D is for DUNSBOROUGH

Wikepedia tells us that DUNSBOROUGH is a coastal town in the South West of Western Australia, 254 kilometres (158 miles) south of Perth on the shores of Geographe Bay.  It is a popular tourist destination for Western Australians and has in the past been voted the State's best tourist destination.

Many years ago we had several wonderful holidays when we rented an old holiday house (similar to the one shown below) right on the shore, with our 3 eldest granddaughters and on one occasion I holidayed there with my daughter-in-law and her 2 year old daughter.  All were fun times.

In those days Dunsborough was a much less sophisticated town but since that time it has developed and become much more affluent.   It is very popular with 'schoolies' each year as is Rottnest Island.

MOH and I camped at the Mandalay Caravan Park several times (our tent was similar to this one):

and and on one occasion stayed in one of their comfortable chalets:

Dunsborough is named after the nearby Dunn Bay, which was named after Captain Richard Dalling Dunn under whom Governor James Stirling had served in the "Hibernia" and the "Armide" in 1810-11. Land for a townsite was set aside in the late 1830s, and there is a recorded whale fishery at "Dunsbro" in 1850.  When the town first appeared on a map in 1839 it was spelt "Dunnsbro" but the extra "n" seems to have disappeared by 1850, and the spelling of "bro" amended to "borough" when the name was gazetted in 1879.

There are many sights to be seen around Dunsborough and places of interest to visit.  There are walk trails through the beautiful countryside and accommodation of all types is available.

Unfortunately I was unable to find many photographs of the area but I managed a few so will share them here: (thanks to the westernaustralia-travellersguide.com and Australian Explorer)

Castle Rock:

Coastline near Dunsborough:

Fishing off the rocks:

A scenic stroll along the ocean front:

The Meelup trail has a lot to offer:

Cape Naturaliste lighthouse, only 13km from Dunsborough:

The lightbouse received an award of excellence recently:

When you round the corner from the lighthouse there are are beautiful views of the western coastline of W.A:

I know we will not holiday at Dunsborough again but it has so many happy memories of the holidays we had there over the years.  Our granddaughters still often talk about the great times they enjoyed holidaying with us all those years ago.