WA’s tourism was born in Margaret River’s caves

Adventurers might push further north as far as York, or maybe Bunbury or Geraldton, not sure there was much to see beyond.

In New South Wales, the discovery of limestone caves amongst the glorious wild scenery of the Blue Mountains was followed by the construction of a railway, the creation of good roads, boarding houses, hotels, and the famous Caves House at the Jenolan Caves.

With no tourist resort in sight, the West could not compete.

The Wadandi people always knew about the limestone caves in the South West. Though they didn’t live in them, the caves were sites of profound and sacred significance. Some caves had prominent mouths with high rock overhangs under which Wadandi people sheltered, for tens of thousands of years.

The scattered nineteenth-century settlers and timbermen came to know these caves too. Some openings were small holes hidden amongst the undergrowth, threatening to swallow unwatchful men and animals.

The caves were a local secret, treated mostly with nonchalance by the isolated pioneers. Plus, entry to the caves was best made with a flaming torch of Balga grasstree fronds, which blackened their interiors.

The cave near Wallcliffe House overlooking the Margaret River became a destination for Sunday excursions by Alfred Bussell’s family.

The eldest Bussell daughter Fanny wrote in her diary in 1877: “We went up to the cave for a picnic and cut our names in the rock, dear Mother’s and dear Papa’s and all the children’s.”

After Alfred Bussell died, his eldest son A.J. (Jack) Bussell was the first to recognise the potential of the caves for tourism. He advertised that visitors who were prepared to make the arduous journey could stay with him at Wallcliffe House, and he would take them to visit the caves.

Jack Bussell’s tourism venture failed. Wallcliffe was sold and Jack left for the Goldfields.

His sister Fanny pushed on with cave tourism, offering accommodation at her Burnside homestead near the Margaret River bridge.

Her farm labourer Tim Connelly offered Fanny’s guests spirited cave tours embellished by his Irishman’s imagination and charm.

A visit to the caves rewarded the adventurous traveller.

In the winter of 1898, Marmaduke Terry was doing survey work in the region.

He wrote to his boss, the Surveyor General, about the caves. He worried about their destruction and “the names of visitors being scrawled everywhere.”

Terry’s report found its way to Lands Minister George Throssell who concluded it wasn’t necessary to lock up the caves.

A senior lands officer, Charles Erskine May, was dispatched to inspect the Margaret River caves thoroughly.

No dull bureaucrat, he returned from Margaret River and declared the Margaret River Region would become the “foremost pleasure resort of the colony.”

He claimed that it was blessed with “almost every desideratum for a perfect holiday to please diverse tastes.”

He described and photographed nine caves, “so remarkable that if they were known they would become one of the famous tourist places of the Southern Hemisphere, if not the world .”

The ink was scarcely dry on May’s report when, yet another cave was identified by Europeans, this time further north, near a brook called Yallingup.

To its amazement, Western Australia had found itself blessed with natural wonders that were of world status.

In a storm of excitement, the government created a powerful Caves Board to oversee Western Australia’s first tourist attraction.

By-laws were promulgated to safeguard the caves. A giant land reserve was declared around them. A stiff penalty was introduced for those who “in any way injure vegetation” on the reserve.

Cave entrances were secured and caretakers with keys were appointed. Roads were constructed. Safe access and staircases were built. Lighting was installed.

At Yallingup, a ‘Cave House’ was erected. Maps and publicity photographs were distributed. A publicity movie was made and sent to London.

However, the government’s enthusiasm for the Margaret River caves did not come to be shared throughout the state.

On the Goldfields, miners argued the government was spending too much time and money on holes that had no minerals at their bottom. Farmers were dismayed.

A Geraldton man protested the Minister had done nothing to help settlers in his district. “Minister of Lands!” he scoffed, “It would be more appropriate to designate him Minister of Caves.”

Within ten years, the Caves Board was abolished. Government support dwindled and responsibility for the tourist caves was transferred to local governments before finally being handed over to the region’s tourism associations.

The region’s caves are enriched by legends of timeless worlds, uncharted country, extinct marsupial monsters, fairy grottoes, Wadandi custodians and spirits.

At Ngarlum Mia, a cave white men came to call Devil’s Lair, archaeologists found evidence of some of the earliest known human activity on the planet.

In the early twentieth century, the cave offered up 10,000 fossilised bones which were taken to the WA Museum. They included extinct creatures like a giant echidna and marsupial lion. The jawbone of an extinct half-ton Zygomaturus, a little terrestrial-like hippo, stays embedded in the cave wall today.

At Yallingup Cave (now Ngilgi Cave), the new Ancient Lands Experience, tells visitors in a very modern way about what used to be called Caveland.

The caves of the Margaret River Region are today under the careful curation of the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions and the MRBTA’s Capes Foundation.

To preserve them, most caves, including Devil’s Lair, are closed to the public. A selection of the most beautiful caves in this story of the beginnings of Western Australian tourism are open for today’s visitors.