For most of its life, Prevelly has been a sleepy village known to surfers and the locals around Margaret River.
Surfers Point
This is the number one surfing location in Margaret River. The waves are great, easily accessible and reliable. It also has top notch facilities for both surfers and spectators. Several years ago during the bushfires, the fire tore through this area leaving the old platforms and stairs nothing but charred cinders. What they have put in place to replace them is truly outstanding.
In recent times it has become a fashionable haunt because of its pristine location, the sublime surfing conditions and the arrival of a number of resorts and cafes. It is still underdeveloped and has only a small number of houses spread across the vast sand dunes which rise from the edges of the Indian Ocean.
Prevelly was privately subdivided by Geoff Edwards in the early 1960s and named Prevelly; the shire petitioned for a townsite to be declared in 1977 and it was duly gazetted in 1978.
The town was named after the Preveli monastery on Crete. Edwards was among the Australian soldiers given shelter at the St. John Monastery in 1941 prior to evacuation aboard HMS Thrasher. To thank the people of Crete and the Monastery, he began construction of a St. John the Theologian chapel in Prevelly.
A fund for this purpose was established in 1984 and drew support from both Australian and British former service men.