From Brisbane, we flew to Perth, stopped a week, and then hired a car for 4 weeks to explore more of Western Australia.
Our first stop was Fremantle (Freo to the locals), which is Western Australia’s biggest port. It has also managed to preserve a lot of its colonial and convict history with some stunning buildings in High Street, the Round House (oldest building still standing in Western Australia apparently) where they fire the cannon and drop the time ball every day at 1pm.
and of course, the Fremantle Prison – we did a very interesting convict tour which covered the earlier parts of the prisons history (1800’s) but it was used up until 1991 (and the cells still had no plumbing at that point).
There’s also a small museum where you can put in your family name and see if there were any convicts in the prison with that surname (yep, both Andy’s and mine appeared).
Monument Hill is a beautiful place to watch the sunset over the city and Rottnest Island in the bay. It also has a lot of naval and submariners memorials on the hill.
We ended with a great evening in the historic Orient Hotel, watching the final of the Big Bash league (like our T20 cricket).
From Freo, we went to Rockingham and went for a walk around Cape Peron (a rather windswept one at that)
then down along the Esplanade, where you can see the causeway to Garden Island (now an Australian Navy base). Then we went to Mandurah, where we spent a very enjoyable Australia Day with Tom (an old work mate of Andys who he hadn’t seen for 20 years) and Shelley and their friends and family. They also kindly put us up for the night (5 star B&B!). Special thanks to Shelley for the entertaining dinasour dance.
Next we went to Bussleton for a night, stopping off on the way to see the thrombolites in Lake Clifton (these are micro organisms resembling the earliest forms of life on earth that have built up and look like rocks in the lake). Oh, and we saw loads of Kangeroos by the river when we took a little detour!!
We managed to walk the 1.8km Busselton jetty but were too late to go down the underwater Observatory at the end of it (it was fully booked being a public holiday weekend). The jetty started in 1865 at a mere 161 metres but was extended over time due to changing sand bars in the bay – it closed for commercial business in 1973 and was damaged by Cyclone Alby in 1978. It’s since been restored and even has a little train on it to take visitors to the end. It’s used by lots of fishermen and is stained with black squid ink where they have been landed!!
We ended the evening at The Fire Station with a lovely meal and excellent entertainment by singer-songwriter Turin Robinson.
In the morning, we stopped off at the Sunday Market before heading down to Margaret River for 3 days.
From Busselton, we drove around the coast via Dunsborough and Yallingup, down the Caves Road to Margaret River, where we stopped for a couple of days to explore.
We took a day to visit the many wineries in the area (Andys turn to taste), along with beer tasting at Black Brewing Company, chocolate tasting at Gabriel Chocolate (mean cookies here), olive oil at Olio Bello, nougat at Bettenays (bought some delicious ginger and almond flavour), had gourmet toasties at Provodore whilst watching the nets come off the vines ready for picking (the nets protect the grapes against the birds and the kangeroos), and wine tasting at Hay Shed Hill, where Andy came away with a bottle of Pinot Noir! We met lots of really helpful, friendly, knowledgeable people along the way.
We visited Canal Rocks
Then, on down to the quiet suburb of Pearsall and a quick trip to historic Guildford and the start of the Swan Valley – the temperature had soared once again, so we didn’t venture very far. Then finally back to Perth to return the car and spend our last few days in Australia – and finding a beer called Mumfords Draught!!!!!
and then the Jewel Cave (there are about 4 different caves in this area to choose from), which was worth the visit – it’s a guided tour of about an hour but be warned, lots of steps involved some rather steep and narrow!
Then, onto Augusta and then the far South Western tip of Australia – Cape Leeuwin and its tall lighthouse. It overlooks the stretch of sea where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet – quite spectacular. The interpretive centre has some interesting stories of the lighthouse keepers and how the families lived in such a remote area.
On the way back, we popped into the beautiful Hamblin Bay to spot manta rays, but sadly none to be seen, so we headed back to Margaret River for dinner and a riverside walk.
We enjoyed our short stop in this area, but Denmark was calling our name, so it was time to move on.
We drove from Margaret River to Denmark just as the mercury rose to 40 degrees C! Thankfully, it went down to high 20s by the time we reached Denmark and then stayed cool (even rained) for our stay. We stopped off at the Valley of the Giants Tree Top walk – yes, Andy did the 40-metre high walkway amongst the beautiful Tingle trees (very reminiscent of the giant Redwoods we saw in California).
Denmark is a town born from the timber trade and still has a few old buildings from that time but it also has some beautiful scenary, including Greens pools, Elephant Cove (huge boulders that look like a herd of elephants at the beach),
the lovely Scots Dale drive through Karri and Marri trees and lots of artisanal producers (lovely cheesery, wineries, icecreamery and chocolate lounge – excellent deconstructed hot chocolate here), Monkey Rock – a huge boulder that we hiked up to and chambered up for gorgeous views over the coastline and the town also sits on one of the major trails – munda biddi trail so there are lots of hikes in the area.
We loved watching the tiny blue wrens hopping around our B&B ( Windrose – gorgeous breakfasts and lovely host). It’s amazing how blue the male wrens are at this time of year.
From Denmark, we took the short trip to Albany. An interesting town sitting on the wonderful Princess Royal harbour and the King George Sound where 2 convoys of ships left from to go to Gallipoli in the first world war. The National Anzac centre (Andy said this was really interesting) sits in the site of the Princess Royal Fortress, on Mount Clarence which has some lovely trails to explore whilst learning about the ships that left here.
Albany itself has managed to hold on to some lovely old buildings, with Stirling Terrace looking very similar to how it did in the 1800s.
We took a short ride around the Torndirrup National Park to see the Natural Bridge and The Gap – natural huge rock formations on the Southern Ocean and then round to the old whaling station (now a museum). The bay is absolutely stunning with soft white sand and crystal clear (cold!) water.
As time with our rental car was getting short we decided to go up to Lake Grace and Hyden and the Wave Rock instead of across another 5 hours to Esperance (a good decision in the end as a huge bush fire broke out that side of Albany the day we left).
We decided to visit the Tin Horse Highway whilst we were in Lake Grace. It was started in the 1900s to advertise the local Kuilin Bush races and has grown since then with farmers adding new ones annually. They are all made from bits of farm junk. We weren’t sure quite what to expect, having been underwhelmed at some of the “local highlights” on our journey, but even in 40 degree heat we enjoyed these – very quirky, lots of puns and just generally good fun to cheer up your road trip.
From Albany we drove north through the Stirling Ranges into the vast wheatbelt (all harvested at this time of year) and its massive grain silos (we saw the painted ones at Pingrup – there’s a painted silo trail but most of it was too far off our trip),
passed the salt lakes at Lake Grace and headed to Hyden (more quirky junk art here) to see the other famous rock of Australia – the Wave Rock. It’s enormous and definitely looks like a wave in the middle of the country.
Then, it was back on the road to York. On the way, we passed a part of the rabbit proof fence (this bit was one of the trapping areas). There were 3 fences originally built in 1901- 1907 and completed in 1950 to stop the rabbits invading the agricultural Western Australia and also the emus and wild dogs. It’s still largely intact.The number 1 fence was the longest in the world at the time of completion.
York is a lovely small town and again has managed to hang on to its charming old buildings. It also houses a great car museum housing, Peter Briggs collection, and the original Crocodile Dundee Ute!!
After the heat of York, we drove 5 hours up to Geraldton on the coast on our way to Kalbarri. We had to stay to get a car issue sorted out, which took longer due to it being a weekend. Geraldton is not a tourist town, it’s the second biggest port for exporting grain and iron ore in the country, and we spent some time watching the tugs manoeuvre huge tankers in and out of the port. As usual we wandered (as much as the heat allowed) and came across a couple of gems in the town – the museum is worth a visit, with excellent displays of local shipwrecks, including that of the Batavia (sank in 1629 and the wreck was found in 1963). This ship was found to be carrying a complete portico in its hold, taking it to Java, which is now on display in the museum.
Originally, it was thought the stones were simply ballast until they noticed the odd shapes and markings. There is also a poignant 3d film of the shipwrecks of HMAS Sydney ll and the Kormoran. There is a beautiful memorial to the Sydney ll in Geraldton.
We also visited the St Francis Xavier Cathedral, with its stripy interior and beautiful night lighting.
We then came across the old Gaol – it’s still intact but now has new inmates – crafters!!! Great to see it in use whilst maintaining its history.
Finally, we found the “Horizon” (aka the marble). It’s a sculpture by Lucy Humphrey and is an acrylic sphere filled with water and reflects its surroundings upside down! Quite an amusing but beautiful piece. Very instaworthy as they say!
On our way to Kalbarri, we stopped to check out Hutt Lagoon (aka the Pink Lake). Sadly, there was little water in it, but what there was truly was an astonishing pink colour – it must look amazing when in full flood. The colour comes from a carotenoid producing algae, also a source of beta-carotene.
Then, it was on up to the beautiful little town of Kalbarri on the mouth of the Murchison River. The town is still recovering from Cyclone Seroja, which destroyed 70% of the buildings in 2021. It’s a pretty town surrounded by white sands, blue seas, huge cliffs (natural bridge, island rock, shellhouse grandstand, eagle gorge, pot alley and red bluff to name a few) and river gorges inland. It was way too hot to be out walking, so we never got to the river gorges and skywalk. Even the kangeroos were hugging shade on verandahs of peoples’ houses and emus were stealing the water from the builders!
This area would be worth coming back to when it’s cooler and in the spring to see the wildflowers. If you are up here try staying at the Pelicans Nest – lovely rooms and friendly owner. Which reminds me, you can feed wild Pelicans every morning if you’re up early enough!
And so our 4 week, 3455km road trip of South Western Australia come to an end.
We came down from Kalbarri via the Indian Ocean Drive (sadly more drive than Indian Ocean views), stopped overnight at Jurien Bay and watched another beautiful sunset leaving us with stunning skies and saw the skydivers in the morning, had a lovely lobster lunch at The Lobster Shack in Cervantes and then visited the Nambung National Park and the amazing Pinnacle Desert – quite a bizarre place. Yellow sands and these amazing limestone pinnacles in this one area with huge white sand dunes in the distance (inland where the shore used to be). They sort of look like lots of giant teeth have been scattered around that are now eroding. The discovery centre was interesting, providing theories on the development of the pinnacles and the wildlife in the desert around.
Finally it was on down to the quiet suburb of Pearsall and a quick trip to historic Guildford and the start of the Swan Valley – the temperature had soared once again, so we didn’t venture very far. Then back to Perth to return the car and spend our last few days in Australia – and finding a beer called Mumfords Draught!