sol.

Cervantes is a small town, with 480 inhabitants, located on the west coast of Australia, about 140 kilometers from the city of Perth, the capital of the vast state of Western Australia. The origin of this town has an indirect relationship with the world-famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes. The town's inhabitants did not choose this name because they were admirers of the author of "Don Quixote," but for a reason related to navigation.

In July 1844, an American whaling ship was anchored near Thirsty Point, the cape located on the western side of the town. The ship, named "Cervantes" in honor of the Spanish writer, was captained by Sylvanus Gibson. A gale broke the ship loose and it ended up grounded on some nearby islands, 2 kilometers from the cape. It didn't suffer much damage, but it was very expensive to repair in such a remote place from civilization, so its captain decided to auction it off.

The three islands near Thirsty Point were named the Cervantes Islands in honor of the ship. The largest, 284 hectares, is now known as Cervantes del Norte, and the other two are Cervantes Medio and Cervantes del Sur. In the mid-1950s, a group of fishermen settled on Thirsty Point, and in 1962 the present-day village of Cervantes was founded, taking its name from the nearby islands.

Perhaps thinking that the islands owed their name to the Spanish writer, the inhabitants of Cervantes began to name their streets after place names in Spain. As you can see by taking a look at Google Maps, in Cervantes there are streets with names like Iberia, Talavera, Seville, Malaga, Aragon, Cadiz, Evro, Corunna (the toponym used in England for the city of La Coruña), Santander, Barcelona, ​​Segovia, Huelva, Cordoba, Pamplona, ​​Gerona, Valencia, Toledo, Catalonia, Majorca, Andalusia and Biscay.

The street that leads to Thirsty Point is Seville, which is one of the main arteries of this little Spain on the west coast of Australia. There is also a Picasso Street, dedicated to the famous Spanish Cubist painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso. There are also some streets in the town with English names, such as York, Lang, Weston, or Drummond, but these are less common.

The village of Cervantes is famous for being the gateway to the Pinnacles Desert, located in Nambung National Park, near that village, and named for the curious limestone rock formations on its surface.

If you're not a fan of the desert, Cervantes is famous for its white sand beaches and crystal-clear waters, from which you can watch beautiful sunsets over the Indian Ocean. If you're up for a hike, you can also take a walk from Santander to Huelva. It'll only take a few minutes if you do it in this beautiful, peaceful Australian town.

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Main photo: australiascoralcoast.com.