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 carpark at the end of Siracusa Court, Secret Harbour.

Getting there using public transport

The best way to get using public transport is to take bus 561 from either the Rockingham or Warnbro train stations, getting off at the bus stop on Secret Harbour Boulevard, just south of Siracusa Court. It’s a walk of around 450m down Siracusa Court (head north from the bus stop to get to Siracusa Court) to the carpark.

Turn around point

At the turn around point at the carpark at the end of Crystaluna Drive.

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 using public transport from the turn around point is the catch bus 558 and then 561 as follows. Head east along Crystaluna Drive for about 600m and turn right (south) into Dorado Street. The bus stop is about 100m on the right. Take the bus heading north and get off at the bus stop on Warnbro Sound just before Bancoura Parkway. Walk north and turn right into Bancoura Parkway and the terminus stop of bus 561 is about 100m on the right. Take Bus 561 back to the bus stop on Secret Harbour Boulevard, just south of Siracusa Court.

Alternatively, you can take bus 558 north to either Warnbro or Rockingham train stations, or south to Mandurah train Station.

Summary of the walk

Figure 1 below shows the route. The one-way distance is 4.0km, making it an 8.0km out and back walk. NOTE: there are two options for this walk – see comments 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

This walk is in three parts (although can be done entirely as a beach walk – see comments below):

·       The concrete path through the Secret Harbour area;

·       Beach walk between the two residential areas; and

·       Bitumen path through the Golden Bay.

As can be seen from Figure 1, the residential area between Secret Harbour and Golden Bay has yet to be fully developed, which means the foreshore area is also yet to be gazetted as a reserve and handed over to the City of Rockingham. As a result, the foreshore is undeveloped with no formal path through this section. Beach walking is the only option at the time of writing this.

To be honest – see comments below about the paths – the most enjoyable way to walk this section is to walk the whole 4km along the beach. However, I will describe the walk which maximizes the uses of the existing paths.

The starting point is the carpark at the end of Siracusa Court (Plate 1), where there is a shower but no toilet. From here, head south along the concrete path that starts at the southern end of the carpark (Plate 2), passed one of the artificial wetlands which is part of a larger highly manicured portion of the foreshore reserve.

There is a wide vegetated area between the path and the beach, and the dunes and vegetation here are high enough to block views of the ocean. The path leads into a very large carpark at the main part of Secret Harbour Beach, where there is the surf life saving club and cafe. There are toilet and shower facilities here as well as a drinking tap.

You can walk through the middle of the carpark (Plate 3), or take the path that runs on the western edge of the carpark next to the dunes (also visible in Plate 3).

At the south-western end of the carpark (Plate 4) the path continues on to a look out with nice, but distant, views to the ocean (Plate 5).

The constructed path stops at this point, and there are two options to continue from here: head inland and walk along Foreshore Drive parallel to the coast, or take the sand track to the beach and walk along the beach – Plate 6. If you choose to walk along Foreshore Drive, the road end after about 1.3 km and you then have to take the sand track to the beach and walk along the beach.

It looks like that in the future the path will eventually continue south but, based on the location of the existing path here, the new path will also be well setback from the beach behind the main dunes. If so, there will be few, if any glimpses of the ocean. In my view, a better option would be to construct a path like the one in the Warnbro to the nude bathing beach section, which meanders through the dunes with sweeping ocean views in the elevated sections.

In short, without some sensible thinking, the entire path in this part of the coast could be a very uninteresting walk trail.

After about 800m along the beach or Foreshore Drive, there is another look out within the foreshore reserve (Plate 7).

From the look out, there are two sand tracks heading south, but they have both been fenced off to allow for rehabilitation (Plate 8). Both tracks are set back a long way back from the beach anyway and wouldn’t be particularly interesting tracks to walk.

The beach walk is pleasant enough. This section of the coast doesn’t have any significant offshore reefs or islands to provide protection from the waves: compare this to the beaches north of Becher Point. Consequently, this section of the coast is a higher energy coastline and popular for surfing (Plate 9).

As you can tell by the recorded track that I walked shown in Figure 1, it appears that I walked in the ocean in places, which shows that the beach here is accreting and the Google mapping has yet to catch up with this.

There is a formal walking path in the Golden Bay Section, which has its northern end where the houses can be seen from the beach. There are two options from here.

1. If you opt to keep walking on the beach, continue until you have travelled a total of 4km, and take the sand track up towards the houses. This spot marks the start of the dog beach (Plate 10). This will take you to the carpark at the end of Crystaluna Drive, which is the turn around point.

2. If you opt to walk along the path, it starts from the car park at the end of Dampier Drive. The grassed area to the north of the carpark has a toilet block. There is another lookout at the southern end of this carpark (Plate 11). This walk ends at the carpark at the end of Crystaluna Drive, which is about 700m along the formal path, which is the turn around point.

The path is well set back from the coast and passes through thick vegetation with high dunes between the path and the coast (familiar story?) – Plate 12.

At the turn around point at the carpark at the end of Crystaluna Drive, there is a shower here and a café and general store on the corner of Crystaluna Drive and Marillana Drive – about 50m from the carpark.

If you opt to walk back along the beach, the track up to the carpark where the walk starts is easy to spot as it is marked with a large limestone bolder which is also the start of the dog beach – Plate 13.

Garry Middle, January 2018