Dunsborough - Day 3 - Busselton Jetty & Underwater Observatory

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This morning, we drove back up to Busselton to visit the iconic Busselton Jetty. Stretching 1.841 kilometres into Geographe Bay it is the longest timber piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. Built in 1865 and extended several times the jetty played an important role in the early years of European settlement allowing ships to make port in Busselton to transport the grain, livestock and timber grown, raised and felled in the surrounding districts. Geographe Bay also became recognized as a bountiful source of whales and American whalers called regularly at the port.

The jetty was used commercially for more than a century and serviced 5,000 vessels over that time. When the port officially closed in 1973 all shipping ceased, and government maintenance was withdrawn. In 1978 Cyclone Alby wreaked havoc on the jetty and it was in danger of being demolished until a community organization (Busselton Jetty Environment and Conservation Association) was formed to raise funds to restore the jetty. By 2003 there were sufficient funds to replace 50 percent of the jetty structure, establish the train service and construct the amazing Underwater Observatory.

In 2011, a $27 million refurbishment was completed. The bulk of this amount was contributed by the Western Australian Government with the balance raised by the Shire of Busselton and BJECA. The jetty is certainly a monument for the Busselton community to be proud of as without their efforts to save their jetty it probably would have been demolished.

On Saturday Cathy booked our train and Underwater Observatory tickets for this morning. We were all aboard the little red train to depart for the end of the jetty at 10.00am. Our driver, Les, told us we speeding out to the end of the jetty at an average speed of six kilometres an hour! During our 17-minute journey we heard a mixture of live commentary from Les together with recorded segments which provided us with many details of the jetty’s heyday, demise and restoration.

Arriving at the end of the train line (just short of the end of the jetty) we alighted and joined the queue for the Underwater Observatory. In short order we were being introduced to the concrete cylinder that forms the observatory. The whole thing was completed off-site in Fremantle then towed to Busselton to be attached to the sea floor at the end of the jetty to create a man-made reef that has now been populated with an abundance of completely wild and natural plant and animal sea life. Amazing!

The whole thing could be described as a reverse aquarium with the fish, sea weeds and coral on the outside and the humans on the inside!! While incredible there were a few problems with the tour. First, it seemed like almost all of the 90 passengers from the train were also in the observatory, which was quite a crowd! Second, the number of children. OMG! Having sooooo many small children pasted up against the marine Perspex viewing windows was really frustrating. Our guide particularly asked our group to observe two rules – please don’t touch the ‘glass’ and move about as quietly as possible so the fish won’t be scared away. So many parents incapable, or simply unwilling, to make their children comply with these requests??! And never have I heard the words ‘fishy’ and ‘fishies’ bandied around so much in such a short amount of time!!

So, these were problems as we descended the spiral staircase inside the observatory. The biggest problem though was when we arrived at the level of the sea floor where they were setting up for a professional photo shoot. WTF? We arrived at the viewing windows to be confronted by an assortment of photographic equipment -tripods, cables, light stands, a pull along trolley and two men crawling around the floor unpacking it and connecting it up - all over the floor in the prime viewing area. Seriously, that shows an incredible lack of planning on someone’s part. You can’t have a large group of paying customers arrive to have the experience they have paid for blighted by a photo shoot. After about ten minutes of total chaos a staff member finally succeeded in moving the photo crew away from the windows so that the tourists could actually see what they had paid for.

And then the parents with children started to disperse and move back up the stairway so that those of us who had been patient finally had the place almost to ourselves. At this point it was quite peaceful inside the concrete tube eight metres below the water’s surface. There really did seem to be more fish outside after all the kiddy hand slapping on the Perspex stopped.

From the observatory we made our way to the very end of the jetty which points north … even though it totally feels like it points west! We took the obligatory photos at the signpost with signs pointing east to Melbourne and west to Cape Town amongst other minor destinations, you know, like London, Paris and New York!

Cathy and Steve opted to walk back to the beginning of the Jetty while Bernie and Tracey rode back again on the little red train. By the time we waited for our 11.30am departure and then took 17 minutes to ride back to the landward end of the jetty, Cathy and Steve had beaten us … just. They say they arrived merely moments ahead of us.

The Gatts then headed off to find some morning tea while we did it all again … on foot. We haven’t achieved our goals for the last couple of days so what better way to improve our efforts today than to walk 1.841 kilometres out into Geographe Bay and then turn around and walk straight back again … into a head wind!

After ‘doing’ Busselton Jetty both ways we walked into the centre of Busselton to find some lunch. Bernie guided us to Baked which did excellent toasted focaccias. The added bonus, from the girls’ perspective, was that this bakery was right next door to The Blue Box. Cathy and I HAD to go in to check out all of their beautiful yarns and patterns. Cathy had hoped to buy a patchwork baby quilt kit but, unfortunately, the store no longer carries quilting supplies only very expensive yarns. Tracey managed to resist all the tempting patterns and knitting/crocheting kits and walk out empty handed. Cathy managed to escape with only a pattern book.

Our next stop was the Woolies in Busselton to stock up on a couple of breakfast items that are running low and then our thoughts turned to whether or not to make one more home cooked dinner while we have the facilities to do so. Hot chickens were discussed, but we couldn’t buy a hot chicken in Busselton for dinner tonight in Dunsborough. Cold chicken and salad then? Does the Coles in Dunsborough roast chickens? Is there another chicken shop in Dunsborough??? Aaargh, in the end we purchased a marinated lamb roast to go on the BBQ and some coleslaw and baby potatoes to go with it.

Then it was ice-cream o’clock as we made our way back to the house via Simmos Ice Creamery. Bernie and Tracey have decided that it’s a very good thing that we don’t live here with such delicious ice-cream so readily available!

Back at the ranch we spent some time forward planning for our journey over the next couple of days as we finally point the vehicles towards home. We already had the Tin Horse Highway between Kulin and Hyden on our list, but we have now discovered that there are dozens of murals to be seen in and around Collie … which is between here and Kulin. There’s plenty on the list for Tuesday but not so much for Wednesday as we make our way to Kalgoorlie.

After dinner we returned to the card playing staples of the holiday, Bolivia and Blobs. Cathy and Tracey won at Bolivia and then Cathy backed that up with a win at Blobs.



Steps: 13,354 (9.01kms)

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