A walk along Koombana Bay and the Bunbury waterfront, Western Australia

Hi everyone, I hope you and yours are doing well. 

The last few weeks, I have shown you some of the walks near where I live. Today I will share another. 

Back in 2017 I shared a walk around a walk around the Leschenault Inlet in Bunbury - the city near where I live. On the map below you can see the Leschenault Inlet which I wrote about in that post. 

The last few days we have had beautiful sunny winter days - perfect for walking. Last Thursday we went into Bunbury and walked along Koombana Bay from the Dolphin Discovery Centre to the old gantry crane. When I looked it up on the internet the distance showed 2.5 kilometres, but that was via the roads. We walked along the beach front. You can see the route on this map. The blue line shows the drive route - but look closer and you can see where the land meets the water - this is where we walked along the walking paths. 

We parked at the Dolphin Discovery Centre and walked west. Opened in 1994, the not-for-profit Dolphin Discovery Centre was established to allow tourists and locals to interact, learn about and enjoy the local wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) that regularly visit the area. There is a dolphin interaction zone on the beach, interpretive centre, swim tours, as well as a cafe. You can learn more about their work here: Dolphin Discovery Centre

You can't see the dolphins very well in these pics below, but as you can see people have gathered to see them. You should not interfere with them or feed the dolphins. 

Here is a previous post I wrote about the dolphins around Bunbury: A magical dolphin experience. No I wasn't in the water with them to take this photo. This was from a previous summer when we were out in a boat and I hung over the side with my camera to take some images as the dolphins swam up to us. SO magical. 

Koombana Bay beach is very popular during summer, especially with those staying at the caravan park across the road. It is a safe beach for children. These shade sails are taken down in the winter (this is an old photo) and the lookout tower was unfortunately uprooted and blown across the path during recent storms. A bit further along is where they play beach volley-ball during the summer. 

Along here there is also a very popular playground and picnic area, very popular with families. 

Next stop is the Wardandi Boodja - a five and a half metre corten steel sculpture located in the park on the foreshore. The sculpture represents a Noongar face, created by sculpture artists Nicole and Alex Mickle of Safehaven Studios as well as the local indigenous community who played a significant role in helping to create the artwork. The messages around the base of the sculpture encourage us to slow down and listen, and step gently. 

From here we walk past the 62-Thirty Cafe and the Koombana Bay Yacht Club. Many of the boats are parked up in the yard for the winter. 

Then we walk over a bridge that takes us over the channel that links Koombana Bay to the Leschenault Inlet. Locally called "the plug" there are gates that can been closed during big storm surges. Along here you can learn about the many ship wrecks that litter this part of the coast from years ago. 

On the other side of the bridge are big new high-rise residential apartments, a hotel and many cafes and restaurants looking out over the bay. There is a new little bar that we sometimes stop at if we are walking along here during the late afternoon in summer. There is a new little Asian cafe along here - Flow 36 - which is a great place for lunch. I need to take a photo next time we are there. 

From here we just keep walking around past all the restaurants until we reach the breakwater going out to the old gantry crane. In this photo below you can see where we have just walked by. You can see the walk bridge where we walked over "the plug" on the left hand side.

It is a pleasant walk out to the old crane. Big boats are moored in this sheltered waterway I think some people live on them. In the second photo below you can see an overall view of the boat harbour with the walk out to the old crane on the right and the land-backed wharf of the outer harbour on the left.  This photo was taken a few years ago - I need to take a new one. 

The old jetty is gone now, replaced with this rock breakwater causeway jutting out into Koombana Bay.  The original jetty was constructed by convict labour employed by local contractor, William Forrest in 1864. Previously people and goods were transferred by boat from ships anchored offshore.   The jarrah and karri decking was supported on piles of jarrah, blackbutt and wandoo. The jetty was decommissioned in 1982 and despite an intensive campaign the jetty fell into disrepair and its demolition was completed in June 2013.

Today only the electric ship loading crane remains. The crane was built in 1911 by Sir William Arrol & Co Ltd in Parkhead, Glasgow. Arrol was a civil engineer who also built the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland and the Tower Bridge in London. He also built the Arrol Gantry at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast which were used to construct the Titanic and her sister ships. 

From here we turn back down the causeway, passed another restaurant and the Jetty Baths playground and picnic area. 

And the Australian Darter drying his wings after diving for fish, and the white egret posing.

Then back the way we had come, past the restaurants, over the footbridge, back past the yacht club, to the Koombana Bay 62-Thirty Beach Cafe for coffee and a muffin before heading back to the car. Please don't feed the seagulls! The don't need any encouragement. 

That's it from me today. I hope you have enjoyed this walk along Koombana Bay and the Bunbury waterfront. Do you have a favourite waterfront walk? Perhaps you would like to tell us about it in your comments. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 
I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday @ Soul & Mind & So On

Saturdays Critters - Viewing Nature With Eileen

Inspire Me Monday

Travel Tuesday

Pictorial Tuesday 

Talking About It Tuesdays @ Slices of Life

ThroughMy Lens 
Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity. 
       and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday 
Welcome to Nature Thursday

Skywatch Friday

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.

Until then, enjoy your day... it won't be back.