Surfers Point: two shillings a week and a place to stay
Compiled by Surf Haunts · Updated 2026-09-21
Surfers Point is at Prevelly, on the coast near the mouth of the Margaret River. It's a landscape of low vegetation, rocky shoreline and open ocean. One of the smaller stories from the area begins with a group of surfers putting a little money aside each week.
Margaret River, Prevelly and Mainbreak
The place names can be confusing if you only know Margaret River from a surf photograph. Prevelly is the coastal settlement, and Surfers Point is the headland nearby. The state conservation department identifies Margaret River Mainbreak at Surfers Point.
That distinction also matters for the story of the shack. It was built in the village, rather than on the point itself.
A club built around somewhere to stay
An account assembled from club members' recollections describes how the North End Board Club saved for a block in Prevelly. In October 1965, 25 surfers were contributing two shillings a week towards land on Georgette Way.
By 1967 they had built a club shack, including a shower and toilet. The recollections describe work being fitted around weekends and holidays.
It's a fairly ordinary concern behind a surf story: people wanted somewhere to stay when they came down to the coast. A modest building and a shared savings plan made those trips easier to organise. The account is based on participants' memories, with period photographs, rather than a claim about who first surfed here.
Looking after the foreshore
The coastline needs work on land as well as attention in the water. The local council's Prevelly and Gnarabup foreshore plan, endorsed in August 2022, covers the coast from Gas Bay to the Margaret River mouth.
It includes weed control, revegetation and management of paths. Those are some of the less photographed tasks involved in caring for the landscape around the surf.
What do you remember?
Do you have a photo of an early trip to Prevelly, or a detail about the old places people stayed? Email us with a memory, correction or source. We'll ask before publishing it and agree how to credit you.
Our Surfers Point print
Our illustration follows the low coastline and breaking water out towards the Indian Ocean. You can see the Surfers Point · Margaret River print in the collection.
Compiled from public historical sources and fact-checked against them at the time of writing – not a first-hand or local account. Corrections and memories are welcome; we verify before publishing anything sent in.