Busselton and Bunbury

 

We stayed at the Kookaburra Caravan Park Busselton for seven days this gave us a good base to explore Geographe Bay.

Busselton is one of the prime holiday resorts in the south west of Australia, it was one of the first places to be settled. In 1801 a sailor named Vasse was lost in a severe storm in Geographe Bay from one of the two French expedition ships the “Geographe” and the “Naturaliste”. Subsequently the river was named Vasse, the bay Geographe and the cape Naturaliste.

Bunbury, the next town up the coast, was originally named Port Leschenault after the botanist Jean Batiste Leschenault who arrived in 1803 on the Geographe, it was later named Bunbury after Lieutenant Henry William St.Pierre Bunbury in 1836 when the British took over.

We visited Koombana Bay which is renowned for  bottlenose dolphins but there were none there that day. We did see some further up the coast a few days later.

Below with Tatty Bear is a Tuart tree. There is a small Tuart forest just outside of Busselton. These trees are protected this is the only forest left in the whole of Australia due to forestry and timber exports in the past.

 

 

In the forest we found some local inhabitants.

 

 

This is a small swamp area which has suffered fire damage in the past. The contrast between the white and the burnt wood is quite exceptional.

 

 

Mangrove Cove, this is a nice walk on boardwalks through a mangrove swamp.

 

 

 

 

Basaltic rock. Formed by volcanic lava 150 million years ago. The exposed basalt on this beach is one of the few places in the world where this can be seen above ground.

 

 

 

Busselton Jetty.

 

We stayed at Busselton for seven days to get a break from travelling and also it was a good base to explore Geographe Bay.

Busselton has a jetty which is two km long, the town was a leading port in the timber export trade and because of the very shallow water the jetty was extended over time to accommodate ships with a deeper draught.

When the town was no longer needed as a port, the jetty got into dis-repair. The W.A.  government were going to pull it down but the town agreed to take it on and have since raised enough money to keep it maintained. There is still al lot of work to be done to restore it to it’s original state.

 

 

Steel reinforcement has been added to the original timber construction.

 

An “oarsome” weather vane.

 

 

A good place for sunsets.

 

 

At the end of the jetty there is an underwater observatory with eleven viewing windows 8m below the surface. There are over 300 different species to be viewed from here. Unfortunately I discovered that it was closed after walking the 2km to get to it. The reason it was closed was because we had a very heavy storm with winds of over 100kmh the night before and the sea was so churned up it was impossible to see through the mud.

W.A. South Coast, Cowaramup, Cape Naturaliste.

 

22nd June we moved from Augusta to Taunton Caravan Park at Cowaramup just north of Margaret River. The cowaram is an almost extinct bird which is only found in this area. “Up” is a local aboriginal word for “place” so it appears at the end of a lot of local place names.

We used Cowaramup as a base for two days to explore the the rest of the area. Most of it is devoted to the production of wine and olive oil, some of the best Australian wines come from the Margaret River area.

A very artistic piece of graffiti on a road sign.

 

Yet another forest of karri trees.

 

 

Red Rock Bay a very popular beach for surfers, not many there that day but with scrutiny it is possible to see one in the first picture and two in the second.

 

 

 

One of the many vineyards in the area.

 

The fountain has a golden girl diving from the top of the pillar.

 

This is a a piece of art by the gate representing “The  Garden of Eden”

 

Smiths Beach another popular surfing venue.

 

Cape Naturaliste lighthouse, also not open to the public that day but there was a path of about 1km walk around the coast.

 

 

It is possible to walk from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwen along the cape to cape track.

W.A. South West Coast, Augusta, Cape Leeuwen

 

We arrived at Augusta on the 19th June and stayed at the Turner Caravan Park for three nights. The park was on the shore of the Hardy Inlet with it’s range of birds and fish. We were given some freshly caught fish by a couple staying on the same site who were very keen on their fishing.

From this location we explored a great deal of the south west coast.

A nice shady spot for the van.

 

 

 

 

The Colourpatch restaurant was on the edge of the camp, I am not sure if the claim is accurate because the lighthouse has a small cafe and I am sure that it is further south.

 

 

This historic waterwheel was built in 1895 to supply water to the builders of the lighthouse

 

It is now encrusted with calcified lime.

 

This lighthouse is located on the most south westerly point of Australia.

Unfortunately the lighthouse was closed so we did not get a chance to see the view.

Further round the coast is Hamelin Bay where we saw whales in the distance playing in the water.

 

At intervals along the coastline there were three major caves, we visited The Jewel Cave. My pictures do not do it justice, it is very difficult to photograph under those conditions.

The Jewel Cave was only discovered in the 1950’s and was never opened to potholers and cavers therefore very little damage has been done and most of the very delicate stalactites have survived undamaged.

 

These are roots of karri trees growing on the surface way above.

 

 

 

 

Some of these are up to 2m long and only a couple of mm diameter.