The streets of Bunbury’s CBD are filled with history and mystery, with stories and facts to delight and fascinate visitors. From a school attended by former WA Premier Sir Newton Moore, the family home of Western Australia’s most famous pioneering family, impressive buildings built by a convict’s son, 80s inspired Alan Bond architecture, to sacred sites of our Noongar first settlers.
Pick up a Bunbury Heritage Building Map from the Bunbury Visitor Information Centre or download online to discover the city’s layered past and more than 33 significant buildings.
Walking is truly the best way to explore the stomping grounds of our past residents.
OUR TOP 5
Bunbury Regional Art Galleries
An explosion of pink Victorian Gothic and Spanish architecture, the Bunbury Regional Art Galleries houses WA’s largest regional art gallery. Built in 1897, as a Sisters of Mercy Covent School, past students tell stories of a resident Ghost Nun.
Clifton Motel and Grittleton Lodge
The grand family home of Robert Forrest, a successful flour miller and brother of Sir John Forrest, 1st Baron Forrest of Bunbury (1847-1918), explorer and Western Australia’s first Premier. Stay the night and walk the floorboards of this prestigious establishment – if only the walls could talk.
Bunbury Post Office and Bond Store
The oldest of the oldest! Convict labour constructed this restored limestone building with shingled roof in the 1850s.
CBH Grain Silos
Have you ever stayed in a grain silo? Built by 1937, they were the first bulk handling facility in WA before converting into unique accommodation, as the Bunbury Hotel Koombana Bay, in the 1990s after local public outcry saved them from demolition.
The Rose Hotel
This grand old dame was built in 1865 for Samuel Rose, after the Western Australian gold boom. Stunningly renovated, the Rose Hotel remains a favourite gathering spot for locals and visitors.
Bunbury Museum and Heritage Centre
Originally built as a Boy’s School in 1886, the former Paisley Centre building has been painstakingly restored, and is now home to a fantastic display of Bunbury’s history. At the Museum and Heritage Centre immerse yourself in the stories that range from architectural history to the playgrounds, including barefoot scholars, getting the cane, and the horrors of having to drink warm milk.
Bunbury Tower
The youngest of our heritage buildings, but no less impressive, is the Bunbury Tower Colloquially known as the Milk Carton or Shark, this prominent Bunbury landmark was built in 1986 by Alan Bond-owned Austrmark International and symbolises everything 80s in Australia.
And, make sure you visit us at the Old Railway Station. Built in 1905, the station is a fine example of Federation Free Classical style architecture. Many Western Australian soldiers left for war from its platform.
