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Point D’Entrecasteaux is a dramatic, generally-windswept headland, which affords splendid vistas in every direction.
Adjacent to the hamlet of Windy Harbour, it is less than one hour away from Pemberton; the drive is scenic, and all on sealed roads.
On this blustery winter afternoon we were eagerly anticipating some very large waves, a whole lot of spray, maybe some whales, probably some ‘roos.
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..,but definitely not “wasteland”)
To reach the mouth of the Warren River on Yeagarap Beach one has to traverse the Southern Hemisphere’s largest landlocked mobile dune system.
The Yeagarap Dunes cover nearly 30 square kilometres.
As it moves progressively further inland – at a rate of circa 4 metres per year – this dune system “eats”/buries forest, and reshapes/shifts/dams some local lakes and wetlands.
And the dune system’s own “mosaic” of vegetation patterns is far from “fixed”.
It ranges from very steep, nearly-naked sand dunes to dense bush “hollows”, where the leaf-littered sandy “floor” is exquisitely punctuated by wildflowers in springtime.
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My feet were planted on the same strand, and this post’s photo was taken only moments later than was the final image in this series’ chapter #6.
Common to both: foam…foam with which one can be “relaxed and comfortable”.
Its presence on Yeagarup Beach was entirely benign.
No alga was “blooming”.
The Warren River’s and the relevant section of the Southern Ocean’s waters were not polluted.
Q: so what was going on?
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A river’s mouth and the beach it breaches – or only sometimes manages to breach – can be very dynamic places.
From one visit to another, they may display utterly different “faces” to an occasional visitor.
Anyone familiar with the mouth of the not-so-mighty Murray, adjacent to the Coorong, knows that even a river mouth’s “precise” location can be a highly-movable feast…or famine.
This is also true of many much more “modest” rivers, such as the Warren.
On the winter morning of 16 August, this particular meeting of river and ocean underwent many changes in mood, even within a single half-hour.
Comments closedThis post’s and the previous chapter’s photos were taken within the space of one minute, from almost the very same spot on Yeagarup Beach.…
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Untarnished, but sometimes “stained”…benignly.
I took the photo at 11.19 pm on 16 August, when a handful of humans stood on Yeagarup Beach.
This is where the Warren River meets the Southern Ocean.
In global terms, the Warren is “modest”, in both length and average flow rate.
However, its lower reaches are glorious. Beautiful, globally unique, very tall, never-logged forests segue to dunes, an estuary and a truly wild ocean shore.
As evident in the featured image, when a “properly” wet winter feeds it, the Warren carries enough tannin-rich water to darken the Southern Ocean’s edge.
(and – as a future chapter will show – the river’s mouth then moves “up the beach”, which it reshapes)
Comments closedIt is pleasingly hard to believe that such wonderfully wild, unspoilt shoreline could be so very easy to reach.
All photos copyright Doug Spencer, 14 September 2020.
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Around one hour’s easy drive south from Pemberton, via Northcliffe, you meet the Southern Ocean at Windy Harbour.
To the east, hulking over its sheltered bay and its little collection of shacks and camping ground/caravan park, is Point D’Entrecasteaux.
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The featured image (all photos copyright Doug Spencer, 27 October 2016) was taken from Yeagarup Beach, circa 30 kilometres from Pemberton.
The Southern Ocean’s shore was just behind me, as I gazed across the Warren River’s lowermost section.
To get there, we had driven through some of Australia’s most beautiful “virgin” tall Eucalypt forest, then crossed the Southern Hemispere’s largest land-locked mobile dune system.
Comments closedThis series will showcase Western Australia’s southernmost shoreline – from the mouth of the Warren River, through to Point Ann.
In most of the world “magnificent, wild, uncrowded, not even one house within sight” and “easily reached” are mutually exclusive categories.
Not here!
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