Southwest & Margaret River Area

This area is world-renowned for its wine and produce. We spent 3 weeks in the area eating and drinking our way through various wineries and factories. R even got a job grape picking for a few days which added a bit more to the piggy bank so we could buy more wine and food!

Mandurah

Our first stop south of Perth was Mandurah (pronounced Man-druh). This is really a suburb of Perth. It had a really cute main street with lots of cafes and boutique shops all along a riverway. It was really beautiful and we could see ourselves living here if we ever end up this way.

Bussleton & Cape Naturaliste

Next stop was the seaside town of Busselton where we spent about a week. Busselton is famous for its really long pier – 1.84 km (1.14 miles) long! On either side of the pier is a beautiful, and popular, beach and a really amazing playground – probably the best we’ve seen anywhere in Australia.

From Busselton, we did a day trip to Cape Naturaliste stopping in Dunsborough, Eagle Bay and an olive plantation along the way.

Cape Naturaliste has a small but old lighthouse that we took a bushwalk around.

We had lunch at a beach at Eagle Bay (where we ate our fresh olives from the plantation) and also stopped at the beach in Dunsborough.

Margaret River

After Busselton, we drove half an hour further south towards the town of Margaret River. We stayed in a really great caravan park – Big 4 Taunton Park. It was actually a working cattle and sheep station, but part of the farm they turned into the caravan park. It was really tranquil with ducks walking around everywhere and they allowed you to help feed some of the animals in the evenings.

The main thing we did in Margaret River was to visit several wineries – we mostly visited smaller ones instead of the big, well-known ones – and produce farms and factories. In fact, the caravan park had two walking paths leading from it. One went to the cheese factory and the other went to a winery! Here are some photos of us enjoying some of what Margaret River had to offer:

Yallingup

This is another little coastal town in the northern end of the Margaret River region (just south of Cape Naturaliste). This is a surfing area which also had a great little playground.

We spent a day at the Yallingup Maze which was a great walkthrough maze and also had a ton of puzzles available to play with at their playground and cafe. A day spent puzzling and then tasting wine – who could want anything more??

Hamlin Bay

Further south on the coast is Hamlin Bay. We stopped here because several people recommended it- although they never said why. Turns out its a tourist attraction due to the multitude of rays that congregate near the boat ramp hoping to get some leftover fish. They were right on the shore and swam around your feet!

Augusta

Further south on the south coast is the town of Augusta. We spent the morning there. While there, we saw dolphins swimming right along the shore and also an annual phenomenon of the Sea Hare getting washed up on the beach.

While in Augusta, we were hoping to see the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse – the tallest lighthouse in mainland Australia – but it was under construction and we couldn’t visit it.

Anniversaries

While we were in Margaret River area, we celebrated 3 special events: our daughter’s 10th birthday, our 1 year anniversary of travelling around Australia and our 12th wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner for the first time in about a year to a Spanish restaurant in Margaret River called El Torro – it was delicious! For our daughter’s birthday, she wanted to make and decorate her own cake – which she shared with other guests at the caravan park.

We wanted to spend another week in Margaret River, but unfortunately, when we tried to extend our stay, we discovered that all the caravan parks and camping in the area (within nearly 200kms!) was fully booked (labour day long weekend) so we had to keep moving east.

Manjimup

We spent the long weekend in Manjimup and I have decided to put part of this visit into this post and some into the next. Although it is 1.5 hours drive east of Margaret River, it is another wine and produce region. We visited a couple of orchards, wineries and a truffle farm while there.

This town has a history of logging (this area has very tall trees which I’ll cover in the next post) and there’s a great park in the center of town which pays tribute to this history but also has an amazing, very tall slide!

The kids figured out that if they tied the jumper around their waist, they absolutely flew down the slide!

Fonty’s Pool

Near an amazing fruit orchard and a winery / truffle farm, there was a great swimming place. We spent an afternoon there enjoying a dip.

Food Shortages

Although we were in an area where there was a lot of fresh produce, due to a massive storm/flood in South Australia and then in eastern Australia combined with COVID supply chain issues, the shops were running bare with main essentials like toilet paper, paper towels, canned goods, rice, pasta, yogurt and cheese.

WA also changed the mask-wearing rules while we were there and kids from 8 + had to start wearing masks. Our daughter looked pretty scary!

Up next, we’re heading south to Walpole and then Augusta – land of the big trees and forests.