Where to Stay in Bunbury, State of Western Australia

What is Bunbury known for?

The Dolphin Discovery Centre works the shoreline trade, and visitors come to Bunbury for the animals in the water before anything else on the list. Marlston Hill Lookout gives the wide view down over the city and the water. St Patrick's Cathedral marks the civic ground, and King Cottage keeps a smaller, domestic record of the town's early years.

What are the main landmarks in Bunbury?

Marlston Hill Lookout is the standard first stop, high enough to place the whole city and its shoreline in one look. The Dolphin Discovery Centre handles the animals. St Patrick's Cathedral holds the built centre, while King Cottage, Clifton Residence at Rathmines and the House at 10 Turner Street cover the smaller heritage end of the list.

House 11 Shenton Street sits over in East Bunbury.

What is the history of Bunbury?

Bunbury was founded in 1836, early in the European settlement of Western Australia. The site was coastal from the first. A settlement placed on the shoreline south of Perth had the water for its trade and the beach for its front door, and the town grew along that line rather than away from it.

King Cottage survives as a small dwelling kept for the record of ordinary life in the town. Clifton Residence at Rathmines and the House at 10 Turner Street belong to the same heritage roll, along with House 11 Shenton Street in East Bunbury. The church record runs alongside it.

St Patrick's Cathedral, also carried on the register as St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral, anchors the civic blocks and gives the centre its one unmistakable outline. Bunbury grew into the third-largest city in Western Australia, behind Perth and Mandurah, without ever leaving the coast it was placed on. Tourism came to rest on the water as well, and the Dolphin Discovery Centre gave that side of the town a permanent address on the shoreline.

Marlston Hill Lookout reads the whole story at once, the water, the built ground and the low country behind.

Where is Bunbury?

Bunbury holds a low stretch of the Western Australia coast, with the ocean on one side and the flatter country running back inland behind the suburbs. Marlston Hill Lookout tops the one real rise. East Bunbury spreads inland from it.

Perth stands well up the coast to the north, and the water fixes every edge of the city that matters.

What is the climate of Bunbury?

Bunbury's calendar has two settings rather than four. Summers on this part of the Western Australia coast run dry and warm, with the southern-hemisphere season peaking when the northern half is deep in winter. Wet months arrive at the other end of the year, and the onshore wind off the water keeps the hottest stretches shorter here than they are inland.

Frost is not a Bunbury problem.

How do you get to Bunbury?

Perth is where the trip starts for most. The road south from Perth runs down the Western Australia coast and ends at Bunbury. East Bunbury lies just inland of the centre.

Inside Bunbury the distances stay short, with Marlston Hill Lookout, St Patrick's Cathedral and the Dolphin Discovery Centre all within a brief run of one another.