Things to Do in Margaret River Town

Margaret River town is not the same thing as the Margaret River region. Most people don't figure this out until they've already driven past the things worth stopping for.

The region is the whole strip between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin: a hundred-and-twenty kilometres of coast, four hundred-odd wineries, a few thousand square kilometres of karri and jarrah, and at least a dozen towns and hamlets that all have their own character. The town is one piece of that. It sits a few kilometres inland from Prevelly and Surfers Point, on the river it's named for, and from the workshop on Blythe Rd it's a thirty-two-minute drive down Bussell Hwy.

People come for the wine and skip the town. That's a mistake. The town is where you eat when the cellar door restaurants are booked, where you buy the book you'll read on the verandah, where the farmers market runs on a Saturday, and where the surf at Surfers Point is fifteen minutes away from a coffee on the main street. It rewards an unhurried half-day. Here's how I'd spend one.

Photo: Vasse Felix, CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

If you've never been before, this bit matters. The town has maybe seven thousand people. The main street is about eight hundred metres long. You can walk it in fifteen minutes. The river runs through the south end of town and reaches the sea at Prevelly, a ten-minute drive west. The famous wineries are not in the town; they're scattered north and west, mostly between Cowaramup and Wilyabrup. The famous beaches are not in the town either; they're on the coast at Prevelly, Gnarabup, and further south at Boranup and Hamelin Bay.

What you actually find in the town: a tight main street with good cafes and restaurants, a great bookshop, a pub that's been there longer than most of the visitors have been alive, a chocolate factory that I'd skip but you might love, a brewery worth a long lunch, and a Saturday market that's the heart of local life. That's plenty for a day.

The region, the broader thing people call Margaret River, takes three or four days to do properly. The town, on its own, takes half a day if you're efficient and a full day if you're not in a rush.

Start with a walk down Bussell Hwy through the centre. The street has been the town's spine since the timber days and most of what you want is on it or one block off.

The cafes you'd actually choose: Sidekick does the best coffee in the town centre and has done for years. White Elephant Cafe is over at Gnarabup if you want surf views with breakfast, but in the town itself, Sidekick is the one. Margaret River Bakery is the local for a proper sit-down breakfast; it's been there forever and the corn fritters are worth ordering.

The Margaret River Bookshop on Bussell Hwy is the best regional bookshop south of Fremantle. They have a serious natural-history section, a strong local-author shelf, and the staff know what they're selling. Most of the books on my workshop shelf came from there. Allow forty minutes. You'll spend longer.

Margaret River Chocolate Company is on the way out of town on the way north. Worth a stop if you have kids; less essential if you don't. Buy the chocolate, skip the tour.

The Margaret River Brewhouse sits on Bussell Hwy a couple of kilometres north of the town centre. It's set back from the road on a few acres of bush. The beer is properly good, the kitchen is solid (steak sandwich, fish tacos, the burger), and there's a long verandah that looks out over the paddocks toward the river. In summer the lawn fills with families. In winter the fire is on by lunchtime and the dining room is one of the warmer rooms in the region.

Two hours here on a quiet Sunday is a good use of an afternoon. Three if you decide to stay for the second beer.

From the centre of town it's ten minutes west to Surfers Point, the headland above the rivermouth at Prevelly. This is where they hold the Margaret River Pro every autumn. On a clean six-foot southwest swell the wave at Main Break is one of the best long left-handers in Australia. Even if you don't surf, the viewing deck above the carpark is worth the drive. You can watch the lineup from above, see the sets stack up off the reef, and walk down to the beach at the rivermouth in five minutes.

If the wind is up and the main break is messy, drive another two minutes south to Gnarabup Beach. It's sheltered on a southerly, has a coffee shop right on the sand at the White Elephant, and the swim is gentle. Families work better here than at Prevelly.

A note for non-surfers: the Cape to Cape track runs along the cliffs above Surfers Point. A short section north or south from the carpark gives you forty minutes of coastline that takes a long time to forget.

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

If you're in the town on a Saturday, the Margaret River Farmers Market at the old Education Centre runs eight to noon every week. Year-round. It's the closest thing the region has to a town square. I don't miss it.

What you'll find on a typical Saturday: a coffee cart with a queue, a couple of pie people, sourdough from the local baker, a fish stall with whatever's come up from Augusta that week, free-range eggs, slow-grown beef, raw honey, finger limes in season, and the same forty or fifty regulars who go every weekend. Bring a tote bag. Bring cash for the smaller stalls. Eat something on the spot.

The market is where the region introduces itself most honestly. The cellar doors are the polished version. The market is the producers and growers and farmers as they actually are.

The town's name comes from the river, and the river is worth half an hour. The Old Settlement track runs from the south end of town along the riverbank for about a kilometre, past the original timber-cutter cottages and out into the paddocks. It's flat, pram-friendly, and shaded in summer. The water is brown and slow at this point in its course, banked by paperbarks. There are usually black swans on the bend below the bridge.

For a longer version, the Rotary Park to Old Mill loop adds another forty minutes and gives you the southern side of the river. Neither walk is famous. Neither is on most itineraries. Both are what locals do on a Sunday morning.

If you've stayed in the town for the night, dinner is straightforward. Settlers Tavern on Bussell Hwy is the pub, has been for decades, and runs one of the better wine lists in any country pub in Western Australia. The food is solid pub food done well. The atmosphere is loud on a Friday and quieter on a Tuesday. Live music most weekends.

For something quieter, Morries does cocktails and Asian-inflected small plates and has the best night-time room in the town. Book ahead in summer. Miki's Open Kitchen is the place for Japanese, on a tucked-away corner off the main street, and the tasting menu is one of the best meals in the region full stop. Book a week ahead.

A late beer at Black Brewing Co or at the Brewhouse on the way back to wherever you're staying. The drive back to Yallingup at night is dark but easy: stay on Bussell Hwy, twenty-five minutes, watch for kangaroos after dusk. The wider region's brewery route takes the Brewhouse as one of four stops.

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

If the town is a day in a longer trip, here's how I'd shape it.

1. 8:00am

   Sidekick Cafe

   Coffee, sit at the bench out the front, watch the main street wake up. Twenty minutes.
2. 9:00am

   Margaret River Bookshop

   Browse properly. Forty minutes if you're disciplined, longer if you're not.
3. 10:30am

   Surfers Point and Prevelly

   Drive west. Walk the cliff above Main Break, then down to the rivermouth beach. An hour and a half.
4. 12:30pm

   The Brewhouse

   Lunch on the verandah. The steak sandwich or the fish tacos. Two hours including a second pint.
5. 3:00pm

   Old Settlement river walk

   Walk it off. Slow loop along the river. Forty-five minutes.
6. 4:30pm

   The wineries north of town

   If you've got energy, swing through Vasse Felix or Voyager on the way back. If not, head straight home.

A Saturday version: swap the bookshop for the farmers market at 8am, eat at the market, then push Surfers Point to mid-morning. The rest of the day works the same.

A few things the brochures push that I'd skip if you're tight on time:

• The chocolate factory tour. Buy chocolate, don't tour. Ten minutes, not an hour.
• The cheese factory tour. Same logic.
• Three caves. One cave is plenty. Mammoth or Lake are both south of town and good. Ngilgi is closer to Yallingup. Pick the one closest to your route.
• The full Cape to Cape track. A short section is the right dose. The whole 135km is a week.
• A second winery before lunch. Pick one, go deep, eat there.

If you're staying in the town itself, the options are mostly motels and a few good B&Bs. The Margaret River Hotel on Bussell Hwy is central. Bridgefield is the best of the small guesthouses. Knee Deep Wines has farm cottages a few minutes north. For something more polished, most people base themselves at Yallingup, Dunsborough, or the wine villages around Wilyabrup and drive into the town for meals and the market.

The town is more interesting to visit than to stay in, in my experience. Sleep on the coast. Drive in for breakfast.

Three things you only get in the town itself, in case the case still isn't made:

The farmers market on a Saturday. The wineries don't have one. The villages don't have one. The town does, and it's the real thing.

The bookshop, chocolate factory and art galleries clustered on the main street. JahRoc Galleries on the main road is the largest commercial fine-furniture gallery in the region and worth half an hour even if you're not buying. (For the longer take on the regional galleries, a maker's guide to the galleries of Margaret River covers that ground.)

The surf at Prevelly, fifteen minutes from a coffee. The northern beaches around Yallingup are closer to the workshop and just as good in their own way, but Surfers Point is the wave the town is famous for and it deserves a look.

The town is forty minutes south of the workshop on Blythe Rd. If you're driving back north after a day in the town, the gallery is open every day, ten to four (ten to five on Saturdays). Stay on Bussell Hwy, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd.

The town is the practical heart of the region. It's where the producers come on a Saturday, where the bookshop has the natural-history section, where the pub has the wine list, and where the surf at Prevelly is fifteen minutes from a flat white. It is not, by itself, the reason you've driven down here. The reason is the coast, the wine, and the country between.

But you should not skip the town. A half-day in it makes the rest of the trip make more sense. The wine you'll drink tonight came from these paddocks. The fish you'll eat came in through Augusta. The book you'll read on the verandah came from the bookshop on Bussell Hwy.

That's the town. Half a day, slowly, on a day when the rest of the trip is the bigger thing.

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