Travel: Kalbarri-Jurien, WA

By Tony and Denyse Allsop

The caravan parks at Kalbarri, WA, are normally full during winter, so we made sure to book a day ahead for Tudor Caravan Park. There is a lot for travellers in the area, including spectacular gorges, coastal scenery, lookouts, practically private beaches, a scenic river to explore or fish, many good walks and varieties of brilliantly-hued wildflowers.

During crayfish season, usually from November until the end of June you may tour the local crayfish factory or just watch cray boats negotiate the narrow and dangerous harbour entrance. Fishing is good from many places, although Red Bluff was my favourite spot. For oyster lovers the Back Beach, fairly close to Tudor Caravan Park, was our pick. All in all, we found enough to entice us to spend a week in Kalbarri.

Geraldton
We stayed at Belair Gardens Tourist Park, right on the beach and with access to the city. I also had time to wash the car and caravan, as Belair Gardens is one park that allows you to do this at no extra cost to your site.

The Batavia Coast is famous for crayfish, and most centres have a collection point or processing factory. You can purchase fresh fish, crays, scallops, etc, from the wharf. Not wanting to rush things, we stayed here for six days.

One day while on the beach near the lighthouse we sighted a sea lion surfing in on the waves. It came up the beach about 10 paces from us, gave a curious stare, then lay down on a thick patch of seaweed for a sleep in the sun. A couple of days later we went down at the same time, and exactly the same thing happened! This time I had my camera, and the sea lion let me get to within two metres. I didn’t push my luck, but I took a few pics and left it to enjoy the sun – they must be used to humans.

Wildflowers are in abundance here, and the old township of Greenough is worth spending some time viewing them. The town’s historic buildings were built of local stone in around 1860. While the restored hamlet is worth viewing, I enjoyed poking around many of the old buildings in the area that have been left in their natural state.

Ellendale Pool was on our agenda, and we had a picnic lunch there as part of a delightful drive in the country through lush, green fields, grazed upon by dairy cattle and sheep, with wildflowers growing on the side of the road.

Geraldton also has a world-class museum featuring local shipwrecks, including the Batavia, which suffered a mutiny of crew and passengers after being wrecked on the islands here. Don’t miss the Sydney Memorial, which looks out over the town and harbour.

Dongara/Port Denison
These twin towns were to be our next stop, where we stayed at the Dongara Denison Beach Caravan Park (Big 4). This park had one of the newest and cleanest amenity blocks we have come across, featuring piped music and with soap over the hand-basins, while a lot of sites had ensuites.

There was a gale warning while we were there, and our newly cleaned car and van were covered in salt spray. This park really is beachfront!

Once again there is an interesting walk among historic buildings, several beach walks with lookouts, a bird viewing area near the Irwin River, and the rock lobster (crayfish) factory. This region is dependent on the rock lobster industry and tourism.

While here we drove out to Mingenew (about 50km) and then a further 30km to Coalseam Park to view the wildflowers. This was to be one of Denyse’s highlights: the wildflowers were spectacular, covering the hillsides, road verges and paddocks. Wreath flowers were here also and the gorge at Coalseam is quite a sight. We had a picnic lunch near the creek at the bottom of the gorge and then went fossil hunting. We found several, including many shells and a strange bat-like creature. The drive in the country was pretty and we can recommend this trip.

By now it was nearing the end of August and Perth was still having dreadful weather, with storms, gale warnings, etc. Denyse and I had managed to keep just behind this, hoping to reach Perth in spring.

Jurien
We decided to base ourselves here, visiting the Pinnacles at Cervantes. Once again, this was an enjoyable drive: Jurien is only 27km from Cervantes (270km from Perth), the new highway passing through heathland and wildflowers while driving beside the coast.

The Pinnacles are in Nambung National Park, 17km from Cervantes, and are a must-see. They consist of many hectares of large limestone pillars rising out of shifting yellow sands, close to the coast. You may drive through them or leave the car at the ranger station and walk around.

Jurien is a bigger centre than Cervantes and we visited all the local attractions as well as Lesueur National Park from here. Jurien also has scenic beach walks, excellent fishing, etc, and our site at the caravan park was partly sheltered from gale-force winds by tamarisk trees. On our first night, two fronts went through, so we were forced to roll up the awning and lower the pop-top that night as we had around 100km/h winds and rain.

The following day dawned cloudy and windy, but the morning forecast predicted another front would pass through that night with worse weather, including a possible storm and hail. The TV weather report that evening for our area was for gales, rain and possible damage. A thunderstorm and hail was also forecast.

I had developed a cold and cough by now and felt miserable. Most of the day had been showery, so we had Happy Hour inside the van, rolled the awning up, as did others in the park, and closed the pop-top before retiring to bed. We had our van built with a high-line roof, enabling us to walk inside without bending when the roof is down.

The front came in at about midnight, with heaps of wind and rain but no hail. The storm blew until about 5.30am when the rain stopped. There was no real damage that I could see in our van park, however the morning news told of damage near Perth: trees down, roofs blown off, power off, 135km/h winds, and so on. The news also mentioned it was the second-highest recorded wind gusts in 10 years. One couple we met later that day told of a tree coming down over their caravan, blocking their doorway. They could not get out until a chainsaw was found to cut up the tree. Luckily they had very little damage and could continue their trip north. It certainly looked like we had caught up to the nasty weather!

Kalbarri-Jurien Fast Facts
Tudor Caravan Park (3.5-star): Kalbarri, (08) 9937 1077, fax (08) 9937 1720.
Belair Gardens Caravan Park (Big 4; 4.5-star): Geraldton, (08) 9921 1997, fax (08) 9921 1887.
Dongara Denison Beach Holiday Park (Big 4; 4.5-star): Port Denison, freecall 1800 600 776, fax (08) 9927 1902.
Jurien Bay Caravan Park (3.5-star): Jurien, (08) 9652 1595, fax (08) 9652 1595. Pensioner discount available.