For many people, Margaret River is the most complete destination in south-western Australia. Within a few kilometres you'll find more than 200 world-class wineries and cellar doors, surf beaches that host pro tour events, limestone caves with ancient stalactites, towering karri forests and a wild coastline where you can see whales. It's a region to take slowly: drive the country roads between the vineyards and leave every tasting with a smile.
Wine is what it's famous for (the region produces just 1% of Australia's wine but around 20% of the country's premium wine), but Margaret River is much more than wineries. This is Wadandi land, home of the "saltwater people" of the Noongar nation, who have lived on this coast for tens of thousands of years and for whom the caves hold deep spiritual meaning. It's also a place for surfers, gourmet producers, cheesemakers, craft brewers and chocolatiers, in a landscape that runs from the Indian Ocean to the inland forests.
This guide covers the best of the region with a practical eye: which wineries and caves to visit, the impressive Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse where two oceans meet, the best beaches and surf spots, when to see whales, how to get there from Perth and how to get around. Ideal for a 2- to 4-day getaway combining good wine, good food, nature and the sea.
The Margaret River region is Wadandi Boodja, the Country of the Wadandi people (the "saltwater people") of the Noongar nation. They have lived in the south-west of Western Australia for tens of thousands of years, and the many limestone caves hold deep spiritual value for them. European settlement began with the founding of Augusta in 1830, when the Bussell and Molloy families landed. Alfred Bussell set up the Ellensbrook dairy farm in 1857 and later Wallcliffe. In December 1876, Grace Bussell and Aboriginal stockman Sam Isaacs became famous for rescuing survivors from the steamer Georgette. From the 1870s the region lived off grazing and karri and jarrah logging. Margaret River town was surveyed in 1912 and officially gazetted in 1913. The wine industry only began in the 1960s and 70s, when climate studies showed the area was ideal for premium grapes, and today it is one of the most prestigious wine regions in the world. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Australia's largest state, covering almost a third of the continent: the ancestral land of the Noongar people and dozens of desert nations, colonised from the Swan River Colony in 1829, transformed by Kalgoorlie gold and today a global iron ore powerhouse. Its capital, Perth, is the most isolated major city on the planet.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Long before there were wineries, show caves or surfers, this strip of coast between the Indian and Southern Oceans already had owners and a name: it was, and still is, Wadandi Boodja, the country (boodja) of the Wadandi people. The Wadandi, whose name is usually translated as "saltwater people", are one of the groups of the great Noongar nation, which covers the whole south-west of Western Australia, from near Geraldton to beyond Esperance. The Noongar have lived in this region for tens of thousands of years. Archaeological estimates point to a continuous presence of at least 45,000 years, making theirs one of the oldest living cultures on the planet.
Traditional Wadandi life was organised around the six Noongar seasons (not four, as in the European calendar), each linked to particular foods, movements and ceremonies. Family groups moved semi-nomadically across specific stretches of country, from the coast to the forest, following each season's resources: fish, shellfish and seals from the sea; zamia, tubers, game and honey inland. Controlled burning of the bush, known as "fire-stick farming", was a key tool for renewing the land and making hunting easier. Over thousands of years it shaped the landscape that the Europeans took to be "untouched" when they arrived.
For the Wadandi, the coast was never just a resource. It was a web of spiritual meanings handed down from the Dreaming (the time of creation). Their stories explain where the rivers, capes and seasons came from, and they set out how people, animals and the land relate to one another. Wadandi descendants still keep that connection alive today and run guided tours of their country, where you learn to read the landscape (the plants, the tracks, the sea) through the eyes of a culture thousands of years old.
Beneath the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge, which runs the full length of this coast, lies one of the richest limestone cave systems in Australia: hundreds of caves formed over millions of years, with stalactites, underground rivers and chambers that thousands of visitors now explore. For the Wadandi people, these caves were never a geological curiosity. They are deeply sacred places, and some traditions see them as the passage to the afterlife, the place the spirits of the dead pass through.
The most famous of them, Ngilgi Cave (near Yallingup), takes its name from a Dreaming legend. The story goes that an evil spirit called Wolgine was terrorising the people until the good spirit Ngilgi took him on in a fierce battle fought in and around the cave. Ngilgi won, drove Wolgine out and left the place under his protection. Stories like this show that, for the Wadandi, the landscape was never neutral: every formation had an explanation, a moral and a spiritual owner.
Archaeology has confirmed just how long people have been coming to these caves. In Mammoth Cave, further south, fossils of extinct megafauna (giant animals from the Pleistocene) were found alongside evidence of very ancient human activity. This has made the region a key site for understanding how the first Australians lived alongside those vanished animals. Visiting these caves today, with an audio guide and boardwalks, also means stepping into a place that was, and still is, sacred to First Nations people, so it's worth going through with respect.
European colonisation of the south-west came only a year after the Swan River Colony (Perth) was founded in 1829. In 1830 a group of settlers landed at the mouth of the Blackwood River and founded Augusta, at the southern tip of what is now the Margaret River region. Among them were two families who would shape the area's history: the Bussells and the Molloys. The Molloys were led by Captain John Molloy and his wife Georgiana Molloy, who is remembered as one of Western Australia's first botanists. She collected and catalogued the native flora of the south-west for English scientists.
Life in Augusta was extremely hard. The karri and jarrah forest was almost impenetrable, the soil was hard to work and the isolation was extreme. Many settlers ended up moving north to better land near Busselton (Vasse). Alfred Pickmore Bussell, who had arrived as a teenager in 1830, married Ellen Heppingstone, who was born in Augusta, in 1850. In 1857 the couple settled at Ellensbrook, beside a creek near the coast, to set up a dairy farm. Ellensbrook, now cared for by the National Trust, had been a Wadandi summer camp for generations, a detail that sums up the clash between two ways of living in the same country.
A few years later, around 1855-1865, the family built Wallcliffe House above the Margaret River near Prevelly. It was made from local stone and hand-sawn timber by a work crew that, according to tradition, included deserters from American whaling ships, an Aboriginal stockman and former convicts. These early cattle and dairy settlements formed the core of the permanent European presence in the region. But the relationship with the Wadandi, who had been pushed off their land and away from their food sources, was marked by conflict, disease and loss.
One of the best-remembered moments in the region's colonial history came in December 1876, when the steamer Georgette was wrecked off this wild coast. In the middle of the storm and the heavy surf, Grace Bussell, a young woman from the family, and Sam Isaacs, an Aboriginal stockman who worked for the Bussells, rode their horses into the raging sea and rescued several survivors who would otherwise have drowned. Grace was awarded the Royal Humane Society medal and Isaacs received official recognition. The rescue became a legend, and today it gives its name to places such as Gracetown, a little to the north.
From the 1870s onwards, the region's economy turned more and more to timber. The huge karri and jarrah forests, prized hardwoods, drew sawmills and teams of timber cutters, and railway lines were laid to haul the logs to the ports. Logging was heavy and changed large areas of the landscape. For decades this timber boom, together with cattle farming, drove the local economy.
The town of Margaret River itself is fairly young. The first lots were surveyed in 1912 and the townsite was officially gazetted in 1913. It took its name from the Margaret River, which early European explorers had named decades before. For much of the 20th century, Margaret River was a quiet country town of cattle farmers, dairy farmers and timber workers, with no sign of the international reputation ahead of it. Its fame was still to be written, and it would come from a grape.
A scientific report changed Margaret River's future completely. In the mid-1960s, agronomist John Gladstones published studies comparing the climate of south-west Australia with the world's great wine regions, such as Bordeaux. He concluded that the Margaret River area had an ideal climate for growing top-quality grapes: dry summers, the moderating influence of two oceans and very few frosts. It was a revelation.
In 1967, doctor Tom Cullity planted the first commercial vines and founded Vasse Felix, the region's first winery. Other pioneers soon followed, many of them doctors and professionals from Perth with a passion for wine. The Cullens founded Cullen Wines, the Pannells created Moss Wood, and in 1973 the Horgan family established Leeuwin Estate, which became famous for its Art Series Chardonnay and its open-air concerts. Within a few years, a handful of experimental vineyards had grown into a booming industry.
What was remarkable was how quickly Margaret River won worldwide recognition. Its Bordeaux-style Cabernet Sauvignon and its Chardonnay began winning international awards and holding their own against the best in the world. Today the region produces only about 1% of Australia's wine but around 20% of the country's premium wine, and it is home to more than 200 wineries and cellar doors. Wine brought a whole gourmet tourism economy with it: winery restaurants, craft breweries, chocolate makers, cheesemakers, olive oils and distilleries.
Today Margaret River is one of the most well-rounded destinations in Western Australia. Over the decades, two other big draws joined its wine. The first is surf. The Main Break wave at Surfers Point is so powerful and consistent that for years it hosted a stop on the WSL world professional tour, which put the region on the international surfing map. The second is nature: the caves, the karri forests, the Cape to Cape Track linking the Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin lighthouses, and humpback and southern right whale watching between June and December.
That mix of wine, food, beaches, surf and nature has made the region a magnet for travellers from around the world and a classic getaway from Perth. The local economy, once built on timber and cattle, now relies largely on tourism and premium food and drink. There is also growing care for sustainability and for protecting the coast and forests that are the region's real wealth.
In recent decades, something essential has also been gaining strength: the return of the First Nations voice. Through groups such as Undalup and through cultural guides, Wadandi descendants run tours that teach visitors to read country (boodja), its seasons, its plants and its history. They are working to make sure the region's story starts not in 1830 but thousands of years earlier. The Shire of Augusta-Margaret River officially recognises the Wadandi as the traditional custodians of this land. More and more, getting to know Margaret River fully also means listening to that voice: the voice of the saltwater people who walked these beaches long before anyone else.
