WA's Great Southern Region (Jan 2022)

Oct 29, 20227 min read

We survived the busy festive period in the caravan park. It has been crazy! As so often, most guests are very nice. As long you don’t move them away from their favourite site, occupied by their family for the past few decades. Trust me, you won’t hear the end of it!

Probably the hottest day was the most fun with another power outage. A lot of guest are suddenly not able to cook, about to lose all refrigerated goods and even worse, brew a coffee. That’s what happens when your camping gear requires copious amounts of grid power. Rule number one for camping is to prepare for the worst: have back up plans, like an esky to keep everything cold and a gas cooker for the missus’ important caffeine fix. We offered crushed ice and boiling water. Unfortunately, that’s not good enough for some. Aaargh!

We are having guests over from Newman, celebrating Dan’s birthday in style and the start to our days off. Yay! And then we head Geraldton for some heavy duty shopping, we really need to get away, despite being peak holiday season. A couple of phone calls later, we saddle our trusty camper trailer and are on the way to Bremer Bay on WA’s south coast. It is a long ride, but the roads are good and traffic is slim. Pretty much getting the last spot at the van park. It is our wedding anniversary and cause for celebrations at Bremer Bay Resort. Loving it. Loving even more to catch up with our pretty crazy friends, Fiona and Paul. For curious reason I am not sure when and how this night ends. Must have been a good one!

Bremer Bay and Point Henry Peninsula - Breakfast is at Orca Café, a cute little van, at the end of Bremer Bay Road. From here it’s only a step or two into the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. Instead of fighting off a heartattack and killer whales (yes, they are around this time of the year), we clamber the steps towards Cuneo Rock Drive and the cairn for a good snoop around. The weather is glorious! And so is the panorama. The wind is combing our hair thick. Or at least, what’s left of it.

Dog sticks his nose into the breeze. Wonder, what he makes of it. With his senses heightened. Did you know, wombats noses are even more sensitive. Not that there are any around. Their sensitive smell captures the future. Imagine, sitting high above the land, reading what flowers will come to bloom well before they do with buds already giving off whispy whiffs of an olfactory crescendo yet come. Compared to that dogs noses are crude, specialised on the past, rolling in decay and odours that are well past their use-by-date. I see his nose flare and wonder what scents he picks up.

A short drive takes us the Harbour Boat Harbour, on Fishery Beach. As the mouth of the Bremer River silts up, all the fishing and whale watch vessels depart a bit down this spectacular, rocky coast. The adjacent hills and sand dunes are home to a number of swanky homes. This where money gets dumped. You can have a nice big block of land, keeping neighbours more than at arms length, with astonishing views and nearly private access to idyllic places with names such as Little Harbour Beach, Blossom Beach, or Native Dog Beach. But don’t get fooled by romantic labels. Little Harbour is silted with a million SUVs, launching their tinnies into the surf. Blossom Beach is named after a cow, that was lost and then found. Right here. And Native Dog Beach has not seen Dingo’s in a decade. Just mutts: any size, any color and sound. Ours fits right in. Getting more than a nose full of that sticky, salty ocean breeze.

Back at the van park, we organise probably the mightiest burgers from the Meekatharra Takeaway Van. They have come a long way to excite local taste buds. And it's so worth it. Including the food induced coma afterwards.

Day Three is about Bremer Bay town, the river and Ma’s secret fishing spots.

Wellstead Museum & Café is a great way to start a lazy Sunday. It is a quirky place, tucked into the hills, out of the relentless wind. Hard to believe that it is the height of summer. Spot us exploring the old creaky floors of the sheering sheds, climbing through old whale bones, used in a movie set, and trying to crank over ancient tractors. Needless to say, our trusty mutt marked the items he would like to take home in particular as the gigantic baleen rib cage. The Sunday Markets are not far away from here. Great place to shop for souvenirs. But got to be quick, these country markets never survive past the midday lunch break.

Good old Ma from the caravan park sent us one a goose chase for her favourite fishing spot on Bremer River. As often, descriptions are vague. We are labouring down hardly used tracks. Giving the cars springs and coils a good workout. The bunch on the cheap back seats is yelling instructions. Contradicting each other. Surprisingly, we have Internet connections. AppleMaps’ terrain view proves to be more reliable at indicating that we are heading into the right direction. Down a last steep decline and we arrive: Our own romantic hideout on the river. Except that we are four. Plus dog. And one or the other fisho in his tinnie. Darn! But it's good enough to soak up the sun while cracking a bottle of bubbles. This place really has things going for it. We refill at the Bremer Bay Brewery, a cool, new place. And Paul’s home cooked pasta summarises the day beautifully.

About an hour and a half west is Albany, a handsome town, wrapped around a stunning natural harbour formed by Vancouver Peninsula, Torndirrup National Park and Frenchman Bay. If you have never been here, you have got to visit. It is quite something. I wonder if the walkway at “The Gap” in the park was the testing ground for the suspended steel and glass construction over the Murchison Gorge (Kalbarri National Park). It certainly feel like it. The parks dramatic coastline is made of ancient gneiss and granite, carved away by the relentless ocean. The Gap is a deep canyon polished by crashing, roaring waves. A steel and glass walkway allows peeks into the maelstrom from above. A bit further along are the blowholes. The wind and tides have to be just right to force the waves up through crevices in the rocks creating spectacular jets of water and foam. Unfortunately, not today. Still enjoying the steep, rocky climb down and along the edge of the world.

The whaling station at Frenchman Bay has been taxidermied. It preserves an interesting view on an industry that shut down in the late 70’s. Thankfully! I still get uneasy when people rave about hunting and shooting as a sport. Admittedly, whaling was never a sport but a crude activity, supplying the colony with protein and the world with oil for lamps, lubricants, candles and as a base for perfumes and soaps. Baleen (whalebone) was used for corsets, whips and umbrellas, sometimes even to cover roofs. And as bones to chew on. Hard to believe how the need of these “essentials” nearly pushed whale populations to extinction. Worldwide…

We are staying at the King River Palms Caravan Park, just around the corner from Handasyde Strawberries & Scones. So that’s where we are having our afternoon tea. Of course, the Great Southern Distilling Co, with its award winning whiskeys and Limeburners gin is also a must. The hospitality industry is still suffering from staff shortages. It takes forever to be seated, then served and finally farewelled without follow up. I get it, having worked in the industry over the covid shut down and beyond. So, we are gentle and focus one the positives of the visit. Encouraging where praise is due and the rest will fall inline again, eventually. Saint Sven walks amongst us…

Heading home, we are taking it easy. We have heard a lot about the fabulous National Parks in the Great Southern Region. The Stirling Range Scenic Drive draws us in. It’s really close to our home route anyway. And it promises to be an easy one. We turn off just north of Mt Barker through farm land and plantations. The cairn on the peak of Toolbrunup is our goal. Sandalwood cutters were the first one to create a trek, todays scenic drive. The park supports over 1,500 different flowering plant species with over 87 of them found only in the area of the park. And lots of them are inn flower right now. It is very scenic. Great little detour.

The remainder of the day takes us via Gnowangerup, Katanning and Wagin to Minding Rest Area. It’s an obscure one. We checked it out on one of our other tours and found it to be a lovely, quiet place in amongst the wheat fields. Picture perfect! Hardly any traffic. Just open country and wide open skies. Just the way, we like it.

And that’s it, our little 2,200km adventure!

Track Notes

Distances

Port Denison

to Bremer Bay, 900 km

to Albany, 180 km

round trip into Turndirrup NP, 50 km

to Port Denison (via Stirling Range NP), 1,120 km

Places to stay

Bremer Bay Caravan Park (Lat -34.3919, Lng 119.3905), 900 km

King River Palms Caravan Park (Lat -34.3936 Lng 117.1929), 180 km

Minding Rest Area (Lat- 33.3349, Lng 117.1212), 250 km

Things worth noting

Is there ever a good time to visit The Great Southern Region? When you need to escape the relentless heat, consider the south coast of WA. While 40 plus degrees torment the Outback and the mid and north coasts of this great state, places like Esperance, Bremer Bay and Albany can be quite pleasant. We recommend January to March which coincides with the best season to watch killer whales.