History

The Beginning

The Mandurah Island Probus Club was started in February 2009, by the Rotary Club of Mandurah to meet the high demand for Probus Clubs in the Mandurah Peel area.

The Club Name

The Mandurah Island Probus Club is named after an area of Mandurah which became, in effect, an island when the Dawesville Channel was constructed in 1994, as the only way on and off is via three bridges.

In the early 1980s, an idea was developed to cut a channel through the sandhills at Dawesville to create an artificial connection between the estuary and the ocean. This channel would increase the flushing of nutrients to the sea and increase the salinity of the estuarine water to a point beyond the tolerance of the potentially toxic phytoplankton species Nodularia. The Dawesville Channel (or Dawesville Cut as it is often known locally) was eventually built and opened in 1994. It is two kilometres long, 200 metres wide and about 6.5 metres deep at its ocean entrance. It links the Peel Inlet to the Indian Ocean, is at the southern end of “Mandurah Island” and has a bridge carrying the Old Coast Road to Bunbury. At the northern end of the island is the Mandurah Estuary with two bridges to central Mandurah.

Club membership is not restricted to this area, but it does give it a focus, and meetings are held “on the island” at the Halls Head Bowling & Recreation Club, 3 Sticks Boulevard Erskine, Western Australia.