Cape Leeuwin to Geraldton – Your Gateway to the Abrolhos Islands and Kalbarri
I’d been in Western Australia’s capital Perth for a couple of weeks and wanted to see more of the west. It wasn’t easy picking out-of-town excursions. Western Australia is huge, and east, south, north – each direction is so different from the others. One place I knew I wanted to visit was Cape Leeuwin in the south, where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet. So, I took a day trip, and while it was well-organized and covered all the high spots there and back, it was a heck of a long day, especially so because we – all of us – waited an extra half hour for the return of a couple who round-tripped the Busselton Jetty’s 1.84 kilometers against our driver’s explicit instructions (that’s more than two miles out and back).
Another place I visited was Guildford, a short local train ride from Perth, and a great place to stay for visiting the Swan Valley. I went twice – different years – and enjoyed the architecture, history (a docent in the Visitor Center made absolutely sure I saw all the exhibits), lovely strolls, and afternoon tea.
In any case, when I decided upon Kalbarri National Park and the Houtman Abrolhos Islands for my trip northward up the coast, I chose to stay in the small city of Geraldton. Staying in smaller cities is a great way to get to know another country or state better; and it would save me loads of time going back and forth from Perth. Staying in Geraldton turned out to be a great choice. See Around Geraldton – Kalbarri National Park, Houtman Abrolhos Islands, and Hunting Wildflowers for more info about the park and islands!
Geraldton is just over four hours from Perth by car or bus, or a short flight. Maps suggested all the in-town sights were walkable, so I flew and skipped the car hire. I don’t know whether this is still the case, but then, as our flight approached Geraldton, the cabin crew took a head count of passengers needing taxis. The flight crew called ahead, and the waiting taxi drivers identified us by seat number. Be attentive, and press the call button if asked, or you could be out of luck. I didn’t see another taxi until the one I’d arranged for ahead of time picked me up the day I flew back to Perth. Hailing a taxi on the street didn’t seem to be a thing in Geraldton. But it was OK; I had intended to be on foot.
Still, I’ve spent plenty of time in beach towns and should have known that a town right on the coast will spread along the shore. And Geraldton does spread. So, sometimes getting around, such as to the Museum of Geraldton, or to Priceline pharmacy on my shredded toes for more Elastoplasts (adhesive bandages), was a long hike. Still, a car wasn’t essential although I could have spent more time in the places I visited than in walking there and back; but this was kind of a split decision with myself – one side of me said car, the other side said no car. We see which side won, and I did get better at plotting routes, combining visits, learning the back ways, and discovering more about Geraldton. And think of all the steps I toted up.
Getting My Bearings
Because I planned to visit Geraldton on foot, before leaving Perth I picked a place to stay that looked close to what I thought of as center. It was generally central, but Weelaway House was closer to one edge of center, and most of my destinations were on the other edge, up the shore. Still, I enjoyed Weelaway, a comfortable, historic house (1862) in a real neighborhood.
When I arrived, check-in was DIY; I had clear instructions to access my key box as no one would be there to greet me the day I came. I found myself in a large parlor with my room just down the central hall. At Weelaway, we could make our own breakfast from bread, spreads, coffee and tea provided in the common kitchen, and we had the nice parlor for resting after a long walk, having a chat with other guests, or just getting out of your room for some space. When I met local people and they asked where I was staying, to a person they knew Weelaway. I was the only guest without a car during my stay. As other guests drove off for the day (some to their work sites – there are a lot of peripatetic people in the WA extractive industries), I slung on my backpack and tromped into town. Until I got my bearings, I found my way back home by looking for the huge date palms in the side yard.
In any town an obvious first thing to do is go to the local Visitor Centre, which was handily toward my end of town. And it was a good start in Geraldton – the staff were energetic and helpful, offering plenty of options even for pedestrians like me. I picked up a good map, booked a flight to the Abrolhos Islands and then went off to find food.
Eating Out
I never investigated Geraldton’s food scene, and didn’t even eat seafood, which seems dreadful. There are good seafood restaurants, so I suggest you be more wide-ranging in your dining than I was. But I enjoyed two good places I found early on, and so stuck with them, along with Woolworth’s for groceries. After all, I had a kitchen.
My first find was Café Fleur, a few blocks along Marine Terrace from the Visitor Centre. There was a crowd (good sign), and it looked comfortable. It was getting on toward early afternoon, and good thing I didn’t waste time getting there, because the café closed about the time my food was served, so watch the opening hours! My lunch salad was good, and a local couple I’d met earlier came over to say hello, which made me feel like I belonged in this place. I came back to Café Fleur for lunch another day, and once had a big, delicious breakfast there. Café Fleur gets good reviews online, and I recommend it.
Waiting for takeaway at The Provincial
The Provincial Bar was on “my” end of Marine Terrace, and it became my dinner place. This restaurant gets a nod in my Western Australia guidebook. I enjoyed having some wine while waiting for good casual food (pork tacos, creative pizzas), tried to make drawings of the eerie but droll graphics, and people watched. It’s a fun place. One night there was a band. Sunny. Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone. I liked the place, the food, and I knew the songs – that band was my era. I also caught lunch at a Jaffle Shack on the foreshore, a place with good sandwiches (jaffles) and coffee, that seemed to physically close like a suitcase at night.
Sights in Town
In Geraldton, I found a mix of well-known past events, such as the Batavia shipwreck (see Around Geraldton for more about the Batavia and Abrolhos), and less well-known but important local history, such as the old Victoria hospital, all in a pretty ocean setting close to spectacular nature. In town, I went to most of the pedestrian-accessible sights, and all were worth visiting. Sightseeing on foot was generally long, urban walking, not a stroll in the country, but only getting to the hilltop HMAS Sydney Memorial was a rigorous walk. Early on, I underestimated the duration of walks and too closely targeted the recurring tours at different sights. I’ll do this one at 10:30! And this one at 11:30! So, after a dash downhill from the Sydney memorial tour to the Museum of Geraldton Shipwrecks Gallery tour, I learned to spread out my visits.
Here are a few words about some of the places I visited – see websites such as visitgeraldton.com for more about the many local attractions and see my Around Geraldton for more on what I did in the environs.
Victoria Hospital
The HMAS Sydney Memorial commemorates the 1941 sinking off Western Australia of the light cruiser Sydney and the loss of its entire 645 crew, after an encounter with a German ship disguised as a Dutch merchant. The Memorial is high above town, a stop for the history and the views. I recommend taking the tour, especially for those of us not familiar with this episode in naval history. A follow-up visit to the Museum of Geraldton, with its Sydney-related exhibits, will close the circle.
The Museum of Geraldton is part of the greater Western Australia Museum. I found it excellent (and it has a good gift shop, too), with well-designed exhibits and a major exhibition about shipwrecks off the local coast, including the Batavia, the infamous Dutch East India Company ship that ran aground in the Abrolhos Islands in 1629. Take all the tours if you have time. I took the informative Shipwrecks Gallery tour, a well-delivered overview in a gallery full of remarkable artifacts. The HMAS Sydney exhibits, including videos, are moving. See Around Geraldton for more about the Batavia and Abrolhos.
The Victoria District Hospital was built in the late 19th century on Florence Nightingale’s principles with big windows and wide verandahs. It’s a lovely, airy building. There’s an interesting display created by former hospital nurses just inside. Nurses must have needed some muscles to lift that porcelain bedpan.
Here also, I suggest the guided tour. Former nurse Karen led my group and shared health stories along with anecdotes about the town’s history. For one: an early rat-eradication plan that offered a bounty for each dead rat was so successful that rats disappeared from the streets. Even so, they were still being brought in to collect the bounty. Karen said resourceful townspeople had started breeding them.
The hospital property also had a second life as a minimum-security prison. According to Karen, prisoners were treated so well that warders took roll four times a day to see if anyone had broken in, not out. The nearby Old Gaol is now a craft center where artisans work in the cells. Lots of lovely things to buy, but it would be difficult for me to work in a cell.
I visited two notable churches, the Catholic cathedral of St. Francis Xavier, and the Geraldton Anglican Cathedral. The more famous is St. Francis Xavier, built by priest-architect Monsignor John Hawes, but don’t neglect the Anglican church if you like architecture.
Msgr Hawes arrived in Geraldton in 1916 and started building. It took 23 years to build St. Francis Xavier, considered his greatest work. Unhappily for me, the church was in the midst of major renovation when I was there, so St. Francis Xavier’s exterior with its big dome and caramel-colored stone is all I saw. There’s a museum nearby, but I missed that as well because of bad timing, arriving on a closing day just before I left town town. Msgr Hawes is so well known that I suggest visiting the church, and the museum. Wish I had. Sometimes you just miss things.
The completely different Geraldton Anglican Cathedral is just up the street from St. Francis Xavier. Its appeal may be more subtle, but I found it an astonishing, coherent conception. It was built in the early 1960s, modernist in style – there’s nothing derivative here. The footprint is a star; the stained glass is original to the design and created in Western Australia; the baptismal font is shaped like a coffin to symbolize death and rebirth. Western Australia minerals are embedded in the altar. The church’s green-carpeted interior is a single, enormous space that I would imagine airy on a hot WA summer day. Or so I would hope. The church is a proud, modernist piece, an architectural statement as sure as Monsignor Hawes’s.
There’s always more to do
Now, when I look at Geraldton web sites, I wonder about some of the places in town that I didn’t visit. I never saw a play or went to the cinema; I see there is a hop-on, hop-off bus that I never used. But there was a lot to see in the vicinity, and you do what time allows. I did learn a lot about the region, met nice people, had a relaxing time, and maybe the best thing was leaving with good memories and the thought that some day, I might be back.
Trip date: 2017; updated 2025