On Walkabout In: Pemberton, Western Australia

Exploring the Logging Past of Pemberton

After visiting the Ancient Empire, next up in our journey through southwestern Australia was the small logging town of Pemberton. Pemberton is located deep in the karri forests and really is one of the most beautiful areas of the country. Pemberton is slowly gaining a tourist reputation, but as of now the town still keeps a small logging community feel to it. It has everything in it though that a tourist needs so you won’t be at a loss to find a restaurant or hotel. In fact I recommend the chicken restaurant downtown to anyone going to Pemberton. It actually served the best chicken I have had yet in Australia.

The city is filled with historical buildings and has a great logging museum that I recommend that anyone traveling to Pemberton go and see:

Most of the homes and buildings in this small city are of a historical nature. The homes in the city most notably displays the logging roots of the city for everyone to see with its wooden board construction:

Though logging is no longer in its glory days in Pemberton, it does continue to this day. Here is a picture of a rail line leading to the lumber mill just past the old Pemberton train station:

In the park across from the train station is one of the old steam engines that was used to haul the logs to and from the mill:

Here is a picture of the earliest type of equipment used to move the massive karri logs:

Horses were used to pull this contraption that would drag the logs along the ground to their destination. If you look in the background of the above picture, you can actually see where I parked my campervan. Besides tourism Pemberton is slowly gaining a reputation for its wineries:

There are buses that run from Pemberton that take tourists on wine tasting tours of the various wineries in the area. After a day of checking out the town, the nearby forests, and wineries we headed towards the lone caravan park in Pemberton. The park was actually quite nice and we had a great spot for our campervan right along a stream running out of the karri forest. My wife needed a break from cooking up dinner so we instead bought some chicken from the restaurant I mentioned earlier for dinner and enjoyed this pleasant view from our campervan site:

We enjoyed the view while we could though because before long the rain that plagued us nearly every day of our journey through the southwest of Australia returned. However, ever the rain could not dampen our anticipation to climb the mighty Gloucester Tree the next day.

Next Posting: Scaling the Gloucester Tree

Prior Posting: The Ancient Empire

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