About Denmark, WA

Denmark is a dynamic small friendly town with artists, musicians, families, retirees and tourists enjoying the sea and tree change. it is situated on the South Coast of Western Australia, approximately 405klms. South of Perth.

Denmark has a thriving tourist industry and caters for those on a budget with campsites and caravan parks, through B&Bs, hotels, self contained chalets to indulgent pampering weekend retreats.

Denmark has everything you could want including cafés and restaurants, galleries, wineries, supermarkets, craft shops, medical and sporting facilities, fuel, and banks all close to fantastic beaches.
Denmark, where the Forest Meets the Sea, in the heart of the Great Southern has a spectacular coastline, forests, rolling green hills, vineyards, and the beautiful William Bay National Park.

Activities include visiting world-class wineries and vineyards, art galleries, community markets, great boating, fishing and surfing, 4 wheel driving, mountain biking, bush walking along the Bibbulmun Track, whale watching, craft shops, restaurants, cafés and the largest barometer in the world! 
The first people to arrive in the Denmark area were Aborigines around 40,000 years ago.

Thomas Braidwood Wilson, an English explorer, discovered this area in 1829 when conducting an expedition from Frederickstown - later to become Albany. He came across the river here and named it the Denmark River, after Dr Alexander Denmark, his friend and former tutor at the Naval Medical College in England.

The first European land use was by graziers and in 1893 the Millar brothers set up a sawmilling operation on the Denmark River to meet the needs of the Goldfields, which used huge amounts of timber.

Around 1885 timber leases were taken out in the Denmark River area and 15 years later milling was at its peak.  A railway track from Denmark to Albany was built to transport the karri, which was desirable all over the world. However, resource depletion soon resulted in a total collapse of the timber industry. The population declined dramatically and only started to revive with the introduction of the Group Settlement Scheme in the 1920s. Small farms of 40 ha (100 acres) were developed to create pasture for cattle, dairying and orcharding (mainly apples). Conditions were often poor and some of the small farmers could hardly survive.

By the 1960s the population had increased to 1,500 and was becoming attractive to alternative life-stylers and early retirees. Wine growers discovered the value of the rich karri loam for their vineyards with Riesling and Chardonnay being the first grapes grown on Denmark soil. Within 50 years the area became a wine region of importance; in 2008 nearly 25 vineyards had been established around Denmark.