In 1840, one John Wellstead arrived in Western Australia as a member of the 51st Regiment of the British Army. Following his discharge he decided to make his home in the new colony of WA, and, after being involved in a number of various enterprises, including operating a buggy run and the supervision of building construction, he moved to the Bremer Bay area.
Here, in 1850, he began the construction of what was to become the family homestead, 'Peppermint Grove', a task he completed in 1857. John was indeed a handy lad. With his wife Ann and their twelve children (no TV in those days) the redoubtable John W then established a dairy of 70 cows (hand milked daily), grazed sheep and cattle on the lands of the Point Henry Peninsula, and surrounded the homestead with extensive and productive fruit and vegetable gardens. The family thrived, and members of the fourth generation of the Wellsteads still live at Peppermint Grove, where they have opened, and run, a museum and cafe-restaurant.
The extensive buildings of Peppermint Grove had humble beginnings....this is the original cottage...something of a 19th Century version of the tin garage being the first building on the holiday house block!
A mere 4 kms from the town of Bremer Bay, this marvellous collection of well restored buildings provides a real insight into the life of this remarkably self-sufficient and enterprising family.
For many,many years, the Wellstead family were the only European folk living in the Bremer Bay area.
The extensive buildings on the property were built from local stone and lime. Apart from the quality of their construction, they retain a real charm,
The saddlery, carpenter and blacksmith shop was the hub for much of the construction work.
A little further on and the museum/restaurant building comes into view.
Entry is gained through the al fresco dining area
and the sliding door with a request which bears testament to one very determined bird. The demanding maggie was nowhere to be seen on the occasion of our visit, but this is clearly the exception.
And this is obviously a discerning bird. As I said previously, in addition to visiting the museum (of old farming and other bits and pieces....of interest to some)
and an adjacent selection of vintage vehicles,
visitors can avail themselves of a fine luncheon, and, on Saturday evenings, great wood oven pizzas.
But also, from Wednesday to Sunday, freshly baked bread is on offer, direct from the renovated ovens of Peppermint Grove. The 'light German rye' was our favourite for reasons I'll share later. We didn't manage a pizza night, but by all accounts they are equally tasty. No wonder the magpie makes determined efforts to scrounge a scrap or two.
We cannot leave this delightful monument to the extraordinarily enterprise of John Wellstead and his family without pausing to view one of the original mulberry trees, or more to the point, the accompanying sign. Dare we guess that this venerable fruit tree has been the subject of some significant visitor interference from time to time? What a wonderful play on words. (I refuse to believe it is a mere spelling error...that would have attracted too much criticism!)
Peppermint Grove lies on the Point Henry Peninsula which forms the southern and western boundary of Bremer Bay. Here many of the Bremer Bay beaches are to be found. These featured significantly in the activities of your scribe, so let's take a quick (ish) tour before we head back into town.
The first on the agenda, just beyond the Wellstead Museum, is the previously mentioned Fishery Beach boat harbour, here pictured looking across the basin from a different angle.
At this point in our tour, I invite you to take note of the point of the rock wall just to the left of the hull of the red fishing boat. This became a real feature of our visit (well, mine really).
Further south along the peninsula, and still facing east out into Bremer Bay, the white sands of Short Beach beckon.
A reef ledge runs the length of Short Beach, at the southern end of which is a break in the continuity of the rock. I was told that this is 'skippy' (trevally) heaven at first light, but sadly I could not rouse this ageing body to the challenge (this may well have been a direct result of the very active social scene at Bremer Bay about which I shall chat more)
Some 5 kms or so further to the south, and now on the opposite side of Point Henry Peninsula where the beaches face westward, we leave the bitumen and head down a dirt track where the vista of Little Boat Harbour lies before us.
From this same point, looking through 90 degrees to the right, glimpses of Native Dog and Blossoms beaches can be seen, the next on our morning's touring agenda.
Little Boat Harbour beach is a local favourite for both swimming and fishing, and, as the name suggests, does allow for the launching of small craft off the beach (not when the westerlies are blowing, I might add). I had been told of whiting which lurked in these waters....there were none there the day I tried!
From here we backtracked to the other side of the headland and down the sealed section of road to Blossoms where the huge sandhills which back Dillon Beach on the eastern side of Dillon Bay gleam in the distance.
The comfort of the bitumen soon comes to an end, but who cares when views like this are on offer (with apologies for the intrusion of the end of one of my larger fishing rods on the roof rack..an unplanned addition to the shot!)
The beach entrance road looks more challenging than it is as it winds its way past more of the ubiquitous sandhills of this area
and along the last soft section of track
which provides access to the wide, flat and hard expanses of Blossoms Beach, the largest on the peninsular. For those game enough to take up the challenge and belt through the final sandy section, this beach is firm enough for conventional vehicles, but like all such playgrounds, it pays to keep an eye on the tides. Sitting in a bogged vehicle as the sea swirls saltily around the mudguards is nothing if not embarrassing (and bloody expensive).
All of these beaches are sheltered within headlands at either end, and, beyond that which marks the northern end of Blossoms Beach lies one of the most well known of all the Point Henry Peninsular bays....Native Dog Beach.
We left the cruiser in car park above the beach and
wandered down the short track to a viewing platform.
From here we could see that Native Dog is a beach of a very different ilk to its two immediate neighbours and the reason for its popularity was immediately obvious.
This is a serious surfing beach, where the breakers rolling in from the south across Dillon Bay provide real sport for those devoted to maintaining some semblance of balance and dignity astride small fibreglass planks. The expanse of Dillon Beach itself, on the far side of the bay, can just be seen in mid shot. This is another very long stretch of sand, quite accessible by 4WD, and, as this photo filched from the Internet shows, can be very popular, particularly in the small area directly at the end of the entrance track.
This is another view of Dillon Beach, complete with the sandhills at its southern end, taken from a lookout hill on the peninsula. As I said before, it goes on and on, like so many of the beaches of this section of the south coast.
Apart from providing access for fishing and swimming, the beach tracks and the sandhills, gullies and scrub which surround them, are a real mecca for 4WD enthusiasts. The only problem for us, however, is that many of these tracks are very narrow. The concept of the cruiser returning to camp scratched along both sides from one end to the other was never going to win any votes. I must say I didn't fully agree with the co-pilot's comment,"It's just another beach", but did have to concede that there are some things to be had in life for which the price is too high. So, for us, Dillon, Stream and Fosters beaches were off the agenda.
And, I suspect, dear reader, that you too may be reaching the end of your 'beachy tether'. Patience....but one to go.
Returning along the peninsular, and quite close to the Bremer Bay township, is a turn off which is signed as leading to the town cemetery, and indeed it does, but it also leads to Back Beach.
As the name suggests, this beach is virtually behind the town. And there, on the ridge, is the wind farm turbine, which indicates how close it is to the Bremer metropolis. Back Beach is notorious for bringing to their driving knees those who ignore the 'soft sand' warning notices. This is one Bremer beach on which one ventures with any form of motorised transport at one's peril....the sand, even close to the water's edge, can be like a quagmire. On one occasion whilst fishing here (and it is very good for this), I watched with bemused delight as a group of hopefuls in a small 4WD become hopelessly bogged a mere 100 metres or so from the entrance track. And no, I didn't offer to help dig them out....stupidity may be contagious.
All that now remains in this sandy scurry is to explore the beach on which Liz and I walked for many kilometres on many different occasions.....the aptly named Bremer Main Beach which can be accessed by vehicle and on foot across the very firm sands of the landlocked section of the Wellstead Estuary.
But let's leave that for another day. It is a 'beach too far' at this point, even for your dedicated scribe for whom the Surf Lifesaving slogan 'Life is a Beach' is indeed a truism.
This is another view of Dillon Beach, complete with the sandhills at its southern end, taken from a lookout hill on the peninsula. As I said before, it goes on and on, like so many of the beaches of this section of the south coast.
Apart from providing access for fishing and swimming, the beach tracks and the sandhills, gullies and scrub which surround them, are a real mecca for 4WD enthusiasts. The only problem for us, however, is that many of these tracks are very narrow. The concept of the cruiser returning to camp scratched along both sides from one end to the other was never going to win any votes. I must say I didn't fully agree with the co-pilot's comment,"It's just another beach", but did have to concede that there are some things to be had in life for which the price is too high. So, for us, Dillon, Stream and Fosters beaches were off the agenda.
And, I suspect, dear reader, that you too may be reaching the end of your 'beachy tether'. Patience....but one to go.
Returning along the peninsular, and quite close to the Bremer Bay township, is a turn off which is signed as leading to the town cemetery, and indeed it does, but it also leads to Back Beach.
As the name suggests, this beach is virtually behind the town. And there, on the ridge, is the wind farm turbine, which indicates how close it is to the Bremer metropolis. Back Beach is notorious for bringing to their driving knees those who ignore the 'soft sand' warning notices. This is one Bremer beach on which one ventures with any form of motorised transport at one's peril....the sand, even close to the water's edge, can be like a quagmire. On one occasion whilst fishing here (and it is very good for this), I watched with bemused delight as a group of hopefuls in a small 4WD become hopelessly bogged a mere 100 metres or so from the entrance track. And no, I didn't offer to help dig them out....stupidity may be contagious.
All that now remains in this sandy scurry is to explore the beach on which Liz and I walked for many kilometres on many different occasions.....the aptly named Bremer Main Beach which can be accessed by vehicle and on foot across the very firm sands of the landlocked section of the Wellstead Estuary.
But let's leave that for another day. It is a 'beach too far' at this point, even for your dedicated scribe for whom the Surf Lifesaving slogan 'Life is a Beach' is indeed a truism.
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