Things to Do in Yallingup: A Local's Guide After Forty Years

I've lived in Yallingup since 1982. I'm not a visitor. But visitors ask me what to do, and after answering that question for a long time I may as well write it down.

This is the long version. I'll tell you the beaches in the order I'd take you to them, the cave, the bakery, where to eat, where to walk, and the gallery I built in 1988 because I needed somewhere to put the work. I'll also tell you what Yallingup isn't, which matters as much as what it is.

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

A small coastal town in the south-west corner of Western Australia. About three hours south of Perth on the Bussell Hwy. Built around a single bay with a granite reef running across it. The reef is the whole reason any of this exists.

Wardandi Noongar people have known the country for thousands of years. The name comes from their language: roughly, "place of caves". European settlers arrived in the 1830s. Ngilgi Cave was discovered in 1899. Caves House opened on 20 January 1903 as accommodation for cave visitors. Surfers started camping in the bush behind the dunes in the 1950s. Most of what's happened since has happened in those proportions: country first, then caves, then surf, then everything else.

I came down in 1982 to work for a furniture maker. I bought the block on Blythe Rd in 1988 and built the workshop and gallery myself with help from a couple of mates. Jarrah walls, southwest limestone. I've been here every day since.

Yallingup, as a town, has perhaps three or four hundred permanent residents. A general store. A bakery. A pub. A cave. A handful of restaurants and galleries scattered along the back roads. That's it. The size is the point. Anything bigger would be Dunsborough, which is ten minutes north, or Margaret River town, which is half an hour south.

If you surf, this is why you've come. Yallingup is one of the founding surf locations in Western Australia. The wave at Yallingup main beach breaks left and right off the reef and works most swells. It's not a beginner wave. The locals are friendly enough but the lineup is theirs. Watch from the headland for half an hour before paddling out.

The rest of the surf coast runs north and south from here. Smiths Beach has a beach break that handles a wider range. Injidup has two breaks: the car park break and the point. Three Bears, a little further north toward Cape Naturaliste, is the longer drive that rewards in a clean south-west swell. Margaret River's Surfers Point is half an hour south and serious. That's the wave the WSL pro runs at. Most weeks of the year, something is working somewhere along this coast. Check the swell, drive, look. Don't rely on a forecast alone.

For the full surf-trip version, surfing Yallingup, where to paddle out covers what each break wants from you and what time of day to be there.

Photo: Sam Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

I'll give you the beaches in the order I'd visit them across a couple of days. Each one does a different thing.

The town beach. Twelve minutes from the workshop. The reef makes a lagoon at the eastern end that's safe for swimming and snorkelling, and the wave breaks beyond it. Caves House sits on the headland above. Pale sand, granite at both ends, a lawn for putting a towel down on a Saturday. This is the beach the postcards are of. It's also the beach with the most people, which on a January morning means twenty cars, not two hundred.

For the longer write-up, Yallingup Beach, local guide.

Eight minutes south of the workshop. My favourite. It's a longer, straighter stretch of sand than the main beach, with the swell rolling in directly off the Indian Ocean. The car park is at the south end. There's a resort and a few houses behind the dunes, but the beach itself is big enough that even in peak summer you can walk five minutes and have a hundred metres of sand to yourself. Bring a windbreak. The afternoon sea breeze comes up about two in summer.

Smiths Beach, the local guide.

Twelve minutes south. Two stops, really. Injidup main beach is white sand with a granite headland at the north end. Surfers know it for the point break off the south. Then there's the Injidup Natural Spa, a few minutes further on a separate dirt road: a granite rock pool at the base of a small cliff where the swell flushes through and bubbles. On a calm day it's a swim. On a big day it's a churn. Both are worth your time. The dirt road is rough but you don't need a four-wheel drive in dry weather.

Injidup Natural Spa, the practical version.

Western end of the main beach, in the lee of the reef. A natural granite-bound pool that holds clear water. Snorkelling is best on a small swell day, mornings before the breeze. Take an old pair of reef shoes. The limestone is sharp. You can park at the main beach car park and walk west along the sand until you see the reef opening up.

Twenty-three minutes south. A formation of granite blocks the ocean has carved channels through, with a footbridge crossing the main canal so you can stand directly above the water rushing through. Sunset here is something local. The whole western horizon goes orange and the granite turns pink. There's no swimming. Just looking. Take a jumper because the wind comes up.

Canal Rocks at sunset, a local's guide.

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

If you want to read me put them in order of which I'd rate highest on which day, the best beaches in Yallingup, ranked.

Ten minutes from the workshop, just inland. The cave was discovered in 1899 by Edward Dawson while he was looking for stray horses, and it became the founding story of tourism in this corner of the south-west. Originally called Yallingup Cave, it was renamed Ngilgi to honour the Wardandi Dreaming in which Ngilgi, the Great Spirit of the Ocean, defeated a darker spirit deep underground.

The cave itself is a karst system going back roughly half a million years. Stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, and what the guides call shawls: curtains of crystal that hang from the ceiling and catch torchlight in a way photographs don't do justice to. Tasmanian Tiger fossils have been found here.

The Ancient Lands Experience above ground takes about thirty minutes. The cave itself is a self-guided tour that lasts a bit over an hour. Allow about ninety minutes for both. Open seven days, 9am to 5pm, closed Christmas Day. For the deeper Wardandi cultural reading I'd book the Koomal Dreaming tour separately. It adds an hour and a layer to the cave you can't get any other way.

Ngilgi Cave, half a day in Yallingup.

Yallingup Woodfired Bread on Yallingup Beach Rd. Pamela and I have been buying bread here for years. The loaves come out of a wood-fired oven and they sell out. Get there in the morning for cold-fermented sourdough, or in the afternoon (mid-three onwards) for the warm loaves straight off the second firing. Closed Sunday. Don't expect a café. It's a takeaway counter, a queue, and a paper bag of bread on the seat next to you for the drive home.

For a sit-down breakfast you want Yallingup General Store, around the corner, or the cafés in Dunsborough ten minutes north. Caves House on the headland does pub lunches with a view that's hard to beat.

The gallery is on Blythe Rd, ten minutes inland from the bakery. Open every day. The workshop sits behind the gallery with a viewing window between them. You can watch the work happen. Free to come in. Pamela curates the front. I'm usually in the back.

I'm going to include this because it's one of the things to do here, and because if I left it out you'd find it anyway and wonder why I hadn't said. The gallery is on Blythe Rd, Yallingup Siding, ten minutes inland from the main beach. Jarrah walls, southwest limestone. I built it in 1988 because the work needed somewhere to live.

Since 2009 I've shared the room with other makers: Alan Fox blowing glass, Julia Carter painting, Dylan Fox shooting photographs, Elani's painting. The viewing window between gallery and workshop has been there from day one. People come in, look at the pieces, look through the window, and watch the work that made the pieces. The process is the product.

Free entry. No appointments needed. You can stand at the window for as long as you want.

More about why I've stayed at this bench.

The pristine environment which I live in. And meeting and greeting the visitors from all over the world, telling them my story and listening to theirs.

Margaret River wine country starts here. Several of the most respected cellar doors are within a fifteen-minute drive of the workshop.

• Wills Domain, ten minutes. Chef-driven restaurant on a hill with vineyard views. Book the long lunch.
• Vasse Felix, fifteen minutes. The oldest winery in the Margaret River region. Excellent food, serious chardonnay, a gallery upstairs.
• Cullen, sixteen minutes. Biodynamic, family-run, exceptional cabernets. Smaller and quieter than the bigger names.
• Cape Mentelle, twenty-five minutes. Cabernet that helped put the region on the map internationally.

This isn't a complete list. There are dozens more along Caves Rd and Tom Cullity Drive. For the longer version with my actual opinions, wineries near Yallingup, a local guide. And if you've come for wine specifically, the Margaret River wine itinerary from Yallingup.

A word on driving. Caves Rd is 80km/h, windy, with patches of native bush that contain kangaroos at dawn and dusk. If you're tasting, have one driver who isn't. Or use one of the local tour operators.

The Cape to Cape Track runs the length of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste coast, from Cape Naturaliste in the north to Cape Leeuwin in the south. About 123km end-to-end. You don't need to walk all of it. The section from Yallingup north to Smiths Beach is two hours of headland, granite outcrops, coastal heath, and a couple of beaches you can drop down to for a swim. The section from Smiths south to Injidup is a similar two-hour stretch.

In spring (September to November) the wildflowers along the heath are worth the walk on their own. In winter the swell is bigger and the air smells like rain. In summer start at six in the morning or wait for the sea breeze.

Cape to Cape day walks from Yallingup.

Inland, Boranup Karri Forest is fifty-five minutes south. Tall karri trees, a different feeling of country, cooler in summer. Worth the drive on a hot day.

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

Yallingup is good for kids without trying to be. The lagoon at the main beach is safe in most conditions. Smiths Beach has plenty of sand to dig in. Ngilgi Cave is a hit with school-age children. Yallingup Maze, eight minutes from the workshop, is a working hedge maze with a café. Half an hour of getting properly lost. Eagle Bay further north has a calm bay that's good for small swimmers.

The Margaret River Chocolate Company at Metricup is twelve minutes south of here and gives out free tastings.

Yallingup with kids, a family guide.

1. 8:00

   Yallingup Beach for the swim

   Get there before the breeze comes up. Half an hour in the lagoon, half an hour on the sand. The main beach car park has facilities.

2. 9:30

   Yallingup Woodfired Bread, then a coffee at the General Store

   Pick up a loaf for later. Coffee and a pastry to take down to the beach or up to the lookout.

3. 10:30

   Ngilgi Cave

   Self-guided through the cave, about ninety minutes including the Ancient Lands part above ground.

4. 12:30

   Lunch at Wills Domain or Vasse Felix

   Book ahead. Both do long-lunch food with views. Have the driver pick a single tasting flight to share.

5. 14:30

   The workshop and gallery on Blythe Rd

   Watch a piece of furniture being made through the viewing window. Pamela will show you around the gallery. Free to come in. No pressure. Most people stay an hour and end up talking longer than they meant to.

6. 16:00

   Canal Rocks for sunset

   Twenty minutes from the workshop. Stand on the bridge above the channel. Stay until the colour goes. Bring a jumper.

7. 18:30

   Dinner at Caves House or Lamonts Smiths Beach

   Caves House for pub-quality food with the 1903 atmosphere. Lamonts at Smiths for the longer dinner with the beach out the window.

If you have two days, you've got time to do the south side properly. Margaret River town for the Saturday farmers' market, Boranup Forest, and one of the longer Cape to Cape sections. The 48-hour Yallingup weekend is the longer version of this.

Yallingup is small. Most people stay in a holiday rental. There are dozens through the bush blocks around Caves Rd, Hemsley Rd, and the Yallingup Beach Rd side. Book six months out for summer. Three months for autumn or spring.

Smiths Beach Resort, a local's take.

Most people drive from Perth. Three hours, give or take, on the Bussell Hwy through Bunbury and Busselton. Once you cross the Vasse turnoff, the country starts to change. The road narrows. Eucalypts close in.

A practical note. Google Maps sometimes misdirects toward Blythe Rd via Wildwood Rd, which adds farm-track time and won't save you anything. Stay on Bussell Hwy, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd. That's the local route.

If you're flying in, Busselton-Margaret River Airport runs a few flights a week from Melbourne. Perth airport is the more common option. Hire a car. There's no useful public transport between Perth and here.

This matters more than people expect.

Summer (December to February). Hot, dry, the sea breeze in by two. The crowd peaks in January. Beaches busy in the middle of the day, empty at six in the morning and six in the evening. Bushfire risk is real. Check warnings.

Autumn (March to May). My favourite. The light goes golden. The swell starts to come up. Crowds thin. Wineries are in vintage and you can watch it happen. Water is still warm enough to swim.

Winter (June to August). Wild. Big swell, big skies, storms rolling in off the Indian Ocean. Wood smoke from the workshop chimney. The galleries are quieter. The cellar doors are open. This is the season for a long-table lunch and a fire afterwards.

Spring (September to November). Wildflowers along the headland heath. Whale watching off Cape Naturaliste and Sugarloaf Rock for humpbacks and southern rights heading south with their calves. The swell drops a little. The crowds are still light.

For the winter version specifically, Yallingup in winter, the quiet magic. For spring, wildflowers and whales.

Photo: Stuart Sevastos, CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

A theme park. A wine-bus party town. A weekend market with souvenirs. A place to tick off five attractions an hour and call it done.

It's slow on purpose. The reason you've heard about it is that it stays small. The reason it stays small is that the people who live here protect it. There are no chain hotels. There's no McDonald's. The road into the bay is unsealed for the last hundred metres in places. Caves House looks the way it did in 1903 because nobody let anyone tear it down. The bakery sells out by lunchtime and doesn't open Sundays because the family wants a Sunday.

If you've come for the surf, the cave, the wine, the work, or the quiet, you've come to the right place. If you've come for nightlife or shopping you'll be disappointed. There are five or six restaurants. The shops close at five. The lights go out early.

That's the trade. Most of us think it's a good one.

A few I'll only tell you because you've read this far.

• The walking track from the south end of Smiths Beach over the headland to Smiths point. Twenty minutes, no signage, ends at a granite bench that's the best place for an evening picnic anywhere in the region.
• The Yallingup Beach Rd lookout, before the road drops down to the bay. Pull over. Look. That view hasn't changed in a hundred years.
• The Wardandi Boodja sculpture and lookout above the main beach. A quiet acknowledgement of country with one of the best sit-down views of the bay.
• The afternoon sandbar at Injidup main beach when the tide drops. A natural calm pool that holds water like an aquarium.
• The drive from the workshop to Sugarloaf Rock at golden hour. Twenty-eight minutes. Take Caves Rd north. The light along the coast on this drive in autumn is the reason a lot of us came down in the first place.

Hidden Yallingup, the spots most visitors miss.

The country here is Wardandi. The cave is part of a Dreaming that goes back tens of thousands of years. The beaches are sacred sites. The bush behind them is too. When you visit, take your rubbish back out. Don't climb on the granite at Canal Rocks. Don't disturb the wildflowers. Don't park where you're not meant to.

The reason this place still works is that people have looked after it. The longer you spend here, the more obvious that becomes.

I'll say this once. The work and the place are the same thing. I don't think I'd be making the furniture I make if I lived somewhere else. The light here, the timber here, the people who come through the gallery, the surf at Smiths on a Saturday morning before the workshop opens. All of it is in the work.

If you have a day, do the short itinerary above. If you have a weekend, slow down by half. If you have a week, you're starting to do it properly. And if you walk into the gallery while you're here, say hello. I'll be in the back, and Pamela will be at the front, and we'll both be glad you came.