It was raining this morning when we first looked out of our hotel window in Perth and the car park was wet when we returned to our room in Busselton after dinner. Thankfully, in between, the day was was fine although the wind was strong and made it feel cold.
Drving down to Bussletown, we assiduously avoided traveling along the freeway, instead favouring the old coast road that took us through some of the towns along the way.
We found a nice little park near the industrial city of Kwinana. It was an interesting juxtaposition having a coffee in the green park and seeing a tanker unloading at an offshore terminal.
Having not been in this area for perhaps 15 years, we were amazed at the spread of houses, shopping centres and roundabouts along the coast. Housing estates, all with modern white roofed houses, along with shopping centres, extended all the way to Mandurah – some 70 kilometres from Perth. We wondered if we would ever get to somewhere rural!
We were struggling to find a place to eat lunch but eventually, we came to a road with a sign pointing to Island Point Reserve on the Mandurah Estuary It wasn’t the most scenic spot, but gave us a quiet place to eat our sandwiches rom a bakery back in the town of Miami.
Before reaching Bunbury (one of the two larger towns on today’s drive) we passed through the area of Australind. This area has been a fast growing region and is now really a suburb of Bunbury, The Western Australian Land Company purchased land in the area in 1840 hoping to breed horses and sell them in India. In an attempt to ensure the success of the enterprise they decided to name the surveyed town site with a name manufactured from Australia and India – hence Australind.
Bunbury is a pleasant city which is economically driven by a successful industrial base that has been built around the city’s port. It was an important port for the shipment of wheat but today the port concentrates on woodchip and alumina and the city of Bunbury has become the regional commercial centre.
Again, we were surprised at how much this city has grown. Lookng across the Marina, we could see a lot of development.
However, somethings don’t change. The chequerboard lighthouse is still there on the headland. It is a striking landmark, standing some 25 metres above the ground and its light is visible from 27 kilometres away.
Before getting to Busselton, we made a detour for about 13 kilometres to drive along Tuart Drive through a National and see these rather unique trees that can only be found in a thin strip alomg the WA coast.
The area all along the road was infested with Arum Lillies. While they look nice, these lillies are really weeds.
The Tuart Tree, a variety of Eucalyptus is a massive, hardwood native. It grows from 10 to 40 meters tall, with crowns spreading up to 25 meters wide. The tallest specimens reach nearly 47 meters.The Tuart has rough, fibrous, grey bark that flakes easily, along with glossy, light-green leaves. It produces creamy-white, nectar-rich flowers from summer through autumn. It can live for up to 500 years.
There is a story about some timber cutters who were contracted to fell only trees that were as circular as possible – not with oval or mis-shaped trunks. One man was fired for sitting back and waiting for the others to find the best shaped trees. When asked why he wasn’t doing anything, he replied “I’m just getting a round tuit” (pun completely intended).
Our overnight stop is at Busselton. This city is named after the first settlers in the area – the Bussel family. In 1832, only two years after they had settled at nearby Augusta, John Bussell led a party north and discovered the Vasse River area. He moved to this area in 1834.
The main attraction in town is the Busselton Jetty that extends out into Geographe Bay. The original jetty was built of jarrah and completed in 1865. It was 160 metres long but drifting sands and the shallowness of the bay required the construction of an additional 131 metres in 1875. An extra extension was added so that today it is 1.8 km long. It is recognised as one of the longest jetties in the world. It was closed to shipping in 1972 and damaged by a cyclone in 1978. It is now only used by fishermen and holiday makers.
