Dunsborough, Western Australia

A small fishing and retirement community which has become a popular resort town. Geographe Bay, on which the town sits, is a haven of secluded coves and coastal walking trails where you can watch bottlenose dolphins play in turquoise water, swim on some of WA's best swimming beaches or dive on HMAS Swan, the largest accessible dive wreck in the Southern Hemisphere.
Location: 255 km south of Perth.
Origin of name: early charts show the area as Dunn Bay but the name's origin remains uncertain. Suggestions include that it recalls a sailor who deserted ship, swam ashore and became the first white settler; that it recalls Capt. Charles Dunn of the American whaler Baltimore which was one of many whalers operating from the bay in the 1830s - 50s; that it was named by Gov. James Stirling after a fellow naval officer, Capt. Richard Darling Dunn. The Aboriginal name for the area was Quedjinup.
Brief history: Dunsborough was declared a town in 1877 (another source quotes 1879) but land had been set aside for a townsite in 1830.
Points of Interest: Geographe Bay; Cape Naturaliste National Park; Sugar Loaf Rock; Canal Rocks; Bannamah Wildlife Park; Greenacres Shell Museum; Bunker Bay and Eagle Bay; Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse (1903)