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Published Aug 2024
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Travel & Touring| WA Destinations
11 July, 2023 By: Monique Ceccato
If you’ve seen many of the state’s finest natural wonders, maybe it’s time to seek out some of the best of the human-made.
There are few—if any—lists of ‘West Australian must-sees’ that don’t make mention of the brilliantly pink Hutt Lagoon and crest-shaped Wave Rock. Rightly so. They’re uncanny and unique natural occurrences. But, while mother nature puts on a show, the most impressive of the non-natural structures around WA can often get left in the shadows.
So we’re putting them in the spotlight.
These are some of the state’s most incredible human-made sights—the biggest, tallest, longest, and just downright most impressive—worth adding to your ‘must-see’ list.
RELATED:Top 20 must-see tourist attractions in WA »
1. Busselton Jetty, Busselton
Measuring just shy of 2km long, the Busselton Jetty is officially the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the ever-expanding 158-year-old pier hit its current length, but it’s maintained the title ever since.
Get your daily steps in with a walk out to the end, where you’ll find the revamped underwater observatory - it’s one of only six worldwide, and will reopen bigger and better than ever, sometime in early 2024.
An electric train runs the length of the jetty, too, ferrying passengers from shore to the observatory in 45 minutes. Bring your fishing rods and squid jigs with you, and you can throw a line in off the side at the far end or get your kicks jumping off the jetty closer to the beach end. There’s plenty to do on the nearby foreshore, too, with a large playground for the kids, Shelter Brewery for the adults, and an ice cream-selling kiosk for the whole family.
Accessing the jetty costs $4 per person, and return train tickets are an additional $16 per adult and $9.50 per child.
RELATED:Things to do in Busselton »
2. Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, Augusta
Just 30 minutes south of Margaret River in
, you’ll find mainland Australia’s tallest lighthouse.
The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse sits on the southwestern-most tip of the continent. Book a tour, and you’ll spiral up its 186 steps to the viewing platform at the top and see why this limestone tower played such a pivotal role in the region’s maritime history.
The rocky cape is some of the most rugged coastline in the South West, and the swell is almost always up. Back in 1895, when the lighthouse was built, vessels stood little chance of navigating their way through without it. Even now, some 100-plus years later, it helps to guide boats and ships around the cape safely.
Clamber back down the staircase and make a beeline for the old lighthouse keepers’ cottage, where stories of their life on the cape come to life through interactive displays. The centre is open daily from 9am to 4pm, closing only on Christmas Day. Access to the cottage is included in the tour tickets, or you can purchase grounds access tickets to explore the area around the lighthouse, the interpretive centre, and the cafe.
RAC members save 10% on tour bookings through ClubConnect.
3. Golden Pipeline, Perth to Kalgoorlie
In the gold rush era, Kalgoorlie was a mecca for panners and miners hoping to strike it rich; there was plenty of gold to go around. What the town lacked, though, was a decent water supply. That was until the construction of the 560km Golden Pipeline.
The ambitious Mundaring Weir to Kalgoorlie water pipe—considered a ‘scheme of madness’ by the naysayers —was built from 1898 to 1902 to service around 30,000 people. Now, the epic length of steel pipe has north-west offshoots and carries billions of litres of water annually to households, farms, and mines in the wider Kalgoorlie area.
Make your way to Kalgoorlie along the Great Eastern Highway, and you can drive right alongside this centenarian engineering feat. It’s a straightforward drive, but it’s worth studying the interactive Golden Pipeline trail map to discover interesting stops along the way. There are eight pump stations on the route, where water pumps upwards so gravity can take its course and the water flow to the next station along with umpteen natural lookout points, salt lakes, and national parks to visit.
4. Harold E Holt Naval Communications Towers, Exmouth
The Harold E Holt Naval Communication Station, along with its 387-metre-tall Tower Zero, is considered the most powerful transmission station in the Southern Hemisphere,
The community in the Ningaloo Reef region was established around the same time as the communication base was in 1967, to provide accommodation for the families of the US Navy personnel that had come out to operate the station. The station comprises 13 low-frequency towers, each over 300m in height.
These days, the town is a thriving holiday hotspot, and the joint Australian and American station 12km north of it is still very much functional. Though still operational, you can visit the site and wander the non-restricted areas to marvel at the towering human-made structures.
While you’re in town, there are a few natural wonders to add to the hit list, too. Halfway between the airport and town is the Coral Coast’s answer to the Grand Canyon, Charles Knife Canyon. And on the other side of the peninsula, the UNESCO World Heritage Ningaloo Reef brims with turtles, manta rays, and colossal whale sharks, all of which you can swim with. RAC members receive exclusive discounts on accommodation at
.
5. Lake Argyle, Kununurra
On first impressions, Lake Argyle seems a spectacular natural wonder. But the ‘lake’ isn’t technically a lake. It’s actually classified as an inland sea and is the result of human intervention when it was dammed in 1971 at the mouth of the Ord River. At its peak, the artificial body of water covers around 1000 km2 and holds up to 10.7 billion cubic metres of water; that’s 18 times more than Sydney Harbour’s capacity.
To grasp its true magnitude, take a scenic flight over the lake from Kununnurra. Its 70-plus islands and the odd freshwater crocodile are easy to spot from the air. Should you decide to drive out (with or without a boat in tow), it’s 75km from town on the Victoria Highway.
It’s a smart option for anyone who plans on spending some time at the lake, trying their luck fishing, going birdwatching, or jumping in for a swim. Though crocodiles are in the lake, it’s safe to swim in the deeper areas away from the lake’s edge.
6. Wellington Dam Mural, Collie
As far as dams go, Collie’s Wellington Dam isn’t on a scale that makes it particularly reputable, at least not like the Hoover or the Nurek Dam. Yet, it’s still up there on the world stage all thanks to muralist Guido van Helten. Back in 2021, the east coast artist spent four months on hanging rigs and abseiling lines, completing his mega-mural, Reflections, on the curved face of Wellington Dam.
The piece is enormous, covering roughly 8000m2 of the dam wall. No other dam-side mural comes close to the size of this one, making it the largest of its kind in the world. To see it in all its glory, head to the viewing platform at the base of the wall, a 2-hour drive from Perth, where you can buy a coffee and take your time in front of the giant artwork.
Van Helten’s piece is just one in a larger collection of murals around the Collie region. Approximately 45 works adorn the walls of stores, schools, and alleyways around the town centre, all of which are pinpointed on the comprehensive Collie Mural Trail map.
RELATED:Wellington Dam mural»
7. Lake Ballard Sculptures, Menzies
On its own, the 7km2 red and white marbled salt flat of Lake Ballard could be considered one of Western Australia’s great natural wonders. But it also makes the list as one of the great human-made wonders thanks to the large-scale outdoor gallery dotted around its expanse.
Fifty-one towering steel sculptures by British sculptor Sir Antony Gormley were installed in the now-dry lake in 2003, commissioned by the Perth International Arts Festival to celebrate its 50th anniversary. He modelled each piece from the body scans of a number of willing locals, making the artworks representative of the small but tight-knit community in this particular part of the outback. The gangly figures are an eerie sight in an otherwise desolate area, roughly 55km from Menzies and 150km from Kalgoorlie.
It’s a fair road trip from Perth, so break up the drive with a few days in Kalgoorlie, where you can see the gaping Super Pit gold mine and the Museum of The Goldfields. Before setting out on the drive to the lake, run through the road trip checklist and ensure you’ve packed the road trip essentials, as fuels and water stops are few and far between in the Wheatbelt.
Image credit: Tourism Western Australia
