Busselton Jetty Day Trip: What to Do Before and After

Busselton Jetty is 1.8 kilometres long and it takes about 40 minutes to walk out and back. What most people don't know is what to do with the other six hours of the day.

Photo: Public domain, Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

I'm a furniture maker, so timber-piled jetties hold a particular interest for me. There's something to be said for a structure that's been standing in saltwater since 1865 and is still doing its job. The jetty has been rebuilt and restored more than once. The major works finished in the 2010s, and it survives because the people in Busselton refused to let it go. That's a community decision, not a tourism one, and you can feel it when you walk the planks.

This isn't a post about the engineering. This is a post about the day. The jetty is the anchor. Everything else is what you do with the rest of the light.

The car park fills up by mid-morning in summer and the holiday seasons. The light is better at the eastern end of the day anyway: softer on the timber, kinder to your photographs, cooler on the walk. I'd be on the jetty by seven if you can manage it. The cafe at the foreshore opens early too.

Photo: Michelle Corcoran, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

For the full kit (the train out to the end of the jetty, the underwater observatory eight metres down at the deep end), you can book the Busselton Jetty train and underwater observatory ahead. The observatory is worth doing once. You descend a spiral staircase inside the structure and you're looking at the artificial reef that the jetty piles have become: soft corals, sponges, hundreds of species of fish. It's a quiet, surprising place. The train ride out, honestly, you can walk it instead and feel it more.

Walking the jetty is the simplest thing in the world and one of the best. The boards under your feet are jarrah, the same timber I work with in the gallery, and the sound of footsteps over the water is something you don't forget. Take your time. Look down at the piles. Look out at the bay. By the time you turn around at the end, you'll have a sense of the scale of Geographe Bay that you can't get from the shore.

A pair of decent shoes is the only thing you need. There's no shade halfway out, so a hat helps, and on a summer day a water bottle isn't optional.

Once you're done with the jetty, the day opens up. Almost everything good is west of Busselton, between you and the two capes. Here's the route I'd give my own visitors.

Don't try to get into a sit-down breakfast right away. Have a coffee on the foreshore, eat something simple, look at the bay for ten minutes. The foreshore has been redeveloped over the last decade and it's a pleasant place to slow down before you drive.

Photo: Calistemon, CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Dunsborough is about twenty-five minutes from the jetty, a straight run down Bussell Highway. It's the lunch town. The main strip has half a dozen good places, the town beach is right there if you want a swim before or after, and the pace is exactly the pace you want at midday in the South West.

I won't name a specific restaurant. They change too quickly for a blog post to keep up with. The rule of thumb in Dunsborough is that the queue is the menu. Look at where the locals are sitting. Walk past three places before you commit. You can also pick up bread, cheese, and a bottle and eat at the beach. That's often the better answer.

The more thorough take on the town sets out what's worth your time there.

From Dunsborough, it's another fifteen minutes west to Yallingup. Heading back toward Perth via Yallingup Siding, you'll pass Blythe Rd. That's where the gallery is. Worth thirty minutes of anyone's afternoon.

Google Maps sometimes misdirects via Wildwood Rd when people search for Yallingup — stay on Bussell Hwy, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd. The gallery sign is on the right. The workshop runs along the back of the gallery and you can watch through the window. There's coffee in Yallingup Siding five minutes further on if you want one before the next stretch of coast.

I built the gallery in 1988 with my own hands, from jarrah and southwest limestone, the same timber that's holding up the jetty. There's something to be said for seeing the worked timber after you've walked over the unworked piles. Spend the morning on heritage timber and you might want to see what it becomes when somebody slows it down. This is the room.

Photo: Lasthib, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

From the gallery, you've got coast in two directions. Smiths Beach is eight minutes away: clear water, white sand, the best swim in the area if the wind's down. Canal Rocks is twenty minutes up the coast: granite channels that the Indian Ocean drives through, dramatic and weather-tolerant. Pick by the wind. If it's blowing southerly, Canal Rocks. If it's still, Smiths.

The longer take on Smiths and the Canal Rocks sunset guide handle the two options. Either way, you're aiming to be on the coast for the last two hours of the day. That's the bit you'll remember.

Got the energy? Yallingup Beach the way I play it. The main Yallingup Beach is its own thing and worth a stop, especially when the light's good. Otherwise, the drive back to Perth from Yallingup is about three and a half hours, so plan dinner accordingly.

Photo: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

1. 7:00 am

   Busselton Jetty

   Walk out, walk back. Observatory if you've booked one.
2. 9:30 am

   Foreshore coffee

   Sit down. Look at the bay. Plan the next stretch.
3. 11:00 am

   Dunsborough

   Wander the main street, town beach if you fancy.
4. 12:30 pm

   Lunch

   Dunsborough sit-down or beach picnic.
5. 2:00 pm

   John Streater Gallery, Blythe Rd

   Half an hour in the workshop window and the gallery.
6. 3:00 pm

   Smiths Beach or Canal Rocks

   Two hours on the coast.
7. 5:30 pm

   Sunset wherever the light is best

   Drive home in the dark.

• Parking at the jetty is paid and there's a fair amount of it, but holiday weekends fill it. There's overflow further back.
• Tickets for the train and the underwater observatory you book online. Busselton Jetty has the current prices and times. Walking the jetty itself attracts a small entry fee these days, which goes back into maintaining the timber.
• Toilets and water are at the foreshore end. There's not much halfway out.
• The wind in Busselton can come up hard in the afternoon, particularly through summer. Morning is the more reliable window.

For everything else around the region, what's open and what's on, Margaret River Region visitor guide is the one to use.

Don't try to fit a winery into the same day as the jetty if you're driving yourself. The geometry doesn't work. The wineries are inland and south, the jetty is on the bay, and you'll spend half the day in the car. Wine is a different day.

Don't try to do the underwater observatory and the train and a long walk out. Pick one or two. The jetty is more rewarding when you don't try to consume it all at once.

And don't drive back to Perth straight after the jetty. You'll have used the appetiser and skipped the meal. The whole point of coming down here is what happens west of Busselton.

The flag's usually flying at the gallery in the afternoon. Come and find us on the way through.

Read next: a Dunsborough day from Yallingup.