Busselton Jetty

At almost 2km long, the Busselton Jetty in the town of Busselton, Western Australia is said to be the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere. A long jetty was required as ships were unable to dock closer to the shore as the waters of Geographe Bay where it’s located is too shallow.

Clarence and I visited the jetty during our trip to Western Australia in March this year. After about 3 hours of driving, we finally arrived.

Other than being very long, the other distinctive feature of the jetty is the interpretive centre which is shaped like a boatshed. As it was midday when we arrived, the jetty side of the sky is rather bright, and in order to preserve detail, I employed the HDR technique of shooting it at multiple exposures and then processing them in Photomatix.

After paying the admission fee, we got onto the jetty itself, on which a railway also runs. Originally part of the railway line into Busselton from Bunbury, it now ferries tourists and visitors from the interpretive centre to the other end of the jetty.

Along the way, we see memorial plaques of those whose ashes have been cast from the jetty into the sea.

After a long walk, we finally reached the end of the jetty, where the Underwater Observatory (UWO) and a gift shop are located. However, we did not go into it as we were told there’s nothing much to see, and we don’t have much time as well.

After a short break, we took the long walk back.

The lighthouse-like structure in the background used to be an entertainment centre called the “Nautical Lady Entertainment World”. Sadly, it has closed down for reasons unknown. Not sure if the building will remain and be re-purposed.

Back home, just for kicks, I decided to go wild with one of the HDR image sets which I’ve shot of the interpretive centre. Everyone seem to be crazy over the overly-processed HDR look, so I decided to try it for myself to see what I can get. After selecting the “Painterly” preset in Photomatix, I just pushed the first few sliders all the way to the max. This is the result which looked rather surreal. I am not quite a fan of this effect, but it sure is fun to play around once in a while.