04 Jan, 2024

Exploring Esperance and beyond, Western Australia

by John Ford

The coastline along the Southern Ocean in Western Australia has a surprise at every turn. The diverse Western Australian landscape reveals a stunning natural beauty and a richness of experiences across a mixture of robust communities. Even prewarned of the beautiful scenery, the white sands of pristine beaches lapped by the truest of turquoise waters will astonish visitors who venture here for the first time.

We were expecting a lot because some of this region’s beaches have long been regarded as the best in the world. But even prewarned by these accolades, the reality was as good as the promise and the richness of other nearby attractions was just as enchanting. With sand that’s arguably the whitest anywhere, crystal clear blue water and a mild climate for much of the year, a lot is going for this remote coastline.

We had travelled from the east via Norseman, and from there it is a two-hour drive to reach the coast. After the long drive across the Nullarbor, Esperance was a welcome sight, and we found a town alive with a happy tourist atmosphere. Being some 700km southeast of Perth, there's a remoteness in the mix, but let's face it, anything outside Perth in WA has that far-away vibe.

Matthew Flinders travelled the coast in 1802 and named Lucky Bay when he sheltered there in a storm on his voyage of exploration in the HMS Investigator. The French navigator Antoine d'Entrecasteaux was the first European in 1792 to make landfall though, and his ship the L’Espérence was the inspiration for the town’s name. The local Noongar/Wudjari people have resided in the region for much longer. To them, the area is Kepa (water) Kurl (boomerang), an apt description of the winding beaches that take the arc of a boomerang.

Esperance has a population of 13,000, so there's a good mix of shopping opportunities, cafes and accommodation. We stayed in the recently redeveloped RAC Esperance Holiday Park on the foreshore, not far from town and found a bit is going on to keep us entertained. A short walk away, a curved 415m long jetty is a feature on the varied foreshore. Fishing platforms are popular for squid, herring, whiting and flathead, and a dive platform at the end gives access to a nearby artificial reef.

The jetty precinct has playgrounds and interpretive history installations, including a disturbing Aboriginal record. Further west is the commercial port where the main exports of wheat and iron ore load into bulk carriers. At the time of writing, a 230m ship was taking on 30,000 tonnes of grain for China, but the port handles ships of up to 180,000 tonnes. For those curious about what's happening on the wharves, the port's website provides information about all the ships being loaded and waiting.

Sun worshipers

As unusual as it might seem, Esperance is home to a life-size replica of Stonehenge. Constructed over nine months in 2011, once the stones were quarried and shaped, the replica post dates the UK original by 4000 years. Some 137 local Esperance pink granite stones weighing up to 50 tonnes form the familiar five-metre-high circle and the eight-metre-high horseshoes with an altar in the centre. Like the original, this Stonehenge was built to align with the summer and winter solstices where the sun's rays shine through external arches to the altar inside. The complex is 14km out of town on a working farm and well worth the drive. Refreshments are on hand, and you can book a solstice tour in December and June.

Lucky and crafty

If you are a beer can collector, then visiting Lucky Bay Brewing is a must. The cans are works of colourful, bubbly art, and the kangaroo logo is a standout. Even if your collecting days stopped with stamps, the venue offers meals and a range of beers worthy of the trip with a designated driver. Local farms deliver the barley and much of the produce for the kitchen, and many of the mixed variety of beers take their names from local beachside attractions. The ample dining space often thumps to the beat of live music, and families will like the loads of space outside for the young ones that include a pirate ship full of fun.

A family still

I don’t want to sound like our visit revolved around alcohol. Still, we were told by the local tourist folk to experience Esperance Distillery Co. When they launched in 2020, the father-and-son team of moonshiners ranked as the smallest distillery in Australia with a 30L pot still. These days, they have grown into a small batch outlet with gins featuring distinctive flavours courtesy of the unique botanicals of local boronia and the spicy perfume of the endemic taxandria. The Middle Island Pink variety mixes the essence of lemon bush and rosella into a rich-coloured gin that puts the nearby (and only sometimes) Pink Lake to shame.

This drive is great

At around 40km, the Great Ocean Drive takes you on a trek of jaw-dropping coastal scenery before looking back to town past Pink Lake. The drive along the coast may be relatively short, but there are lookouts and beaches that will stretch the time to a full day if you let it. Steep wooden steps drop you down to secluded beaches and back up to panoramic views of the ocean and the nearby islands of Recherche Archipelago, or ‘Bay of Isles’ as it is locally known. The sealed road winds over headlands and along the Southern Ocean to eight very different views. Swimming and snorkelling opportunities include Lovers Cove, Twilight Cove and the kid friendly Ten Mile Lagoon.

A grand park

After a few days in Esperance, enjoying the town and some long hot showers, we stocked up supplies to travel east to our pre-booked campsites in Lucky Bay Campground, part of Cape Le Grand National Park. Western Australia has two Lucky Bays, but our Lucky Bay is found 60km east of Esperance on a sealed road. There’s no shop, so you must fill the larder and take ample fresh water.

Sites are at a premium, and we had to plan ahead by a few months to secure our spot.

The park spreads over 56 roomy unpowered campsites on the side of a gently sloping hill, so most locations have a view of the beach, which wanders away for 5km to the east. Amenities are modern and well-maintained, with pit and flush toilets, freshwater showers and gas barbecues. Dogs are not admitted, and fees apply for park entry and sites.

Access to the beach is right at hand, and with long stretches of pristine sand, many campers take their 4WD vehicle to a quiet spot along the coast for a swim. The turquoise water is remarkably clear, and the temperature was pleasant even in autumn. The sand is firm at low tide, but the beach can be treacherous, especially after stormy weather, so take care if you are new to beach driving. The weather for our visit was superb blue skies, and the perfect water invited a swim and surf before drying off in the warm pre-winter sun. We drove the length of the beach to a rocky outcrop for a walk up a short staircase to enjoy views east over distant beaches and islands.

Resident kangaroos wander into camp and laze on the beach at the end of each day to add to the remote spectacle. And while they are familiar with humans, they are wild, and you need to be careful around them, particularly if you have children running about. Feeding is prohibited.

Sealed roads or decent walking tracks from Lucky Bay open up the Cape Le Grand National Park and lead west to Hellfire Bay, Thistle Cove and Whistling Rock, all with different ways of tipping the granite landscape into the sea. Frenchman Peak is a medium/hard 3km return walk to the 260m summit. Unusual cave formations at the top are thought to have been formed by wave action and underwater currents some 40 million years back when sea levels were 300 metres higher, and the peak was submerged. Cape Le Grand Beach is long enough to give you a decent fill of sand driving, and there's another national park campground behind the sandhills but close to the beach.

To the west is Duke of Orleans Bay and the privately owned, spacious and well-stocked Duke of Orleans Caravan Park, which would be a good option for a change of scenery or if Lucky Bay is booked out.

Everything is up

After our fill of Lucky Bay, we chanced our luck with one of the Esperance Shire’s free camps at Membinup Beach, 80km drive east of Lucky Bay. It's a rough track, but we were okay with getting the van into place. However, it might be a different story in wet weather. Our camp was in a sheltered spot just back from the beach near a low headland. So many localities in Western Australia have names ending in ‘up’, which is a derivation of the Noongar word for ‘place of’. However, I couldn’t find a meaning for ‘Membin’ in the Noongar language, so the reason for the name remains a mystery. The place will live in my memory as an ideal campsite, and we were blessed to spend a few days enjoying the solitude and sense of remoteness, despite only being a couple of hours east of Esperance.

When to visit

Our Esperance Coast adventure was in autumn when the weather was generally calm but warm enough to swim. Winter nights are cooler, of course, but herald the arrival of southern right whales which can be seen close to shore. Springtime is when vistas of colourful wildflowers come to life. December to April is hot and dry.

Fast facts

Duke of Orleans Caravan Park
Wharton Road
Condingup WA 6450
P: 08 9075 0033
E: orleansbaycamp@gmail.com

Esperance Distillery Co
77 Norseman Road
Esperance WA 6450
P: 0475 843 205

Esperance Stonehenge
817 Merival Road
Esperance WA 6450
P: 08 9075 9003
E: esperancestonehenge@outlook.com

Esperance Visitor Centre
Corner of Dempster Street and Kemp Street
Esperance WA 6450
P: 1300 66 44 55 / 08 9083 1555
E: info@visitesperance.com.au

Great Ocean Drive

Le Grand Beach Campground
Cape Le Grand Road
Cape Le Grand WA 6450
P: 08 9083 2100

Lucky Bay Brewing
63 Bandy Creek Road
Esperance WA 6450
P: 0429 777 714

Lucky Bay Campground
Lucky Bay Road
Cape Le Grand WA 6450
P: 08 9083 2100

Membinup Beach Campground
Daniels Road
Howick WA
P: 08 9083 1555
E: shire@esperance.wa.gov.au

RAC Esperance Holiday Park
Goldfields Road
Esperance, WA 6450
P: 1800 871 570 / 08 9071 1251
E: reservations@racesperanceholidaypark.com.au