What’s with this new marina in Exmouth? (Think luxury Outback adventures, and maybe solar.)

Marina Quays — Exmouth — Western Australia, August 18th, 2018, Credit: Adwo

“We passed through Exmouth, a place that is experiencing an impressive influx of private investment., A marina is being built there, as well as beautiful modern homes. This place is a lucrative investment, or at least a place to find construction work. Like the suburbs of Perth, this place is set to explode, regardless of the frequent cyclones.” — Me, June 2015

While I wrote that journal entry four years ago, the entire region has potential for private investment in alternative energy projects, especially solar. Exmouth in particular is a strong focal point for adventure tourism, sport fishing, and cruise shipping. I envision that if an outfit can combine those areas with scuba diving and bake in a luxury port hotel stay, they’d find a niche and wealthy clientele. Let’s zoom out.“The Gascoyne region has a mid-subtropical climate and enjoys the reputation of the ‘sun’s winter home’ with around 320 days of sunshine each year.The resident population of 9,757 is concentrated in the key centers of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Denham, Gascoyne Junction, Burringurrah and Coral Bay.”¹

Back in focus: Exmouth

Photo Credit: Amanda Klamrowski

“Exmouth is a small resort town on Western Australia’s North West Cape. It’s a gateway to nearby Ningaloo Marine Park with its coral reefs, colourful fish and migratory whale sharks. Nearly surrounding Exmouth, Cape Range National Park has kangaroos, sheer cliffs and red, rocky gorges. On the Cape’s northwest coast, Jurabi Coastal Reserve’s tidal rock pools, beaches and seasonal nesting grounds for marine turtles.” -Wikipedia

Discussion:

Exmouth caught my attention because there was clearly a lot of construction going on. The development of the marina plus attractive vacation and residential homes stood out. My intuition tells me that this will be a central area for tourist transit and wealthy visitors. Exmouth is considered one of the top 10 most important cruise ship ports in Australia² . The residential population is quite low, but tourism is strong due to the popularity of the Ningaloo Reef and other wildlife and natural attractions that have been a staple for the local economy³. The annual average number of visitors to the Gascoyne for 2015–2017 was 341,400 and for 2018 those visitors spent $359 million⁴.

AUD/USD has steadily declined and stabilized around the low 0.70s since I lived there in 2015, so purchasing power with USD is quite good right now in Australia.

Navy Pier, Exmouth, Western Australia, Credit: Marc Witte

Is it a good move to invest in Exmouth? I don’t know, I was there four years ago and was essentially a window shopper. You can try a custom search on one of Australia's Zillow equivalent sites. I conclude that this would be a project for deeper pockets.