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Mandurah River Trip

by The Probus Club of Fremantle WA Inc. | 03 Dec 2016

On a beautiful day 25 members and partners found their way to Mandurah by rail or private cars before boarding the boat. The writer holidayed there all of his life except for the 19 years that he lived there after retirement. In January 1937 when he turned 1 he had to give his dummy to the fish and crabs. Since then he has sought retribution on the dummy eaters by catching their future progeny.

 

Photo 1 shows the boat with the high rise behind where once stood the Peninsula Hotel. At weekends it would be overflowing with drinkers.

Photo 2 is the Entertainment Centre which has revolutionized the life of the residents with a vast variety of shows. Many other audience members come from the metro area due to the ease of parking and frequently lower costs. The area was once a swamp and a funfair was on the left.

Photo 3 shows the high rise in the centre and the Sebel Mandurah Hotel is to the right.

 

Photo 4 is a part of Dolphin Quays and has a mix of residential and commercial, including many restaurants which were very well patronized on the day. The complex has been built in the last 4 years. Dolphin Lagoon was an area dredged many years ago with the original Mandurah Sailing and Fishing Club the main users. In the redevelopment, a new facility was built for the Fishing Club and one of the largest boat shows in Australia is held there each October. The Fishing Club had new premises built at Halls Head. The very popular Council owned Peninsula Caravan Park was a casualty with the land being used for the redevelopment. Virtually all the land is used for retail at ground level and residential above.

Photo 5 shows the first developed commercial part of the Quays. There is a central “market” style area (with the higher roof) with a number of small shops inside. Around the exterior are many restaurants catering for all food styles and equally importantly, for all budgets. It is to these restaurants that we visited in our boat frequently. The front part is the eating area for Nino’s fish and chips and our boat took on our lunches there.

Each lunch was in a box as shown in Photo 6 and the organization was top class as our meals were steaming hot and very tasty. Drinks could be purchased on board. The Quays are the home of many services such as the Water Police, Voluntary Water Rescue, the Mandurah Fishing Club and hire boats. At the western end is a commercial fishing hub with Australian Rock Lobster being the main income. Residents legally have to expect noise from a working port.

Photo 7 is the War Memorial which was built adjacent to the old Beam Caravan Park. At dawn on Anzac Day the sun rays are parallel to the concrete risers and the rays illuminate them. The area is modern and has many informative plaques describing the various battles. There are many canal developments near and in Mandurah with the Port Mandurah in Photo 8 being about the best. Parry Developments bought the land from the Sutton Family for then (the 1950s) a huge amount of £1 million ($2 million). Now the average price of the larger home is $2 million. A design requirement is that the bottom story has to be able to be flooded without major damage should the water levels rise.

It was a wonderful day and was yet another example how the Outing Officers Megan and Eric arrange interesting days for our members.