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Published: April 19th 2012
Bunbury from the Old Harbour
Note the viewing tower on the hill.: Well, whilst recovering from my jet lag (7 hours difference from UK), we set out to discover more of the city where we were staying , Bunbury.
Overview: Bunbury is located 110 miles south of Perth in WA, and claims to be the third largest centre of population in Western Australia after Perth and Fremantle. Its population is less than 70 thousand people, which is a third of the size of North Tyneside in the UK, and gives you an idea of how under populated WA is. (Western Australia is about 12 times the area of Great Britain but has about 1/20
th of the population. It does have a harbour which exports 1.5 million tons of wood chips around the world, but is also geared up for tourism. A couple of small hills exist in the town, on which is located a viewing tower (Mariston Hill Lookout) – see photos. The city seems to be a centre of shopping for surrounding small towns, etc. and is well served with all sorts of shops, garages, etc. You could be anywhere in the world driving down many of the streets, however the older part of the town gives much
Bunbury from the old harbour - 2.
Shopping centre is half a mile further back inland. better idea of older Australia, see pictures. It is generally very clean with little litter – nice.
In town shopping: Two small malls and one long old shopping street provide most things that you need. Compared to the UK, many things are expensive due to the strong OZ dollar, especially fruit and veg. Will come back home with vitamin C deficiency!
Tourism plays an important part for the city, the highlight being the Dolphin Discovery Centre, Koombana Bay . Here you can go out on a boat and swim with wild dolphins if they are about. We went for a paddle on the beach and watched the centre’s boat come in followed by a couple of dolphins. Sadly the battery in my camera packed in so I wasn’t able to take a photo, but they were there, honestly. There is also surfing and swimming in the normal Australian way on some of the other beaches. Didn’t see any great whites though. Surfing is carried outside the bay, for example on Lighthouse Beach. There is a nice nature park called Big Swamp Reserve which is worth an investigation for wildlife lovers. It includes a bird
Mariston Hill Lookout
Viewpoint across Bunbury hide. (Free). Artistic bit: Traffic islands in Bunbury often have sculptures, etc. on them. Nice touch.
We are due to stay in Bunbury until the 27
th, and then on to the Nullarbor. Our stay in Bunbury is actually with Valda’s parents, who live in what is superficially an idyllic retirement community . I will upload my views on this. May be of interest with my retired friends in the Probus club back home.
Stop Press! Two strange shopping experiences: 1) Beer and other alcohol is not sold in supermarkets, but in separate stores owned by supermarkets - to keep it hidden from view. What next, plain labels like cigarettes? 2) Wouldn't happen in the UK - on exiting some large stores, e.g. Big W. the contents of personal bags and handbags are often checked by staff to see if stolen goods are present! And people allow this! Strange.
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David Wyatt
non-member comment
Excellent Blog
Nice Blog David .... the photos of Perth & Bunbury are making me home sick .... try and get to Busselton (yes you have been there before but worth while another trip to the undersea acquarium and Walpole Inlet and on to Pemberton would be a nice trip. Perhaps my folks would like a last trip to their favourite places ... be safe and have a fab time