I love to get out and explore WA, but I’d never been to Dwellingup before and given its relative proximity to Perth this seemed like quite the oversight on my part. I know my sister had been a few times for camping and had always enjoyed it. The opportunity recently presented when my family and I were looking for an Airbnb place to stay over the Easter long weekend that wasn’t too far from the city. My sister happened upon a beautiful Airbnb in Dwellingup that was dog friendly (a big win when we have the three dogs that just love to holiday) and it could fit us all. Before you knew it, we were booked in! Here’s the link to it if you are interested and a few photos. It is such a stunning spot and I hope to get back again later in the year because it seems like a place that would be outstanding in every season.
While we were there we had the chance to head along to the Dwellingup Pumpkin Festival. I didn’t really know what to expect from the event, but I like pumpkin and I was pretty intrigued, so this was to be our Saturday activity.
There will be more than 70 market stalls, good old country baking, many food options that will keep the whole family happy, circus show and workshops, laser tag, bouncy castle, face painting, live music all day, mini golf, giant chess, a reptile display, a silent auction with heaps of great prizes to bid for and much more that will be announced soon!
We spent an hour or so happily wandering around, checking out the giant pumpkins and sampling some of the food on offer.
I was reading an article after the event and was thoroughly impressed because this festival seriously pulls the crowds. A few stats:
- The festival is held annually on Easter Saturday and this is the 22nd time it has been held
- The festival is run by the Dwellingup Primary School P&C
- The P&C has five members
- The Dwellingup primary school has 55 kids in attendance
- There are 400 people who live in the town of Dwellingup
- Attendance of the 2018 Dwellingup Pumpkin Festival was in excess of 12,000 people!
- The winning pumpkin was grown by Robert Giumelli and came in at a massive 361kg, which toppled the WA record that had stood for 16 years
- For your interest the Australian biggest pumpkin record stands at 700kg
- The event cleared a profit of $25k for the P&C and it is used for excursions, supplies and anything else outside of what the education department is responsible for
It is a really enjoyable event and the local community is clearly passionate about this annual event they put together. Be assured it is pretty awe inspiring to wander onto a local basketball court and see them covered with gigantic pumpkins. Keen participants have put so much loving care into growing them as big as they are able to.
So next year for Easter weekend, if you want to do something a little different then remember that Dwellingup is just over an hour away, not far at all, so why not get in the car and check out the biggest pumpkins you’ll likely ever see!
perthmunchkin 
Oh my God it’s sooo big!