The one thing Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr won’t take for granted

Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr says “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” as she looks back on an important childhood memory.

The song says “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” – and although it’s still there, I’ve never missed the hot, dry heat, pristine beaches and wide open spaces of Western Australia like I have since COVID hit. In particular, I miss heading “down south”.

You see, for me and my family, it’s our special place. Dad drove past a “for sale” sign on a block one day in the 1970s and came home and told Mum he’d stretched the family budget. They were buying a slice of dirt to build a holiday shack.

Every year since then, our family has packed up the car and joined the queue snaking down to the beaches: past Busselton, Dunsborough, Meelup, Bunker Bay, Eagle Bay and Margaret River. And we spent part of the summer in that house.

“You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” (Picture: Simon Upton)

The first five hours of pack-up day would be spent trying to find the cat, who would cotton on to the fact she was about to be stuck in a stinking-hot car and hide. Mum would spend weeks buying extra food for the holiday in the weekly grocery shop because there was no big shop down there.

Then, complete with an angry cat, way too many tinned tomatoes and that year’s latest water flotation device, we’d hit the road, fight in the back seat the whole way and finally arrive at the beach.

Stretching ahead of us were six weeks of barbecues every night, afternoons riding our bikes with nobody nagging us (because the adults were into afternoon naps and the odd happy hour), eating our body weight in mixed lollies from the corner shop and endless days spent lying around at the beach or being towed behind somebody’s boat on a surfboard.

There’s no fancy ad I’ve ever seen that’s managed to replicate the particular shade of aqua-blue water at the beaches down south in WA on a sparkling summer’s day. It takes your breath away.

“I’ll never, ever take this amazing piece of Australia for granted. It’s part of me, of my history.” (Picture: John Grainger)

Out on the water you can look down and see every grain of sand set out in a little wave formation on the ocean floor; every tiny fish scatter as you drift by. That water is crystal clear and beautiful, and it’s one of the strongest memories of my childhood. Taking a picnic on our dinghy, swimming, climbing on the rocks, going from bay to bay, finding a tiny beach only accessible by water. Just magic.

Over the years, I’ve run up and down those same roads next to my own kids as we took the training wheels off their little bikes. We’ve barbecued the garlic prawns just as Dad did every year, even 20 years after he passed away – because it was his recipe and his barbecue and we can never stop doing that.

There are now smooth tracks around town to ride our bikes on, not just the gravel on the side of the road. When we go fishing on the rocks by the boat ramp, there’s now a coffee van.

When we ride up to one of the cool coffee shops, we chat about how many lovely little shops there are. And there are now not one but several supermarkets, so Mum doesn’t have to stockpile tinned food.

Find more exclusives in this Sunday’s Stellar.

Each year there are beautiful new restaurants, many of them at wineries, and some of the best chefs in Australia have come to live “down south” because they love the amazing produce and relaxed lifestyle – the things we’ve loved about the place for all these years.

Last Christmas the airfares were booked, the bags were packed, and our cat in Sydney was taken care of... and then COVID struck again. Along with many others, our Christmas was ruined – and there’s been no “down south” since.

I’ll never, ever take this amazing piece of Australia for granted. It’s part of me, of my history, and like so many delicious slices of WA, it’s a bit hidden from the rest of the country. Wait till everyone catches on!

Originally published as The one thing Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr won’t take for granted