Cheynes Beach Whaling Station near Albany: Why should I visit Discovery Bay?
The Cheynes Beach Whaling Station near Albany in Western Australia is the best place to understand Australia’s whaling industry. The site at Cheynes Beach on Frenchmans Bay is now the Discovery Bay museum complex.
It’s difficult to imagine a more anti-whaling nation now, but at one stage whaling was one of Australia’s major industries. With an abundance of whales around the Australian coastline, the proceeds from the oil and meat were rich. That is, of course, until public opinion turned against the industry and oil could be obtained from cheaper sources.
Book in advance for the best deals on Albany accommodation.
and sort out top albany tours, experiences and museum entry.
The old Cheynes Beach Whaling Station is arguably the best place in Australia to learn about the old whaling industry. It’s found in Frenchman Bay, near the city of Albany in south-west Western Australia, and now forms the bulk of Discovery Bay. There’s also a small wildlife park and wildflower garden on site, but you’re really here for the Albany whaling museum.
Cheynes Beach Whaling Station: Whale skeletons at Discovery Bay
The whaling station buildings have been left in place at the Albany whaling museum. The enormous boiler room machines and processing factory show the scale of the operation. And the whale skeletons on display show just what was being fed into.
The tanks are big enough to have stored 750,000 litres of whale oil on site at any one point. They’ve now been turned into theatres showing films about the Australia’s whaling industry and marine life.
Opposite is the Cheynes IV whaling ship. It would go 50km out into the Southern Ocean to hunt whales off the continental shelf. The harpoon gun, steam engines and narrow beds are still in place, and pictures of former skippers line the walls.
9 activities and attractions to book in Albany
- Tasting tour around the Mount Barker wineries.
- Summit to sea Segway adventure.
- Wildlife and coastal scenery cruise.
- Half day Albany history and heritage tour.
- Food and wine tasting tour around the Denmark wine region.
- Visit to the Historic Whaling Station.
- Mobile-friendly ticket for the National Anzac Centre.
- Guided tour to the Granite Skywalk in Porongurup National Park.
- Half day tour around Albany’s natural wonders – including The Gap.
Cheynes Beach Whaling Station closure
It puts a human face on the whaling industry. And this is something that strikes hard in Discovery Bay. Whaling may have been morally unjustifiable, but it supported several families around Albany.
Australia’s whaling industry caught its last prey on 20 November 1978, when an 11m female sperm whale was dragged up to the flensing deck. The next day, the whalers, engineers, flensers and other staff at the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company were out of a job. The whaling station closure hit the area hard.
The reality of whaling in Albany
There’s no romanticism about the job, though. Interpretative signs on the walk around the station give a chillingly grim picture. The flensers arguably had it worst, though.
The flenser’s job was to winch the whale carcasses out of the water, then cut them up with huge, razor-sharp knives. All day was spent surrounded by blood and blubber, hacking the whales to pieces with astonishingly dangerous lives. This was while sharks gathered around the flensing deck, enjoying a free feed on the whale remnants.
It’s insights like this that make Discovery Bay well worth visiting. The old Cheynes Beach Whaling Station in Frenchmans Bay is now a real eye-opener. Entry fees cost $32, and the station is a 22km drive in a hire car from Albany city centre.
More things to do in Albany
Nowadays, Albany is all about the whale-watching instead. Whale-watching cruises depart from the marina between late May and early October. The other key attraction in Albany is the National Anzac Centre, although Greens Pool in William Bay National Park is fairly close too. Albany is best worked into a road trip around south-west WA, a popular trip for second time visitors to Australia.
Such a trip can also include dolphin swimming from the Dolphin Discovery Centre in Bunbury, undersea helmet walks in Busselton and nocturnal marsupial-viewing tours. It then moves on to the wine, caves and wild stingrays of the Margaret River region.
If you choose to go direct, the drive from Perth to Albany is 413km
Albany accommodation
The top Albany accommodation choices are…
- For waterfront location: Hilton Garden Inn.
- For budget travellers: 1849 Backpackers Hotel.
- For families: Big4 Middleton Beach Holiday Park.
- For quality apartments with kitchens: Pelicans Albany.
- To be near Middleton Beach: Albany Holiday Units.
More Western Australia travel
See the weirdly bright waters of Black Diamond Lake in Collie.
Get wet at the Outback Splash water park in Bullsbrook.
Enjoy the red cliffs and white sand of James Price Point near Broome.
How long is the drive from Denham to Monkey Mia?
Visit Hutt Lagoon and Red Bluff on the drive from Geraldton to Carnarvon.