World’s Best Beaches

Western Australia has some of the best beaches in the world.

Moreover, and just as importantly from my perspective, one can take a 4WD vehicle onto many of these beaches.  And some of them are truly remote and virtually people free. And at least one of these beaches doesn’t exist anymore!

Although our adventures don’t concentrate on the coast, we do go there often enough to appreciate how lucky we are in the West to have vehicle access to magnificent beaches where we can enjoy driving on vast stretches of golden sands or, depending on where we are, bright white sands.

Some of these beaches are firm enough for long stretches of high speed travel and would present no challenge to a 2WD vehicle with tyres at road pressures (think Parry Beach, Cape Le Grand Beach). Others can be treacherous with dips, soft sand, quicksand, seaweed, gutters, rocks and host of other dangers for the unwary.

Access to many of the beaches can be a challenge while a few are just a simple drive onto the sand. Getting off Yeagarup Beach and Warren Beach up Yeagarup Hill and Callcup Hill respectively presents quite a challenge unless precisely the right tyre pressure is selected. The difficulty of the task increases as the temperature of the sand increases during the day, and the track gets chopped up by dozens of vehicles making the attempt.

In contrast, one doesn’t even need to engage 4WD to drive on or off Cape Le Grand Beach. Just follow the Camry / Civic / CX5 / Excel / Falcon / Commodore.

Below is a selection of beaches we have been fortunate enough to access during our adventures.  While some are very well known others are virtually unvisited.

Every time I drive on these splendid stretches of our coast I reflect on our good fortune to live in a country blessed with such magnificent beaches within reasonable distance from home. I am thankful that I have the technology that allows such ease of access and hope that they will continue to remain ‘open’.

Tips to make your drive on the beach safer and more enjoyable.

Alexander Bay

The beaches at Alexander Bay (WA Beaches 95-97) extend 9.5 kilometres from Ben Island in the west around to Alexander Point to the east.

Explorer/surveyor John Forest named these features after his brother during their epic transcontinental exploration in 1871.

This access point is off Alexander Road. We visited it during our Cape to Cape trip in 2016.

Bilbunya Beach

Bilbunya Beach (WA Beach 23) extends from the dunes at the base of the Wylie Scarp 45 kilometres to Wattle Camp. Depending on the tide the beach can be a narrow track negotiable only high up to the dunes or it can be a 100m wide, hard flat surface suitable for a land speed record attempt (much like Daytona Beach in the 1930s where speeds of 500 kph were exceeded).

Spectacular Bilbunya Dunes are awe-inspiring ‘live’ sand dunes. Numerous individual dunes exceed 100 metres in height. Contrary to what may be read elsewhere they are not the largest dunes in the Southern Hemisphere.

The name “Bilabalanya” was used by Nullarbor pioneer J. Carlisle in 1949 but over the years it has been corrupted to Bilbunya.

The trip to the Bilbunya Dunes in 2013 was exciting, interesting and varied. Heavy rains before we arrived presented some challenges on the tracks and through the saltpans leading in to Israelite Bay.

Boat Harbour

Boat Harbour (WA Beach 339) is a beautiful beach between Cape Riche and Pallinup River. The southern end of the beach is protected from the Southern Ocean by Black Head. It is possible to drive the full 1100 metres of the beach.

We have visited this beach a number of times while also exploring other beaches and tracks in the area.

Bremer Bay Beach

A beautiful, white, wide open beach on the south coast. Bremer Bay Beach (WA Beach 305) extends seven kilometres from John Cove in the west to James Cove in the east and is part of the larger, wider Bremer Bay.

Bremer Bay was named by Surveyor General John Septimus Roe in late 1835. He travelled to the area with Governor James Stirling on the Sally Ann and noted the name of this bay as Manyport Bay but the name is crossed out on his map and Bremer Bay inserted in its place. Roe named the bay, and the coves encompassing it, after James John Gordon Bremer, captain of the Tamar, under whom he served between 1824-1827.

Read more about the Bremer Bay trip here.

Broke Inlet

The foreshores at the south-east end of the Inlet are difficult to access whenever there is water lying around. They are at the end of a track with numerous mudholes and bogholes.

The beach at the mouth of the Inlet (WA Beach 550) is a beautiful, white sand beach.

Broke Inlet was named in 1831 by Governor James Stirling after Captain Philip Vere Broke R.N. who in 1813 was in command of HMS Shannon, a frigate of 38 guns that defeated the American ship the Chesapeake in a battle near Boston.

The Broke Inlet visit was during our annual Australia Day Adventure.

Cable Beach

Twenty kilometres of beautiful white beach near the town of Broome takes its name from the telegraph cable linking Broome with Java in Indonesia in 1889. To house the transmitting equipment, Cable House was built and was later used as the Court House.  The name for the beach was first used in 1962.

A day spent at this beach and a sunset camel ride along the ocean’s edge is a great day out. More about that at Adventure Downunder.

Callcup Beach

Callcup Beach is part of Warren Beach. It is at the base of fearsome Callcup Hill.  Once you’ve conquered Callcup there’s not much you need to know about scaling sand dunes. Callcup is a beautiful white beach, typical of the coast in the D’Entrecasteaus National Park.

Cape Le Grand Beach

This 22 kilometre long beach extends north from Cape Le Grand to Wylie Head, not far from Esperance.  Its hard surface is flat, wide, easy to access and very popular with locals, tourists, fishers and four wheel drivers.

Cape Le Grand was named in December 1792 by Joseph-Antoine Raymond Bruny, after an ensign named Le Grand aboard the frigate Esperance who sighted Esperance Bay, enabling Bruny’s ships, Recherche and Esperance to shelter from a storm.

We drove this beach during our Cape to Cape trip.

Coral Bay

Coral Bay is protected by the Ningaloo Reef, Australia’s only fringing reef.  The coral starts right at the water’s edge.

Coral Bay is a very popular holiday spot for swimming, snorkelling and fishing. One trip to Coral Bay was during the Adventure Downunder.

Dailey River Beach

Dailey River Beach is to the east of Duke of Orleans Bay, north-east of the headland (almost an island) reserved as the Recherche Archipelago Nature Reserve.

Seaweed is treacherous. Especially dry seaweed with a thin coating of sand to disguise it.

More about this trip here.

Denmark Beach

Denmark Beach is among the most beautiful on the south coast.

Duke of Orleans Bay Beach

Duke of Orleans Bay Beach extends from the caravan park in the south three kilometres to the Recherche Archipelago Nature Reserve. It is a comfortable beach to drive on and these is a small dune ‘playground’ partway along.

John Forrest was the first to mention this name in 1870 without mentioning who named it or whether it was named after a member of the French aristocracy or quite possibly, a ship.

We camped at the Duke of Orleans caravan park during our Cape to Cape trip .

Dunn Beach

Rossiter Bay is split by Dunn Rocks. The name is derived from an early settler’s nearby farm called Dunns farm.

Dunn Beach is wide and white with interesting sections needing careful attention to stay safe. We visited this beach during our Cape to Cape trip in 2016.

Foster Beach

Foster Beach is a magnificent, white sand beach accessed via Minarup Track, 22 kilometres south-west of Bremer Bay.  It can also be accessed through a difficult-to-follow course across dunes from the Cape Knob track.

We visited Foster Beach during our 2018 Australia Day break.

Hellfire Beach

A beautiful, white sand beach, Hellfire Bay is in the Cape Le Grand National Park. It is thought to have been named after what is commonly known as St Elmo’s fire – an electrical discharge that sometimes occurs above ships’ masts.

We visited Hellfire Beach during our Cape to Cape trip.

Horrocks Beach

Horrocks is a popular fishing spot. The soft sand on the beach can be treacherous but the dunes behind the beach are a four wheel drivers’ paradise.

The name for the settlement was used from 1947.  It was named after Joseph Horrocks, who originally came to the district as Medical Officer at the convict settlement of Lynton in 1854.

We visited Horrocks during one of our annual Australia Day trips.

Israelite Bay

Israelite Bay Beach is accessible by vehicle but it is covered in seaweed and hazardous to drive on. However, the beach to the south-west/south (around the corner of the headland) is pristine and whiter than white. The sand squeals when you walk or drive on it.

Andrew Dempster, Charles Dempster, G.M. Lanarch, George Maxwell and Billy explored the area in 1863 and Dempster applied the name Israelite Bay as this was the boundary between those aboriginals who did and did not practice circumcision at the time of the naming.

We have visited Israelite Bay a few times including this one.

Lake Boonderoo

Lake Boonderoo has formed only twice since the colonisation of Australia. The last time was in 1995 after Cyclone Bobby caused Ponton Creek to pour millions of gigalitres of floodwaters into what once known merely as Yandallah Claypan. The resulting lake persisted for ten years and many families of birdlife lived their entire life here. It’s now back to being Yandallah Claypan.

In 1995 we explored Ponton Creek and Lake Boonderoo (more here). These beachlandings were spectacularly successful – so much so that the task of pushing the boat back to the water became onerous. It was nothing to get the craft 50 metres out of the lake.

Having taken an inflatable boat down to the underground pool at Cocklebiddy Cave (now closed) and used the same boat on Lake Boonderoo I’m fairly confident in claiming that the number of people who have gone boating above and below the Nullarbor Plain is a very, very small number – perhaps one.

The full story of our remarkable trip to Lake Boonderoo is here.

Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand

This iconic stretch of bright white sand is the pinup beach for Tourism WA. Coupled with resident, friendly kangaroos it has become irresistible as a tourist destination. With good reason.

This beautiful bay got its name from Matthew Flinders in 1802 because he considered it lucky that he found a safe anchorage at a potentially hazardous time in his circumnavigation of Australia. Finding himself among the myriad islands of the Archipelago of the Recherche, and seeing no possibility of reaching clear water in which to anchor for the night, and no prospect of shelter under any of the islands, Flinders adopted the hazardous measure of steering directly before the wind toward the mainland. He anchored in this bay overnight, sheltering from the dangers of the surrounding islands.

One visit to Lucky Bay was during our Cape to Cape trip.

Lucky Bay, Coral Coast

This pristine beach and surrounding dunes are paradise for four wheel drivers and consequently are very popular. Contrary to popular belief, Kalbarri to the north is accessible via the beach, dunes and roads without crossing private property – although the feat requires some ingenuity and confidence.

There is no information about how the bay was named. We were there on one of our Australia Day trips.

Meerup Beach

Meerup Beach (WA Beach 581) is an extension of Warren Beach and takes it name from the Meerup River that enters the Southern Ocean here. In the first of the photographs above the vehicles are parked on the spit formed between the river and the ocean.

The river was shown on public plans as Meerup Brook from 1877 until 1909, when changed to Meerup River. Earlier still it was shown as Bowles River.

Meerup Beach, Warren Beach and Yeagarup Dunes are very popular spots for fishing and four wheel driving. These photographs were taken during our 2016 Australia Day trip.

Murchison House Station

This unnamed beach on Murchison House Station was too exposed for comfort so we found a sheltered spot behind the dunes for the first night of our trip.

Pallinup Beach

Most of the usable beach is actually the bar across the Pallinup River that separates the Pallinup Estuary (more correctly Beaufort Inlet) from the Southern Ocean.

Access either from Borden-Bremer Bay Road or South Coast Highway is a bit of a mission so Pallinup Beach (WA Beach 326) is never crowded. Being an east facing beach it is somewhat protected by Groper Bluff.

More about this magnificent beach here.

Poison Creek Beach

Poison Creek Beach (WA Beach 55) is a disappointingly small stretch of sand at the end of a long drive down Poison Creek Road in Cape Arid National Park. It is in the larger Sandy Bight, separated from the Great Australian Bight by Cape Pasley. The creek doesn’t enter the ocean and the build up of seaweed on the beach makes it uninviting.

This cape was given the name ‘Cap Arride’ by D’Entrecasteaux in 1792. The name was anglicised to Cape Arid by Matthew Flinders in 1802.

Port Gregory Beach

The beach at Port Gregory (WA Beach 1120) extends less than two kilometres to the south east and about a kilometre to the north-west.  Great for swimming and fishing.  Some bottlenose dolphins came inside the barrier reef when we were there.

Lt. B.F. Helpman of the colonial schooner Champion named this port after brothers Augustus and Frank Gregory in 1849.

Reef Beach

Unsurprisingly, Reef Beach (WA Beach 323) received its name because of the fringing reef that extends for about seven kilometres, approximately 50 to 200 metres offshore.

One of our visits to Reef Beach was during the 2018 Australia Day break.

Rossiter Bay Beach

Rossiter Bay stretches 28 kilometres from Cheyne Point to Mississippi Point. It’s a great beach for four wheel driving. Wide, open and white.

The bay was named by Edward John Eyre in June 1841 after Captain Rossiter of the French Whaler Mississippi who gave Eyre assistance at this place.

It was shown as Rossiter Harbour by C.D. Price during telegraph line surveys in 1876/77. Price incorrectly applied the name Rossiter Bay to a small cove within Esperance Bay. This confusion was increased when Eyre’s Rossiter Bay was shown as Mississippi Bay after hydrographic surveys by Commander J.W. Combe RN in 1900-1901. Because of this confusion Combe’s Mississippi Bay and Price’s Rossiter Bay were changed to Rossiter Bay and Wylie Bay respectively at the suggestion of Surveyor General T. S. Parry in January 1947.

We accessed this beach off Saddleback Road and travelled about 18 kilometres west along the sand to an exit track that leads to neighbouring Lucky Bay. More about this trip.

Shell Beach

In Shark Bay is one of only two beaches in the world made entirely of shells – Shell Beach. This amazing beach in L’Haridon Bight is made up of billions of tiny coquina bivalve shells.

In 2017 Shell Beach (WA Beach 1394) was named by National Geographic as one of the world’s  top 21 beaches.

More about our visit.

Starvation Boat Harbour Beach

This beach (WA Beach 226) is accessible from Southern Ocean Road, a good track that runs east out of Hopetoun for forty kilometres.

It was the start point for the No.1 Rabbit Proof Fence built in 1905.

Unfortunately , this very historically important beach is navigable for only 400 metres. The way off the beach needs to be approached with care.

Tooregullup Beach

Tooregullup Beach (WA Beach 298) extends south from Gordon Inlet – the access point to the beach – eight kilometres Whalebone Point.  It is in the larger Doubtful Islands Bay, fifteen kilometres east of Bremer Bay.

The name for the beach is derived from a nearby swamp that was named by surveyor B.W. Ridley in 1896.

Warren Beach

This wonderful beach (WA Beach 582) extends from Black Head in the south-east to Yeagarup Beach in the north-west. Many people come onto the beach by descending Yeagarup Hill with the intention of exiting it via Callcup Hill. This entails crossing the Warren River which, depending on the time of the year, may or may not be feasible.

Whether one descends Yeagarup Hill and climbs Callcup Hill or tackles the trip in reverse it is always a challenge and lots of fun. The key is tyre pressure.

Two things you can count on at Warren Beach. It will be windy and the sea will be rough.  I have never seen the Southern Ocean flat calm.

The river after which the beach was named was noted by Lieutenant William Preston in April 1831 during an expedition along the south coast but was not named by him. It is presumed to have been named by Governor James Stirling soon after receiving Preston’s report.

Stirling named after the river after Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren RN (1753-1822) who was Commander-in-Chief of the North America Station during the period Stirling was captain of HMS Brazen. Stirling engaged in naval activity off the North American coast in 1813 during the war with America.

Wattle Camp Beach

Wattle Camp Beach is invariably covered with seaweed. It is officially part of Bilbunya Beach (WA Beach 23). Alexander Forrest recorded this name for a camp set up by John Forrest’s exploration party on 30 May 1870.

WA Beach 222

This long (6.6 km), curving beach is to the east of Starvation Harbour beach.

Whenever a beach narrows and the angle of the sand increases it is time to consider an exit.

WA Beach 334

Though not possessing an official name, WA Beach 334 will draw out some suitable expletives to describe the very soft sand encountered for 400 metres of its length from the entry point but which very likely extends a further kilometre to the west.

Each of the drivers of the vehicles shown in the following pics is very experienced driving on beaches. The tyre pressure of each of the vehicles was around 10 psi. It was a very soft beach.

Apart from the soft sand challenge, the waves of the magnificent Southern Ocean, the howling winds straight Antartica and the brilliant blue sky there is not much to recommend this place.

Wharton Beach

Beautiful Wharton Beach (WA Beach 115) is immediately to the south of the Duke of Orleans Bay caravan park.

The beach is wide and firm, perfect for four wheel driving and. at just over a kilometre in length, it has plenty of space.

The beach is named after nearby Wharton Island which was named during a hydrographic survey in 1900 after Admiral Sir William J.L. Wharton, Hydrographer of the Royal Navy 1887.

Yeagarup Beach

The combination of Yeagarup Dunes, Yeagarup Hill and Yeagarup Beach (WA Beach 583) is a four wheel driver’s dream. Beautiful, challenging and interesting.

The drive from the air down point at the end of Ritter Road, through the forest to the face of the dunes is just the start of the adventure.  Once on top of these 100 square kilometres of dunes it is another world, an experience one can get only at Yeagarup. A 2.5 kilometre drive over bright white dunes leads into a bush track. Four kilometres along this track is Yeagarup Hill.  Great to descend but a challenge coming back up.  At the bottom of this long hill is magnificent, windswept Yeagarup Beach.  Always interesting, always a fantastic drive.

 

© Kim Epton 2010-2024
4194 words, 38 photographs.

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