The Yallingup Maze: What I Tell People Who Ask

I've been directing people to the Yallingup Maze for years. I've never been in myself. I make furniture, not puzzles, and the closest I get to a hedge is the one out the back of the workshop. But the Maze is five minutes up the road, and a fair share of the visitors who walk into the gallery have either just come from it or are about to head up there, so I've collected a decent amount of secondhand intelligence.

This is what I tell people when they ask.

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

The Yallingup Maze is a hedge maze. Not a small one. A proper one, big enough that you can lose track of where the entrance was. There's a viewing tower in the middle so the adults who've given up can wave down at the kids still trying to find the centre. There are puzzles around the property, picnic tables out the front, mini-golf on one side, and the kind of family business set-up where you can hear the staff banter from the carpark.

It's been there for years. The hedges have had time to mature, which is the difference between a real maze and a marketing one.

Three groups, mostly.

Families. This is the obvious one. The kids run, the parents drink coffee at the picnic table, everyone meets back at the carpark an hour and a half later. That's the standard visit. The kids will do it twice. The parents will do it once and then go and look at the puzzles out the front.

Couples on a wet afternoon. Less obvious. But when the rain comes in and you've already done the cave, a hedge maze is one of those quietly amusing afternoon options that nobody plans for. You go in for half an hour, you come out laughing, you drive somewhere for a long lunch. It's an antidote to the usual rainy-day list of indoor stops.

Grandparents with grandkids. The most enthusiastic group, in my experience. Grandparents love the maze because it gives them an excuse to sit at a picnic table for ninety minutes while the kids burn off energy in a contained space. Everyone wins.

There's something about a maze that turns sensible people back into something like 8-year-olds for half an hour.

Check the Yallingup Maze site directly for current hours and ticket prices. They update them seasonally and I won't quote numbers here that might be wrong by next year.

What I will tell you:

• Allow at least 90 minutes. An hour for the maze itself, half an hour for the puzzles, picnic, mini-golf, whatever's open the day you're there.
• Bring water and hats in summer. The hedges shade the paths but the carpark and picnic area are open.
• It's on Wildwood Rd, which is the back road off Caves Rd between Yallingup and Carbunup. The drive in is a proper rural Yallingup drive: paddocks, gravel verges, kookaburras. Sets the mood.
• Don't try to combine it with too much else in one morning. A maze, a cave, and lunch is a full day. Pick two.

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

This is the part most visitors don't plan and then ask me about when they walk into the gallery on the way back.

Lunch. The Yallingup Bakery is the no-fuss option. Lamonts at Smiths Beach or Lamont's Yallingup are the sit-down options, the latter being closer. If you've made it to lunchtime and the kids are still going, the bakery wins. If everyone's mellow, book Lamonts.

Beach. Yallingup Beach is fifteen minutes away. The lagoon at the north end is good for small kids. Smiths Beach is the bigger swim if everyone's confident in the water. Either way, you want a beach after the Maze. Sun + hedges + carpark is a thirsty combination.

Cave. Ngilgi Cave is the closest cave, ten minutes from the Maze. Cool inside on a hot day, warm on a cold one. The self-guided sections suit families well after the Maze because the kids have already done the running-around part.

Yallingup Maze and family lunch loop is the longer version, the full afternoon with cave and beach included.

Ngilgi Cave, the proper morning if you've not done a cave before.

I tell people the same thing I tell people about most things in Yallingup. Don't try to do everything. The Maze is the right activity for one of these slots:

• Mid-morning with kids, before lunch and the beach.
• Mid-afternoon on a hot day, when the beach is too bright and you want shade.
• Wet day, between the cave and a long lunch.

It's not somewhere I'd send a couple on an anniversary, or a serious surfer who's already got a swell forecast, or a buyer flying in for a single day to look at furniture. It's a domestic-pleasure activity. Good with kids, good when you're not in a rush, good for an hour and a half off the beach and out of the wind.

And the people who come into the gallery after it are usually in a good mood. That's all the recommendation I really need.

The gallery on Blythe Rd is about five minutes from the Maze. Wood fire in winter. Workshop viewing window year-round. Open seven days, ten to five. Google Maps sometimes misdirects via Wildwood Rd — stay on Bussell Hwy, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd.