Bunbury is a good town. It is surrounded by the ocean and is well bestowed by good beaches and landscaped waterfronts. It has great facilities and a good open feeling. It also provides a base to see the Wellington NP and, of course, Gnomesville.
We stayed at Bunbury on 23, 24, 25 Sept. This marks the start of Stage 4 of our around Australia wonderful odyssey.
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting There
Fremantle > Mandurah (68km) > Bunbury (109km) ~ 177kms
History
First Nations people from the South West, known as Noongars, have gathered in the area that is now Bunbury for about 45,000 years. For them the area was a seasonal gathering place, with good sources of food, and sites for ceremonial gatherings. Their history can be read here.
The first registered sighting of Greater Bunbury by non-Indigenous people was by French explorer Louis de Freycinet from his ship the Casuarina in 1803. The bay on Greater Bunbury’s western shores was named Geographe after another ship in the fleet.
Bunbury was established in 1836 on the orders of Governor James Stirling, and named in honour of its founder, Lieutenant Henry Bunbury. A port was constructed on the existing natural harbour soon after, and eventually became the main port for the wider South West region.
Further economic growth was fuelled by completion of the South Western Railway in 1893, which linked Bunbury with Perth. The population of the town was 2,970 (1,700 males and 1,270 females) in 1898.
The history of colonial settlement can be read here.
Today, Bunbury is a modern, vibrant city – WA’s third-largest city. The mining and mineral processing sector remains the main economic driver for Bunbury. The agriculture sector however, remains vitally important as the value of production is approximately 30% of the South West region’s agricultural production. The Bunbury Port will continue to be the centre of economic activity for the Greater Bunbury sub-region with the flow of goods through it to and from all parts of the world.
Day 1 – 23 Sept – Drive to Bunbury
It is not a long drive and we called in to see the town of Mandurah on the way. We made our way to the marina area and got concerned as the roads in got increasingly narrower and the roundabout smaller. At some stage we would have to turn Mobi around. We got to the harbour area and we went around a round about and parked on the kerb side – it was a Sunday so all was quiet.
We walked around the waterfront, which was modern and spacious, with a large waterway out front. But somehow this area lacked focus. We saw a local market close by and walked through that.
From there we saw signs to the marina/harbour and followed these. But this led us through a large maze of new townhouse-style developments around a canal based development – with Venice style bridges. The whole area looked overcrowded and over developed in places, and it was frustrating trying to get to the open water. Everywhere we went was an obstruction.
We finally got to a vacant block to have a look. We didn’t like this place at all, and left quickly. The only redeeming feature, we thought, was a dragon boat crew powering around the canals. But I bet the residents objected to the noise they made. This is such a “block-ish” development… little style, no grace… Nothing like beautiful Venice.
Nearing Bunbury, we took the scenic drive in via Australind, which took us around the waterfront. We got to the Van Park – the Koombna Bay Holiday Park – in the late morning. This was the Sunday of the long weekend, so the place was packed. We had a large site and getting in was not an issue. The ablutions block, clean and bright, is a short walk away.
After setting up, we drove around town and were impressed with the access to the ocean and the way the waterfront land has been developed for community access. There is a long land spit extending north on the western side of town enclosing a large sheltered bay on the north side. There are good pathways along the waterfront with playgrounds, a cafe, etc. They have done this well. There is a sailing club a little to the west, and a water skiing area beyond that. There was a breakwater stretching out with an old crane, adjacent to the current cargo harbour. A nice walk out and likely a good place to fish from.
We drove around to the land spit area to the north, and then out to the western coast, which is a long, long line of beaches. Again there is good access to the beaches with ample car parking areas hugging the coast.
We made out way to the Mariston Hill Lookout tower, which I climbed. Great views in all directions.
We went shopping after that, lucky to find a Coles open. Overall, we really liked the town – it is clean and open with great facilities.
Day 2 – 24 Sept – Bunbury
This was a day to get things done – no tourist activities. You need days like this every now and again. We caught up on preparing posts and sorting out photos. We sorted out our plans for the next month or so and booked van parks fo the next week or so as it is school holidays. We washed Mobi and the car and cleaned everything we could. We checked tyre pressures all around. Des is being generous with the WE. It was his work. I cleaned the inside of the van and had a good go at the inside of the car too.
It is also the Monday of the long weekend so nothing was open. Around us people were packing up and heading home after the weekend. By lunchtime we had our area of the park to ourselves. But later we were joined by a gorgeous parrot. I’d seen a couple of these beautiful bright green parrots before. A bright yellow band around their head – almost the size of a King Parrot, but not quite… very friendly and chirpy too.
Day 3 – 25 Sept – Wellington NP
It was a short drive out along the Collie road, 25km or so, until we got to the turn off to Wellington NP. This consists of 17,000ha of unique jarrah, marri and yarri (blackbutt) forests. The central feature of the park is the beautiful Collie River Valley with its ancient valley gorge. Wellington Dam is within the Park. The Park is very popular because of its closeness to the coastal towns and Perth, which is why we went there the day after the long weekend.
We went to the dam viewing area first. There we had views over the dam wall and Collie River Gorge. But we had left our notes of what to do at home, and were disappointed to find nothing to assist us at the dam – all the information panels were about the dam. We really had no idea of where to go, and what to do and there were no information panels to help.
Fortunately, the lookout is a short stroll from the Wellington Dam Kiosk. and the bright and cheerful woman in the Kiosk came to our rescue. She produced a map of the park and the suroounding country, and plotted a course for us to get the most out of the area. Excellent!
Next to the dam viewing area, we turned right for Honeymoon Pool onto a narrow road that took us down to the bottom of the dam wall and outlet works, which were working pretty effectively. Would have been nice to see the dam spilling – have seen a few and this one would have been impressive.
We followed that road around until we came to Lennard Dr. Here you turn left (although the signs are not so clear). This is a one way road to the Pool, following the Collie River. This road connects with the one way River Road that takes you out of the park. So it is much better to go to the dam first, then Lennard Dr. The drive to the Pool is less than 10km.
Along the drive we stop to look at the flowers.
Shortly into the drive we came to a sign for “river rapids”. Naturally we stopped and got some pics. There was what looked like a flow gauging station, with good rapids up-river. We didn’t take a photo of the gauging station (which was a round tower), just a diversion structure below it.
Shortly after there was another track to the right and we got to some more rapids.
Soon after was another sign to “Big Rock”, and we stopped but could not really see anything that could be labelled such. There was a open expanse of hill, but hardly exposed rock. but there were more rapids. And some wildflowers. And I’m pretty sure we saw some we hadn’t spotted before.
After that we came to “Little Rock” – very similar to Big Rock.
Not far along, we came to the Long Pool, which was a really nice pool – great for a swim, but in much warmer weather. There were steps to get down into the pool, and picnic areas. A lovely place.
From there we cam to the intersection with the River Rd. Here we turned to the right and went to the Honeymoon Pool, a few hundred meters along. It is thought that the name comes from the war times when the army first started to use the area for training. When they got to the Pool, the camping area was full of honeymooners.
This is a gorgeous place for camping or picnicking next to a great river, with a fabulous freshwater pool. The camp sites are large and most are fully occupied. There is even a firewood point. There are a few kids actually in the water – it must be freezing, and a couple of kids went past in a canoe. We found a table and had a really enjoyable lunch. Brilliant place.
From there we returned back down River Rd to the junction and the went up the one way road out of the park. It was a lovely drive, through forest areas and then farmlands. It is lovely country down here – hilly and green.
We arrived at Pile Rd, and turned left, and then turned right into Wellington Forest Rd. This will take us to see the King Jarrah Tree and Gnomesville, what ever that might be.
We found our way to the Grand Tree, driving through some lovely farmlands – hilly with great views. The information panels say that the tree sprouted a couple of hundred years before the colonisation of Australia, making it well over 400 years old. Amazing.
We drove back to Wellington Mill Rd, we turned left to find Gnomesville, although there were no signposts. Shortly after, we came to a big roundabout, and I could not believe my eyes. To our left are thousands of gnomes, a vast area filled with gnomes of all shapes and sizes. Some were donated by individuals or families, but others from community groups or in one case from a division of soldiers that served in Viet Nam. Stunningly bizarre, but quite mesmerising!
This all originally started after the roundabout was built as a school children safety measure. On the roadside, close to what is now the car park, stood a large redgum tree with a hollow close to the ground. A local resident, Kathleen Rees (now Kelsey) thought this would be a good home for a gnome, so she simply placed one there.
Another local thought the home needed a name so he put a sign saying “Dun Gnoming” above the hollow. The tree has since died and fallen over. This small beginning, led to there being thousands of gnomes finding new homes. After several years, the council saw the tourist value and crated the carpark and picnic area. The photos provide no idea of the scale of this “village”.
While we were there, we saw a Vietnamese couple there for their wedding photos. She was dressed in a frilly off-white wedding dress, and he in a shirt and bowtie with a white jacket over his black shorts. Formal shoes completed his attire, They had a photographer with all the equipment setting them up for the pics.
We were having a great day. We said goodbye to all our new gnome friends and drove to Crooked Brook Forest, going back along the Wellington Mill Rd, and turning left onto Ironestone Rd, which becomes Crooked Brook Rd. We then turned left into Forest Rd and a few km down that came to the carpark and picnic area. We did a short walk around the pool, finding some more wildflowers.
On the way back to Dunbury we saw the start of the vineyards, and we also spied some lovely yellow lupins. A lovely relaxing, even if slightly busy day.
We did a search of our fuel app, as we were half full and thought fuel, or actually everything, would be much more expensive in Margaret River. We found the cheapest fuel was at Picton and we would drive right past it. We filled up putting in 63.7L at $1.519/L. Our economy rate since the last fill was 17.66L/100km.
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