Hotel, Spa Approved for Historic Margaret River Site

Plans have been approved for a high-end hotel and spa at a historic homestead in the Margaret River region that was partially destroyed by bushfires in 2011.

The plans include a 25-key hotel comprising 18 rooms and seven chalets, and with rooms from 46sq m to 216 square metres. 

It will also sport a restaurant and bar with capacity for 62 people and spa treatment rooms, and 42,800sq m of landscaped gardens. 

The Landsmith Collection brought in MJA Architects to design the new hotel, which will feature a croquet lawn and “wellness pool”.

The Regional Development Assessment Panel this month approved the development.

The land, 7km from the Margaret River Town Centre, is the site of a homestead commonly known as Wallcliffe House, built in 1865 for the Bussell family. 

The Bussells were the first European settlers in the area, and from whom the nearby beach town of Busselton gets its European name.

Subsequent owners have used an old dairy as a restaurant and that attached Wallcliffe House as a guesthouse. 

A second residence was built in 2001, however that property was bady damaged by a bushfire in 2011, as were other buildings on the property.

The Landsmith Collection also owns the Voyager Estate vineyard and Bullo River Station in the Northern Territory.

Western Australia has experienced considerable growth in visitor numbers and spending—$1.7 billion was spent in WA across 2023, a 31 per cent increase on 2019, with 11.9 million overnight visitors, domestic and international.

The South West, of which Margaret River is a part, experienced huge growth in popularity among tourists, with the latest research from the Tourism & Transport Forum showing that visitation to the region is nearly 16 per cent above pre-pandemic levels.

This has led to an upsurge in hotel and tourism development, such as the $32-million Albany hotel plans approved this year.