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 main grassed area of John Graham Recreation Reserve, part of the Woodman Point Regional Park.

Getting there using public transport

The best way to get there using public transport is to catch bus 548. The bus starts from Fremantle Train Station in the north, and Rockingham train station in the south. There is a bus stop on Cockburn road in-between Nyyerbup Circle and Fairbairn Road almost exactly where a path that goes from Cockburn Road to the grassed area John Graham Recreation Reserve comes out - see the Figure 1. There are bus stops on both sides of the road here.

Turn around point

The turn around point is the end of a small beach passed the main car parking area at the Jervoise Bay boat club facilities and complex.

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 to take the 548 bus back. There is a bus stop on Cockburn Road. To get there, walk along the path described below which takes you to O’Kane Court. Turn right at O’Kane Court and follow the road Cockburn Road. The bus stop is about 100m to your left (North). It’s about an 800m walk.

Summary of the walk

Figure 1 below shows the route. The total one way distance is 5.8 km, making it a 11.6 km out and back walk. However, if you take the yellow route back the total distance for the walk would be only 8.0km. This ‘loop’ walk is described below.

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

The starting point has a toilet block and drinking water taps. From here, take the the path towards the jetty but turn left on the red bitumen path before you get to the jetty and beach (of course, the jetty is well worth a visit either now or when (if) you return as the views are spectacular).

The path is set back from the beach and is gently undulating with ocean views at the high points (Plate 1).

The path goes for nearly 2km passed the old quarantine site, now recreation camp (see notes for previous walk) and passed the Jervoise Bay Sailing Club (Plate 2) before arriving at the Woodman Point View Road.

Just after crossing Woodman Point View Road you will come to a path intersection – take the path to the right which goes to Woodman Point (Plate 3). You will later return to this intersection and you will take the other path.

The path runs parallel and to the south of Woodman Point View Road, passed the company Cockburn Cement’s jetty, and shellsands processing plant (Plates 4 & 5). Cockburn Cement dredge the shellands in Owen Anchorage and carryout primary processing of the material at this plant before piping the processed material as a slurry to the main processing plant in Munster.

As you continued along the path, you will also pass the Water Corporation’s emergency sewerage outfall pipe (Plate 6). This only gets used if the main outlet at Cape Peron fails (see a later walk).

The path provides views of the Henderson marine complex and Kwinana industrial area to the south (Plate 7).

The path ends at a groyne, which is popular for fishing (Plate 8), but this is not Woodman Point.

To get to Woodman point, walk along the beach that heads to the north (right) of the groyne (Plate 9).

Woodman Point is connected to a small island by and artificial rock groyne (Plate 10).

Continue walking along the beach on the northern side of Woodman Point heading east rather than going back along the path (Plate 11).

Once you arrive at the Cockburn Cement’s shellsands processing plant, head inland around the plant and cross Woodman Point View Road to re-join the path you were on before – i.e. which led to rock groyne. Turn left and head back the way you came, until you arrived at the previous path intersection (Plate 3). Rather than turn left and go back the way you came, turn right towards the Henderson marine complex. This path is mostly flat passing through scrubby coastal vegetation (Plate 12).

The path ends at the Cockburn Power Boats Association complex (Plate 13). You will notice a café about 150m straight ahead. There are two toilet blocks here. One is about 100m down the road to the right you come to as the path ends. There is a drinking water tap here. Alternatively, you could walk passed the café and into the large carpark and you will notice a brown brick building in the far south-east corner of the carpark. 

Walk passed the café and into the large carpark and head towards the brown brick building toilet block in the far south-east corner of the carpark. Take the limestone path to the beach next to the boat ramp (Plate 14) and turn left and head towards the rock groyne (Plate 15).

I have marked this as the end of the walk and turn around point, but you can climb to the top of the wall and turn right and follow the wall until you reach the fence that marks the boundary of the Jervoise Bay/Henderson Marine Industrial Estate. (Plate 16).

NOTE: The whole industrial estate is fenced off and there is no other way to get access to this point other than the way you have come. You can follow the track along the fence (Plate 17) but you will end up at another fence and gate, and you will not be able to exit onto Cockburn Road (Plate 18).

You can return to the start at least 3 ways: retrace your steps, retrace your steps but DON’T take the loop to Woodman Point, or follow the yellow route as shown in Figure 1. Below I have described the latter option – the path marked in yellow on Figure 1 -  which is the short way back to the start.

Head back to the café (Plate 13) and take the path on the western edge of the buildings back towards the start (Plate 19).

The paths crosses over a road (O’Kane Court) (Plate 20) and then through a lovely Tuart woodland (Plate 21).

The path goes passed the Woodman Point Holiday Park (Plate 22).

Near the end of the walk you will come across a couple of old bunkers that used to have buildings storing munitions magazines. One building remains, which is listed on the State Register of Heritage Places (Plate 23).

As you approach the end of the walk and Nyyerbup Circle, the path veers off to the left (Plate 24).

Take this path and you will notice one of several interesting speed humps used to calm the traffic into the park (Plate 25). The park managers have used some of the old railway sections to create a speed hump.

Finally, as you approach the carpark you will notice the fenced area to the south (left) of the path (Plate 26).  This contains the Nature Reserve section of the Regional Park, which not only contains significant vegetation, but also at least six significant historic sites. Access to this area is restricted for these reasons.

Additional information

Finally, below is the management map from the Management Plan for the Woodman Point Regional Park for reference (Source:  http://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/images/documents/parks/management-plans/decarchive/woodman_pt_mgmt_plan_-_draft_9_web_feb_10.pdf )

Figure 2: Recreation planning for Woodman Point

The photographs were taken and the walking guide information gathered when I walked the trail in July 27, 2014. 

The additional short walk photos were taken on July 17 2017.

Garry Middle, July 2017