Coastal Life south of Perth

To stay in Bunbury as our last stop on the way back to Perth, was actually a good choice. Approximately 175 km south of the state capital, Perth, it's a port city with a natural harbour established in 1836. It became the main port for the SW region, especially after 1893, when the railway connected it to Perth. 

Old corner hotels-pubs to be found again (typical for Australia!), a great brewery (photo), where we had dinner (fish & chips and prawns), a lighthouse and a beach (where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset).

 

Next morning after breakfast we went for a walk, looking at the murals and getting to know about the importance of the fish tinning industry in town. After a visit to Bunbury's enormous farmers' market (a huge supermarket with local produce) we drove on towards Perth along the coast. 

Mandurah (photos above and below) was our first stop, a wealthy "florida-like" harbour town and favorite retirement location. Rockingham next, already in the metro area of Perth, with Cape Peron, a rocky beach where rock lobsters or crayfish were caught by divers (further below) and messured. Wouldn't there have been all the industrial installations in the background - part of the port of Freemantle - it would have been even nicer!

 

Drove through the industrial port area of Perth-Freemantle with huge grain silos and refineries around Freemantle and on to Perth. In the busy city traffic on a Friday afternoon, we were glad to get back to our "temporary home" - our friends' house - in the late afternoon. We had a wonderful evening with them, sitting in their garden for cheese and wine and later enjoying a wonderful leg of lamb with all the fixings cooked from scratch. Life can be good!

On Saturday early morning, before heading to the beach, we returned our rental car. We had driven almost 4,000 km with three different cars in three different states of Australia in not quite three weeks. Now, the city of Perth is waiting for us and I'll probably only continue with the blog at the airport and on the plane.

 

The oldest City of Western Australia

Albany - located in the King George Sound - is celebrating its 200th birthday this year and is considered the oldest colonial settlement, founded on 26 Dec. 1826 as a military outpost of New South Wales. Lots of historic architecture downtown, from the times when gold findings brought wealth to town in the 1890s. Fancy hotels, pubs, public buildings etc. are to be found along Princess Royal Harbour and York Street. The city is marked by Mount Clarence to the east and Mount Melville to the west and has a pretty impressive futuristic "Entertainment Center" at the harbour (photo). 

 

Albany’s Historic Whaling Station goes back to the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, established in 1952 at Frenchman Bay. The whaling industry was initially focused on hunting humpback whales, later sperm whales. It operated as an important commercial whaling operation in Australia until 1978 and is a museum now with this whaling ship below anchored in front of the building.

 

A little out of town are a couple of natural sights - like the Blow Holes, The Gap and the Natural Bridge and the outlook at Stony Hill - all offering great views towards the Southern Ocean (photos below).

 

In the Museum of the Great Southern we not only learned about the city formerly and now, but also about the interaction of the local Menang people and Europeans starting in 1622 with ships arriving. In the 50ies agriculture became important, end of 19th century it developed as a health resort, and holiday destination.

 

 

 

Drove about 300 km in total back west from Albany on Thursday. We stopped on our way in Mount Baker,  with a fantastic info center in the old railroad station -, in Manjimuk, and some other pitturesque towns on the way to Bunbury, again on the coast. Bunbury was our last overnight on the way back to Perth. More on that later - Aussie Football is waiting!

In the Southern Forests of WA

We drove through more dense eucalyptus forests on the way from Pemberton to Walpole. Sunny and pleasantly warm. Stopped at Walpole, beautifully located at Walpole and Nornalup Inlet, with houseboats to rents and ecotours (WOW! tours) to take. Very quiet and peaceful (photo below).

 

On to Delaney Lookout (photo) to enjoy the view towards the inlet from there. Wish we would have had more time for this beautiful region of WA!

In the Walpole Wilderness area, the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk is the main tourist attraction. Built in 1996, it features elevated walks, up to 40 m high, but also the free Ancient Empire walk - passing by true tree giants like shown on the pictures further below. We took part at a ranger tour and got to know more about the endemic tingles trees (Eucalyptus jacksonii), another species of eucalyptus. 

The Red Tingle (left) reaches a diameter up to 20 m - they are shallow-rooted, but belly-bottomed! Tingles are only growing in a very restricted area in SW Western Australia, around Walpole. 

Average height is approximately 70 m. It grows about 1 m per year until the canopy is reached, then they grow broader. Being very fire resistant, they live on even when the bark is burned by wild fires (which happens often!) - see photos below!

 

In the same forest other eucalyptus varieties, like Karri trees, are to be seen, up to 90 m tall and growing straight, plus Marri, not as tall and greyish-brown, also called "blood wood" and producing big Honkey Nuts). 

Karri she-oak (Chorilaena quercifolia) are understorey shrubs in eucalyptus forests, trees with needles, there are Karri Wattle, Tassel Flower and many more trees and shrubs (like the one on the left) ,,, learning a bit more every day! Also, about Quokkas, which we didn't see, but they were even pictured on street signs. These little kangaroos are night-active and a smaller species of the Wallaby. 

 

From the Tree Top Park it took us 45 minutes to the magical Greens Pool, considered part of Denmark! And there, we HAD to go for a swim! Almost completely sheltered from the waves of the Great Southern Ocean by rounded rock boulders, Greens Pool is a beautiful beach. Thanks to its green turquoise water and white sandy beach it has been a favorite beach since the European settlement, and, still is, even on a Wednesday early afternoon it was quite crowded.

 

 

Only steps away, also part of William Bay National Park, is Elephant Rock, another fascinating rock display, resembling a herd of elephants wading in the waters of the Southern Ocean. Smaller beach, but equally appealing to take a swim!

 

 

 

 

Denmark - our next stop. A quaint little downtown with several shops and boutiques, many producing their own artesanal products like chocolate, cheese, etc. But ,,, the famous bakery was almost sold out in the afternoon and the choice of the locally produced cheeses very restricted.

We continued on to Albany, another 40 min., the oldest city of Western Australia, founded in 1826! Arrived there in the evening, having driven 264 km this day. Just had dinner - fish & chips and prawns - at the local Wilson Brewery and called it a day. 

 

More on Albany in the next blog post.