A cancer diagnosis prompted a big change for the Beissel family — one that would eventually lead them to restoring Manjimup's Fonty's Pool to its former glory.
In helping to save the life of an icon of regional WA, Jeremy Beissel has in many ways saved his own. But restoring Fonty’s Pool, on the outskirts of Manjimup, to its former glory has been anything but a regulation journey for the Beissel family, who suspect they have even had some help from beyond the grave from late owner and founder, Archimedes Fontanini.
Jeremy and his wife Kelly were happily trading out of their rock lobster fishing boat off WA’s northern Coral Coast when his increasing tiredness, lingering sinus infections and regular bouts of illness were diagnosed as acute myeloid leukemia.
“It was a pretty harrowing time and it could have gone either way,” Mr Beissel says.
The couple had taken out a new income protection insurance policy at the urging of their bank just three months earlier, and the timing could not have been more perfect. It allowed Jeremy and Kelly to build a caravan out of an old hay-carting trailer and travel around Australia with young daughters Josie and Carly for 14 months while he fought his health battle. By the time they arrived back in Leeman and returned to the fishing game, Mr Beissel’s health had improved markedly. But the Beissels soon realised they had moved on and were looking for a change away from the sea.
Mr Beissel knew nothing of Fonty’s Pool in 2005 when his mum told him it was for sale. So after checking out a potential backpacking business in Dunsborough, they decided to detour to the Manjimup venture and immediately fell in love.
“We drove in here and saw a mess of a place which was really beautiful and had heaps of potential,” he says.
With the tender closing in one week, it was a heartbeat call that has changed their lives. A positive meeting with two of Mr Fontanini’s grandchildren added to their optimism about rebuilding the caravan park.
Once the refurbishment gained momentum, he says locals were quick and generous with their time and help. But it was an insurance blow that ultimately proved a bonus.
The property insurer decided not to take on a new public liability policy under the Beissels’ management. It added initial financial pressure but the 18 months before they could negotiate a new insurance deal allowed them time and space to rebuild the iconic venue.
“Without being open, we could solve the problems we needed to and we could think bigger picture while everything was in bits,” Mr Beissel says.
Still, asked how many times the project nearly ended in divorce, his answer is emphatic: “Oh, twice ... a day”.
One look at the property now, including chalets in the refurbished park and a $19,000 pool fence that defines the historic part of the property, reveals an extreme makeover success story. It is one Mr Beissel sheepishly admits may have enjoyed some input from the late owner.
Mr Fontanini arrived in Australia from Italy in 1904 and, after working for three years at the Greenbushes Timber Corporation sawmill, bought the Fonty’s Pool property. The pool, which holds 18 million litres of water and has a winter flow rate of 44,000 litres per hour, was opened to the public in 1925. Mr Fontanini died, aged 102, in 1982.
Mr Beissell believes the beauty of Fonty’s Pool is in its versatility, from a couple enjoying a coffee while overlooking the pool to a wedding and reception or the seventh annual Truffle Kerfuffle, which will again attract thousands of visitors next weekend.
The festival of food and wine started almost by accident.
“When we came here we didn’t even know what a black truffle was and no one had even found one back then,” he says.
“Now we’re in the largest hub for black truffles in the Southern Hemisphere and it will probably become the black truffle hub of the world. When we started we got a few volunteers and put up a festival and 1200 people turned up. It was ridiculous.