Overview

This page has a full description of this section of the trail, including supporting photographs. You can read this page and/or

• Download a PDF summary of this (click on this link); and

• A JPEG version of the map only (the figure below).

Starting point

 The starting point is the Dome Café within the Port Coogee marina area.

Getting there using public transport

The best way to get here using public transport is catch the bus 548, which stops outside the Woolworths shopping centre – see Figure 1. The bus starts from Fremantle Train Station in the north, and Rockingham train station in the south.

Turn around point

The turn around point is the main grassed area within the John Graham Reserve.

Getting back to the start from the turn around point – if you don’t want to do an out-and-back walk

The best way to get back to the start using public transport is catch bus 548. There is a bus stop on Cockburn road in-between Nyyerbup Cir and Fairbairn Road almost exactly where the path that goes from the toilet block through the grassed area and north of the car park come out on to Cockburn Road.

Summary of the walk

Figure 1 below shows the route. The total one way distance is 3.9km, making it a 7.8km out and back walk.  

Water and toilets

Any toilet blocks are noted below in the text in italics. These are also sources of potable water. Any additional drinking water taps and showers are also noted in italics.

Walking guide

From the Dome Café, walk along the waterfront board walk or path adjacent to Chieftain Esplanade. Whilst Chieftain Esplanade is planned to continue through to Napoleon Parade and on to the foreshore reserve adjacent to Socrates Parade, at the time of writing Chieftain Esplanade ends at Pantheon Ave. To get to foreshore reserve adjacent to Socrates Parade, you need to take Pantheon Ave east onto Orsino Blvd (turn right), passed the shopping centre, and then right again at Napoleon Parade, which takes you to the foreshore reserve.

This reserve starts of as grass only and then turns into a formal path (Plate 1).

As you south along the sea wall you will noticed an old wreck just offshore (Plate 2). This is the Omeo Wreck, which sank here in 11/9/1905 (http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?53928 ).

This path continues south to the end of the grassed area and then curves around the section of the foreshore reserve with extensive native vegetation passed a piece of art commemorating trotting or horse pacing (Plate 3).

The path ends at the northern end of carpark at Coogee Beach after crossing Perlinte View. There is a short path that goes around the carpark (Plate 4) which goes between the carpark and Cockburn Road, but the walk through the carpark is probably better as it is away from Cockburn Road.

The carpark goes passed Coogee Beach Café (Plate 5).

The coastal path starts again as a black bitumen path just passed café, after crossing Powell Parade, which is the main entrance into Coogee Beach (Plate 6).

There are public toilets and drinking taps in the park area south of the café.

The path continues passed the Coogee Beach Holiday Park (Plate 7), although “Holiday Park” may overstate what it is as many of the chalets look permanently occupied.

There is an old railway track which runs parallel to the path, which is visible is a few places (Plate 8), which used to service the old munitions storage/dump site further south before Woodman Point and the old quarantine site.

The black path ends just passed the Holiday Park and joins a red bitumen path, which joins Cockburn Road to the east (Plate 9).

Turn right and then right again at the next path intersection, and then right again at the next intersection, which takes us to the Coogee Beach Surf Lifesaving complex, including café (Plate 10).

There’s a playground just to the south of this complex, and walk through this to rejoin the coastal path, which continues all the way to John Graham Reserve. Although it is set back from the beach, there are good ocean views for most of the way (Plate 11).

As you approach John Graham Reserve, there is a narrow path with goes off to the right – take this path (Plate 12).

The path goes over some higher dunes and there are a couple of places with seats and good views over the ocean (Plate 13).

Near the end of this track, just before the jetty is a memorial for the former settlement of Clarence, which took in most of the Woodman Point area (Plate 14). It was gazette as a townsite in 1836 and was named after an earlier settlement by Thomas Peel called Clarence set up in 1829, but abandoned in 1830. Recent evidence suggests the 1929 site was at Mt Brown. (http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/PrintSingleRecord/66ac6f42-adcb-4ec5-9338-c6548844f8fb ). The 1836 townsite included the original quarantine station at Woodman Point, which was still operating at late as 1954.

There is a website you can go to to find out more - http://www.woodmanpointquarantinestation.com/index.html

The site is now a recreation camp run by the Department of Sport and Recreation.

The path ends not far passed this memorial (Plate 15). Turn right, and walk to the end of the jetty (Plate 15). Turning left leads to main part of John Graham Reserve – see below.

The jetty is very popular for fishing (Plate 17).

It is a short walk back along the same track to the main part of John Graham Reserve where there is a toilet block and drinking taps

The photographs and walking guide are from when I walked the trail in July 20, 2014

Garry Middle, July 2017