Travelling with the family - Busselton and almost home

After leaving "Cow Town" on Sunday 13th December, we drove about 38km north to Busselton, one of the fastest growing towns in the area with about 30 thousand inhabitants.

Busselton

Busselton is known for having the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere, with 1,841mt. Although originally built with only 161 mt it had a couple of further extensions through the years.

The jetty was built over 150 years ago over the waters of Geographe Bay, and was refurbished a few years ago. There's a little train that rides all the way to the end, and at the end of the jetty is an underwater observatory.
The houses that can be seen on the photo are built 50mt offshore and are the visitor centre where you can buy your jetty tickets, a giftshop and a Cultural heritage Museum. Visit to these is free.

The long jetty can be clearly seen in this photo

The last time I was there was in 2008 with my daughter on one of her visits to Australia. The train wasn't in operation then, so we walked about half an hour each way and visited the underwater Observatory at the end of the jetty - I still remember it was a cold and windy August day (winter in Australia). You can see the train tracks behind my daughter and I on this next photo.

Busselton Jetty (photo taken in 2008)

The observatory is 8mt underwater accessed via a staircase and through the glass surround you can observe the fish circling the area - certainly a very interesting experience. 

Fees apply to just walk, ride or fish from the jetty, and there are fees for the train ride and for the entry to the Observatory.

Some of what we saw through the glass observatory in 2008

This time with my parents, I only managed to park the car quite far away from the jetty as there some sort of festivities taking place and the area was packed with people. We just didn't want to waste time as we wanted to be home before dark, so we just took some photos and got back in the car without visiting the jetty.