WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Western Australia - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Western Adventures | |||||
| By: Cameron Wilson, Issue 40 – Spring 2009 | |||||
| (Western Australia, Australia) | |||||
| DIVING THE WRECKS AND REEFS, AND TRAWLING THE WINES AND CUISINE REVEAL THE BEST OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S ADVENTUROUS AND INDULGENT SOUTH. | |||||
| In the southwest of WA, an area blessed with magnificent beaches and some of Australia’s most famous wineries, it isn’t easy for one town among many to get noticed. In 1997, in what could be best described as an inspired piece of tourism promotion, the folk of Dunsborough took possession of a retired navy ship, towed it into a nearby bay then blew a hole in it and sank it onto the ocean floor. After being decommissioned in 1996, the Destroyer Escort HMAS Swan became the first Australian Navy ship to be scuttled as an artificial reef. The beauty of engineering your own shipwreck is that most wrecks occur in waters hazardous to ships and divers alike; the Swan’s final resting place, in Geographe Bay at a depth of 30 metres, offers comfortable diving conditions almost year-round. After stepping off the dive boat’s transom, our group of five descended to the top of the ship’s tower at six metres depth. Heading to the bottom, we swam the length of its 113- metre hull. Each hatchway we passed teemed with ‘bullseyes’, their iridescent scales creating a shimmering curtain of red that parted as we poked our flashlights into a cutaway section of the stern. Adjusting to the restricted space inside the ship, I developed a knack of settling onto my knees while examining one compartment before launching myself like an astronaut through a hatchway into the next. Finning through the crew’s sleeping quarters I came upon a sombre row of stainless steel toilets: in a ship stripped bare before being consigned to the deep, they seemed a poignant symbol of human habitation. The appearance as we ascended of an inquisitive young seal was a reminder that Geographe Bay’s vast seagrass beds attract seals, dugongs and hundreds of fish species to these sheltered waters that are today home not only to the Swan, but also to an entirely different kind of artificial reef. Busselton Jetty is, at almost two kilometres in length, the longest timber structure in the southern hemisphere. This oddity alone draws plenty of local and overseas visitors, but as with matters of the heart and the devilry of politics, the real intrigue is in what lies beneath. Just below the water’s surface, colourful sponges and corals cling to the jetty’s pylons while giant barnacles use their tiny feelers to extract nutrients from the water as it surges and swirls around the creaking timbers. Fish congregate in their hundreds around the jetty’s underwater observatory – no doubt fascinated by the strange creatures milling about in what to them must look like a human terrarium. I followed, from window to window, a fluttering leatherjacket, its progress interrupted by a cormorant plunging from the jetty to try its luck among a school of yellowtail. Having initially planned to dive the jetty, I was pleased to discover that the underwater observatory allows many more people than just the scuba-inclined to have a close-up experience of the marine life in Geographe Bay. There is no shortage of accommodation options in Busselton and Dunsborough, but drive just a few kilometres further and you get to Smiths Beach Resort, a recent addition to the Small Luxury Hotels of the World (opened December 2007). From a fourbedroom beach house to a two-bedroom beach ‘shack’, the resort offers a variety of apartment and villa configurations that can cater equally well for canoodling couples and frolicking families. Connor Martin is proprietor of the resort’s Wine Deli, where you can assemble a cache of cheeses, olives, smoked meats and other nibbles along with a decent bottle or two. The excellent local plonk is well represented, although as Connor has applied his own catholic tastes to the wine selection, you’ll also find NZ and Tassie pinot noir, some hefty Victorian cabernet sauvignon, shiraz from the Barossa and Clare valleys, a few international wines and even a range of bubbly. All the resort’s rooms have fully equipped kitchens and barbecues; it’s a 15-minute drive to Dunsborough, which has two supermarkets, an excellent butcher and one of WA’s most famous bakeries. Pick up some ‘roo fillet and salad fixings and you’re set to occupy your ocean-view balcony as the sun drops into the sea. If you’d rather someone else do the food prep, the resort’s Bathers Restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But for the region’s finest lunch experience, a visit to one of the much-lauded Margaret River winery restaurants is a must. Cullen, Moss Wood, Leeuwin Estate, Voyager and Driftwood are among the notables, but leader of the pack is undoubtedly Vasse Felix, which gets a guernsey among Australia’s Top 100 restaurants in the 2009 Australian Gourmet Traveller restaurant guide. I could have happily lunched on the homebaked sourdough bread and a glass of Vasse Felix’s much-awarded 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and nothing else had a fat, lightly grilled fillet of snapper not appeared in front of me. Chef Aaron Carr then sent out his exquisite ‘Chocolate Three-Ways’, comprised of a sliver of chocolate torte with firm cream and crystalline chips of almond praline, a crunchy chocolate baklava cigar topped with a wisp of candy-floss, and a mix of macerated berries teamed with a tiny ice-cream cone filled with white chocolate parfait. Were you not returning, post-lunch, to Smiths Beach Resort, you might with any luck be staying at Injidup Spa Retreat, five minutes’ drive away and with its own impossibly perfect location above Injidup Bay. Opened in April 2008, the retreat has ten exclusive villas from whose bedrooms and plunge pools guests can spot whales or watch the sunset without so much as lifting their heads – now that’s how to revel in the splendid isolation of WA’s magnificent southwest. | |||||
| Details: | |||||
| Smiths Beach Resort | |||||
| Injidup Spa Retreat | |||||
| Vasse Felix, restaurant | |||||
| Cape Dive | |||||
| Busselton Jetty Underwater Observatory | |||||
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