Cruise into calm with Blackwood River Houseboats

Madly in love and surrounded by the water lapping gently against the boat, the only other sounds were the distant roar of the Southern Ocean, plopping fish and the occasional bird call.

“We were in love, it was gorgeous. We thought, why not bring this to the Margaret River Region. And so, we came and set it up here,” says Pam. “When you go to sleep at night, it’s just you and the river lapping on the boat and the stars. It’s deeply, deeply soothing.”

For millennia, the Blackwood River has been the lifeblood of the region. It is the largest river in the South West, and begins its journey in the Wheatbelt town of Wagin, winding its way through Boyup Brook, Bridgetown, and Nannup, to its final meeting place here, at the coastal waters of Augusta.

To the local Aboriginal people, the Pibulman Wadandi group, the river is known as Gurbillup Burle, and is believed to have been created by the Wagyl, a dreamtime serpent. It’s long been an important pathway for the Pibulman people, who followed its route between the inland areas of Nannup and the west coast, with ochre deposits and traditional meeting and marketplaces along its course.  It’s also been an important cultural boundary between tribal groups.

For the settlers, it has also been a source of water and sustenance for stock and crops.

Pam, a daughter of the Elders family and Bridgetown orchardists, spent wonderfully free time exploring along the banks of this iconic river, and jokes that she has “floated down the river a few kilometres.”

With the houseboat idea afloat, Pam and Jim set about obtaining all the permits. “There were a lot of stakeholders and compliances including eco-certification, which we were pleased and willing to undertake. We then commissioned the construction of our first houseboat, Storm, in O’Connor.”

“We set it up from the beginning as requested and it’s all clean and green and eco. Vessels are sealed, and nothing goes in the river. The swing moorings mean that guests aren’t slinging anchors all over the riverbed and we are happy for other rivercraft to use our moorings when we aren’t needing them.”

That first vessel Storm, was named after Pam and Jim’s first daughter. She is 14m long with a 4.5m beam on her aluminium hull and weighs around eight tonnes. They had it trucked down to the Ellis Street jetty down in Augusta, and put her in the water using a crane.

“The guy that built it was a yachtie. It’s got these really nice, soft boat lines. A nice cushion cocktail deck at the front with plastic pull-downs, and a really nice sitting area at the front. And down the back is a big barbeque deck, with a big swimming platform and a big top deck. So yeah, he did a nice design for us for sure.”

Two more houseboats and two more children followed. Each of the boats, Allira and River, were named after their kids.  The second vessel was a nice piece of history for them and was purchased from the houseboat operations on the Walpole Inlet.

Each of the vessels are equipped with galley kitchen, flushing toilet, heated shower, cabin heating, all linen, and barbeques. Included extras are kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, linen, and a motorised dinghy.

Guests board the houseboats from the operations centre at West Bay, where Pam and Jim give them a fully approved 45-minute induction of the boat and show them all the hazards. From there, you can take the houseboat up the river, and pick one of their 21 moorings in various reaches of the river.

“You pick the one you want and spend a few days up there. It depends on what you’re interested in. If it’s fishing, kayaking, if you want to be across from town. So we’ll give you an itinerary, based on what you want to do,” she says.

“Some love to fish for flathead or whiting or herring in the estuary there. We have had a really good crab season this year too, so there are crabs right up the river. You get people going right upriver too, for the wetlands and the birds and the bushwalks.

“The only way you can get to a lot of these places is by boat. That is what makes it so isolated and pristine.”

Back at the boat ramp after a few days, or sometimes even a few weeks, Pam often sees people return completely changed from how they left.

“It’s like dark sky therapy. When you go up the Blackwood, you’re completely immersed in nature. There’s no development up there and you get rocked to sleep,” she says.

“When you see people coming on, you see sometimes how wound up they are. They go up and come back and all of the tension is out of their face. They’ve just been at one with nature for three nights, and didn’t even realise how much they needed to stop.”