Western Australia – Day 2 – Busselton Jetty & Underwater Observatory

The most talked about and justifiably famous places to visit in the small Western Australian city Busselton are its jetty and underwater observatory, both of which are pretty special places and relatively unique in this part of the world. The jetty extends just over 1.8KM towards the Indian Ocean, and the longest in the southern hemisphere but only the second longest-out in the world (behind a similar one in the United Kingdom that stretches 2.1KM). It’s also a pretty convenient place to visit, since it sits nicely between Perth and Margaret River.

The jetty was one of our stopover points in the 2003 trip with family, though the underwater observatory had just opened only that year. We didn’t get to that nor the tram connecting the two ends of the jetty on account that we only stopped by in Busselton for an hour before continuing on towards Margaret River. For this 2017 version, I allocated a much longer block of time – 4 hours – to spend in the area. The drive from Fremantle, with a quick stopover in Bunbury for coffee, was easy and took just about 2 hrs 45 minutes and covering 220km, though we took the faster Kwinana Freeway route than the more scenic Old Coast Road.

Busselton also looked a lot different than I remember it from 2003 – as in a lot more built-up. It’s of course not as dense as a typical metropolitan city, but there were obviously lots more eateries, restaurants, cafes, and suburban homes in the town now.

The family package for the Jetty & Underwater Observatory was AUD88, which included admission prices for 2 adults and 2 children for the tram ride and also Observatory. The tram plods along steadily for 15 minutes, and offers plenty of opportunities to observe the waves and different amenities and activity points along the way. There’s also an informative cardboard map that provides loads more, though I reckon few persons would actually take the time to read it! We arrived just past ten in the morning and opted for the 11AM departure, with the entire back and forth taking 1 hr 45 minutes. There were quite a few visitors, though not to the volume where trams get choked (there were still several empty carriages both ways of the jetty) – though a postcard we saw at the souvenir shop showed how crazily crowded this spot can be: it looked like a place right out of Chinese New Year shopping @ Chinatown LOL.

The Observatory is also quite special, since it offers viewers a view all 8 meters down to the sea level and beneath the jetty. Many of us see marine life only in aquariums, but this was pretty much the real deal. Waters were somewhat murky though, but we saw enough to really provide us a good sense of the life that teems even in shallow sea waters. Ling, being the nature lover she is, probably got more out of the Observatory than all of us did!

There are several eateries and restaurants surrounding the jetty, and we opted for Fish & Chips quick bites again before continuing on our way with a quick fuel-stop and then another 145km to Pemberton.