Mandurah
Mandurah is less than an hours drive south of Perth and recently declared Australia's fastest growing regional destination, the coastal town of Mandurah is a tourist and holiday favorite, with a multitude of water activities and things to see and do (see below). Despite the growing population it still retains that special seaside holiday feel.
Seashells Mandurah
16 Dolphin Drive
Mandurah 6210
Telephone: 95503000
Situated over looking Comet Bay, the estuary and the marina, it offers a great seaside location. Waterside restaurants and cafés are only a short stroll away on accessible footpaths. Seashells doesn’t have a restaurant on site as yet, it is purely accommodation. The Mandurah town shops, more waterside cafés and cinema complex are all within easy walking distance along a wheelchair accessible route.
There is access from the complex to a wheelchair friendly beach side footpath, which links to footpaths around the marina where there is always something to see – the river mouth to the canals. Dotted around the area are seats and public toilets with a unisex disabled toilet.
There is an Acrod parking bay directly out front of the reception and ample parking for guests behind the complex, where there is an accessible back entrance with another Acrod bay.
There is one single bedroom apartment and one two bedroom apartment suitable for wheelchairs.
The single bedroom apartment is luxuriously fitted out and comprises a kitchen, dining and lounge with lots of space. A good sized balcony runs off the lounge with views of the estuary and the marina. They have supplied a ramp to enable wheelchair access. The bedroom is a bit tight with the king-size bed taking a lot of space, as is the thoroughfare to the bathroom, but I managed.
The bathroom is nice and roomy with wall mounted shower seat, hand-held shower and some rails by the toilet. It should be noted that there is a slight lip into the shower. The slate floor drops about ten millimeters. My wheelchair did manage the lip alright.
The two bedroom apartment unfortunately doesn’t have a view, but the large balcony with ramp, does provide an abundance of fresh sea air.
The two bedroom apartment is the same basically has the single, but has two bathrooms, but only the one off the second bedroom is disabled. This room has glass doors to the balcony and is a little roomier for the wheelchair so is the best anyway. The bathroom is nice and roomy with wall mounted shower seat, hand-held shower and some rails by the toilet. It should be noted that there is again a slight lip down into the shower, about ten millimeters, but it was not a problem for me. There was no bench top around the basin, which makes it difficult to find a place for your toiletries, but there was a recessed cupboard if you can reach.
Nice apartment, helpful staff and good location – recommended.
Seashells really is handy to the marina cafés and shops, which are only several hundred metres down the road, but a few more minutes over the walk bridge and you enter the Mandurah riverfront entertainment precinct where there is choices galore.
First building on the waterfront you come to is the Reading Cinema, a multi-screen complex. Access to the complex is good. Most cinemas plonk the wheelchairs right up front so it was a pleasant surprise to find it different here. There is a lift that takes you to a special wheelchair access level and you enter the cinema and sit about halfway back. There is a unisex disabled toilet on the ground level with railing and friendly fittings.
Next door is the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre - within the Centre is the Boardwalk Theatre with its capacity of 800, the versatile Fishtrap Theatre and the MPAC Art Gallery. Access to the centre is good. There is seating for two wheelchairs in the theatre. The seating is at the back, but you are only about twenty five metres from the stage. There is a unisex disabled toilet to the side of the glassed foyer. Down a long corridor you will find a reasonable roomy toilet with friendly fittings and railings.
Directly behind is a new sailing museum. Access to the building is good, but it was not open yet for me to check out any further. It will open April 08.
Further along the waterfront boardwalk you will find an assortment of restaurants, including Dome Café, Boatshed restaurant and the well known Cicerellos. All are directly on the waters edge and over look the Mandjar bay and were wheelchair accessible. I only checked out Cicerellos inside. Their single male and female toilets double as a disabled toilet too, and while roomy enough it was a battle to wind through the lunch time crowd to get to them.
Directly behind all the restaurants and maybe an easier option is a public disabled toilet, which is very roomy with friendly fittings. Also situated here is the tourist visitor’s centre from where there is a bus shuttle to the railway station. This free wheelchair accessible service runs every twenty minutes. My wheelchair negotiated the bus easily. (You could catch the Perth to Mandurah railway and bus to the foreshore) The adjoining carpark had three Acrod bays.
The jetty out front from the theatre and restaurants is the departure point for sightseeing and dolphin cruises. The jetty is accessible as are the cruises. The Bouvard cruises boat took manual wheelchairs on board while I was there and I tried out the Mandjar cruise boat in my electric wheelchair. An easy ramp takes you onto the back of the boat and then a steep ramp takes you down inside the cabin. At about 45 degrees I imagine it would not be suitable for all, but despite my cumbersome and heavy wheelchair I managed okay. I had a good view during the hour long cruise through the waterways and canals where dolphins occasionally accompanied our passage.
Wandering further around the bay and the foreshore becomes a beautiful park, which extends all the way along the edge of the shopping precinct. The park is all wheelchair accessible and is overlooked by more cafés and restaurants. Dotted around the park among the many shade trees are benches and tables, and there is a large children’s playground. Centrally located is another carpark with two Acrod bays and a reasonably sized unisex disabled toilet. The park is a pleasant place for a picnic or to just sit and watch the pelicans chase their next meal.
We have traveled to all the attractions by wheelchair thus far, but should you wish to hop in your car and explore further there is much more around Mandurah to see and do.
We did venture to the Peel Zoo, which is a fifteen minute drive on the Mandurah to Pinjarra Road. It is clearly signposted where to turn off. The carpark has one Acrod bay, but there is another one further on right next to the entrance. The Zoo has a disabled toilet, which only has all standard fittings, but is in a large room. Access around the zoo is on good flat footpath, which winds around all the enclosures and cages, including two large walk-thru aviaries. The zoo has an assortment of native and farm animals including kangaroos and emus, and a broad range of native birds. We enjoyed a casual stroll amongst the kaleidoscope of colour and sound.