Standing the test of time: vintage & retro gems

Whatever the reasons, Margaret River can be a walk back through time. Here, you’ll still find surfboard makers building boards just as they used to in the 70s: simple, solid, and made to last.

And if riding one doesn’t transport you back there, Aravina’s WA Surfing Museum History will. You can also take a tour in a classic car, just as honeymooners at Caves House have done for over a century. There are plenty of antique furnishings up at the hotel too if that’s your thing.

This region is a place where time can seem to stand still, much of the coast and country as raw and unchanged as ever. And embracing all these things retro and vintage, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve stepped back into another era.

Hero image: Tom de Souza

Bill Van Vliet began hitching rides to the beach with a couple of guys from the cricket club. A couple of years later he began shaping his own boards, buying foam surfboard blanks and watching and shapers like Cordingley brothers Rex and Colin work.

He’s been shaping for over 40 years now, and still utilises the methods he learned in those early days. He adds extra layers of fibreglass to his boards, which although he says make the boards slightly heavier and less manoeuvrable, ensures their strength and durability for years to come.

“I still glass the old-fashioned way. Lap the rails, six ounces on the bottom, twelve ounces on the top, with three layers of resin: laminating coat, filler coat, and then finish coat. A lot of people say my boards are heavier than boards off the rack, but that’s because I do it old-school, and I won’t compromise on that,” he says.

“We’ve got some of the biggest surf in the world on our coast. Boards snap like twigs in our surf. A new board is going to cost you upwards of $1000, I don’t want someone to pay that and have their board snap on their second or third surf.”

Bill also gifts some of his surfboards to the community, mostly to young up and comers trying to make their way onto the professional surfing circuit, or families having a hard time, he says.

“I’m fortunate that I’m in a financial position where I do it for fun. I don’t do it for profit. I like to think we have a bit of village community here, and boards get handed around. Kids competing who don’t have sponsors, kids from a broken or less fortunate family. Sometimes I’ll make them a surfboard, walk across the road, and give it to them. Where you can help you just give back.”

There is no greater image of vintage surfing than Volkswagen Kombis with surfboards strapped to the roof. Kombi Cruz offers chauffeur-driven tours in their fleet of impeccably restored 1960s Kombi buses, meaning you can tour the region in timeless fashion.

There’s Lola, the VW lowlight vintage Kombi; Blueberry Sam, a 1966 Samba with 23 windows and a panoramic sliding sunroof; and the DUBBUS, a VW Crafter that seats up to 11 passengers.

Kombi Cruz caters to various tour and transportation needs, ranging from lunch drop offs and pick-ups to full day tours and charter hire around the vineyards, and majestic coastal scenery and national parks.

For more ways to wheel it in style, Belair Affair’s classic 1964 Chevrolet Belair and Esquire Classic Charter’s iconic Silver Spirit Rolls Royce should be at the top of your list too.

Caves House is an institution in the Margaret River region and one of the first venues to put the region on the map.

Known colloquially as the ‘Grand Old Lady’ and established in 1903, it was initially a popular destination for honeymooners who would come and stay at the hotel and explore the nearby Ngilgi Cave, where for some, was the ceremony venue.

The hotel is heritage listed and pays homage to its past and celebrates the art-deco styling of the 1938 rebuild, with detailed interiors and uniquely styled spaces. Inside there are also plenty of images and artefacts displayed, which showcase the colonial history of the region.

A world-class winery and restaurant in its own right, Aravina is also home to the first official West Australian surfing museum, the WA Surf Gallery.

It features a raft of memorabilia, including classic surfboards from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, stories and memorabilia from West Australian surfing professionals Taj Burrow and Jake Patterson, and historical photographs from renowned surf photographers like Ric Chan and Greg Woodward.

The museum is a celebration of surf history in Western Australia, and the first official collection of surfing memorabilia in the state. Ideally located in one of the nation’s most iconic surfing locations, it is an ode to many of the vintage items that played a role in facilitating the growth and popularity of the region into what it is today.