Busselton, the Jetty and the Underwater Observatory

Busselton is referred to as the premier holiday destination for WA in loads of the information brochures. I think that's because of the direction the beach faces, so it is very sheltered from the almost constant (at this time of year) winds. All I knew about Busselton is that it has the longest timber jetty in the Southern Hemisphere and an Underwater Observatory at the end. I don't want to offend or upset anyone but I don't see why it is quite so wonderful and why the caravan parks ask so much. It is a nice enough town, but I didn't find it as pretty or as appealing as some other places we have seen or stayed on our travels. We didn't have swimming weather so we didn't get to enjoy the beautiful beach/bay, so perhaps that clouded my impressions a bit.

The accommodation at Busselton is very expensive, with most of the numerous caravan parks wanting over $65/night for us to stay, and one wanting $89/night. Admittedly it does look pretty special with its 3-4 pools, one of which is heated and one with a giant waterslide, but we aren't on holidays and that was way too rich for us! We headed slightly out of town to stay at the Adventist Camp. It is just like a caravan park but without all the bells and whistles, but the showers were hot (although they do have a 5 minute timer!) and we had power and water, the kids had a playground and it's right on the beach.

Given that all I knew about Busselton was the long jetty and Underwater Observatory, we had to do both of those. The ticket for the Observatory also includes a ride on the train along the jetty, which of course made Rory's day. The train is pretty cool and it was much nicer to catch that than try to walk the 1.8km jetty with Rory, especially as it only has a rail on one side. Rory also has a tendency to just stop walking when he's had enough and I think Greg or I would have had to carry him most of the way.

I loved the Underwater Observatory. I just love reefs and the fish they attract. The jetty is so long because Geographe Bay is so shallow. At 1.8km out from shore it is still only 8m deep. The jetty pylons are covered in coral, sponges etc and there are so many pretty and colourful fish that swim amongst them all. We saw quite a lot of fish, a starfish, crabs and an octopus. The octopus was pretty hard to spot, and the young lady running our tour pointed him out to us. There are windows at 4 different levels of the Observatory so you can see the differences in plant and fish species as you descended to the sea floor.

Sydney 3328km away

And this is just for Tilda to remember: the Busselton Maccas has a very awesome playground. I've got to admit, I wished I were a kid again so I could go and play in it. The half-clear slides were pretty cool and pretty fast.