Christmas and New Year down south in Dunsborough

About 5 days before Christmas I drove from Sawyers Valley with my sister Di to a popular holiday resort called Dunsborough.  Dunsborough is a coastal town in the South West of Western Australia, 254 kilometers (158 mi) south of Perth on the shores of Geographe Bay just round from Cape Naturaliste. Dunsborough is a popular tourist destination for Western Australians; in 1999 it was voted the state's best tourist destination. 

During the last decade the town has grown quickly and become quite affluent; consequently cafes have popped up everywhere. 

Dunsborough Shopping

The current population is about 3,500 but this probably doubles in the peak holiday periods such as Christmas and Easter.  There are nice sandy beaches and the water is very shallow close to the beach so it is ideal for kids to swim. There is a shopping centre in the centre of the town with a Coles Supermarket and sundry other shops. You cannot buy beer and wine in supermarkets in WA, there are designated bottle shops that you have to use, just like the UK off licenses really.

We arrived in Dunsborough late afternoon after an easy trip down with relatively little traffic. The road system in WA around Perth is excellent with a network of dual carriageways. These extend down to Bunbury  which is the third largest city in WA after Perth and Mandurah. Bunbury  is about 175 km south of Perth. When you realise that the population of West Australia is about 2.2 million and the size of the state is over 10 times the size of the UK then this sort of puts it into perspective.

We were once again looking after someone’s house and this included a small dog (FiFi), 

Fifi the Papillon

a parrot (CoCo), five budgerigars and an aquarium full of tropical fish. 

Coco the Pink & Grey 

The lady of the house and her 10 year old daughter were waiting for us in order to hand over. They were off to Bali for 2 weeks for a holiday with relations. It is strange taking over someone else’s house, learning a new layout and working out how various things work but we soon got to grips with everything and settled in. This is the third time I have helped my sister and her husband house sit for someone at Christmas, on my last two trips we did this in Margaret River, a little tourist town about 40 Km further south.

This was were we stayed

The house we stayed in was a three bedroomed unit single story with a small (for Oz) garden. It is a brick built structure with the normal metal roof with a veranda at the front and back. It was comfortably furnished and we enjoyed our stay. 

Another view

The house was conveniently situated about 500m from where Did;s son Luke and his family live, He is a tree climber and runs his own business and looks after trees that need attention.

Luke's Rig

 He lives with his partner Alicia and their three girls in a rented property which is only 15 minutes walk from the beach. They have just built a new house about 2 km inland to the south of where they are now, are busy finishing it off and hope to move by the end of the month.

View of New House

 At the moment they are laying reconstituted granite blocks to form a boundary wall around the property. This will be formed by two courses on the ground with blocks forming piers every few meters which will have wooden panels between to keep the kids and dogs in and unwanted visitors out.

Luke Laying Blocks

One thing that does worry me about Dunsborough is that it has been built almost completely upon low lying land. The rate of development is increasing and it looks as though the population could double over the next few years. No consideration seems to have been made for predicted sea level rise. I am not sure exactly what the average height above sea level is for the town so whether there is a risk to the population here or not is difficult to establish. At least my nephews house is on a higher than normal plot and as he says it would be useful to have his boat at the end of the garden!

Ready for the celebrations

Christmas was the usual feast of presents, food and drink but with the difference that it was over 30C, not too hot, and we all went for a swim in the afternoon, a lovely family day.

Post prandial swim

We stayed in Dunsborough for about 2 weeks and I did quite a lot of cycling, usually about 25 miles per day. In common with the rest of WA Dunsborough has a great purpose built shared walking and cycling paths. There is a path that follows the bay from one end of the town to the other which is about 7 miles long which was a great to ride from one to the other and back.

On my bike

There are some lovely beaches nearby, especially at the Meelup Regional Park with shaded areas under the gum tress, large expanse of sand and safe swimming in the shallows. It is good for snorkeling nearby at Castle Rock. The next good tourist town is Yallingup, about 7 Km to the west of Dunsborough. This is a lovely seaside resort with houses built over the hillside that rises from the beach area. Just as in Dunsborough there is fabulous and and expensive real estate here. Again there is a lovely expanse of sand with relatively safe swimming so long as the surf is not too severe.

Yallingup Beach

Margaret River is about 40Km south of Dunsborough, again a well known tourist location and also a centre for winemaking, artist and surfing as it is only 7km from the beach at Prevelly. Just up the coast a little way is a small resort of Gracetown. I went there with John & Di and we hoped to have lunch there at the little restaurant, sadly it was not there any more so we had to do with a swim.

Gracetown Beach

Then we had to find somewhere to eat so we headed inland and on the way we passed a beautiful yellow Australian Christmas tree still in bloom.

Christmas Tree

We traveled on to Cawaramup and found a lovely little roadside cafe where we sat outside and had a great freshly prepared lunch. The name is believed to be derived from Aboriginal word "Cowara", meaning Purple-crowned Lorikeet, locals from the region often refer to the town as 'Cowtown', a reference to the use of 'cow' in the town's name and its history of dairy farming.
Cowaramup is roughly central to the Margaret River Wine Region. It is the closest town site to a number of wineries and other specialty producers including Vasse Felix, Howard Park and Madfish Winery, the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, and The Margaret River Cheese Company. On our way back to Dunsborough we called at the Yallanup Art Gallery and spent a pleasant hour perusing the various works on display including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, jewelry and some wonderful wooden furniture made from the local hardwood.

Typical up market Holiday Home!

Dunsborough is a divided society, being a tourist and holiday home town has the advantage that it is quiet in the off season for the permanent residents whilst the prices in the shops are relatively high. House prices are astronomical due to the premium location, especially near the water front. There is a lot of development going on away from the beach around the golf club. The mine in WA are creating a middle class of workers who fly up to the mines and work for few weeks before coming home for a short break and then returning. This seems to be creating a surge in price for everything you see in the supermarkets these days and along with the rise in the value of the Aussie dollar makes holidaying here much more expensive then the last time was here two years ago. My initial view is that stuff is about 1.5 times more expensive than in the UK. This makes it tough for the average worker not employed in the mines and getting premium wages. Australia seems to be facing the same problems that the rest of the world is facing, how to provide a just and equitable distribution of wealth.


Thought for the day


The good things in life are not things!