Beaches

Hopetoun's most obvious attraction is its beaches. To the east of town are Starvation Bay and Powell Point where visitors will find a boat ramp, camping facilities ($6.60 per bay per night), toilets and barbecues and can enjoy surfing and swimming. There is no fresh water. Mason Bay offers camping, barbecues and toilets but no fresh water ($6.60 per bay per night). Twelve Mile Beach has only toilets but it is a good spot for fishing with a reef located 13 km offshore. Five Mile Beach, too, has toilets and fishing but no fresh water.

To the west of Hopetoun are West Beach, which has toilets, and Four Mile Beach which offers free gas barbecues, toilets, walks, fishing and whale watching (in season). Further west is Fitzgerald River National Park which has many more beautiful beaches.

Hopetoun Beaches

• East of Hopetoun STARVATION BAY and POWELL POINT: Camping, surfing, swimming, boat ramp, barbecue, toilets. No fresh water.$6.60 per bay per night. 
• MASON BAY: Camping, barbecue, toilets. No fresh water.$6.60 per bay per night.
• TWELVE MILE: Toilets, fishing. Reef at 13 mile. No fresh water.
• FIVE MILE: Toilets, fishing. No fresh water.
• TWO MILE: Swimming; toilets. No camping. No fresh water.
• HOPETOUN: Toilets, water, barbecue, boat ramp and jetty, caravan park and camping, hotel, motel, chalet village.

• WEST BEACH: Toilets.
• West of Hopetoun – Fitzgerald River National Park (admission fees apply) National Park Ranger: Phone 9838 3060
• FOUR MILE: Free gas barbecue, camping, toilets, swimming, walking, fishing, whale watching.
• BARRENS BEACH: Walking, fishing, whale watching.
• EAST MT BARREN: Walkway to the top, allow 2 - 3 hour.

• EAST MYLIES BEACH: Walking, fishing, whale watching.
• MYLIES BEACH: Walking, fishing, surfing.
• WEST BEACH: No facilities. Surfing.
• HAMERSLEY INLET: 2 camp sites, free gas barbecue, toilets, walking, fishing, nature study. Small boat access to inlet. No fresh water.
• WHALEBONE BEACH: Backpack camping.
• QUOIN HEAD: 4WD track only, free gas barbecue, toilets, camping walking, fishing.

NO CARAVANS, NO DOGS, NO FIRES, NO FIREARMS and NO PETS are allowed in the Fitzgerald River National Park.

BEWARE of rips off park beaches. Please take your litter home with you – no bins are provided.

McCulloch Park

The entrance of the park is made of timber salvaged from the old jetty. The park has a drinking water fountain, electric barbecue and children's playground equipment and a new replica Railway Station and Bandstand which is now a prominent feature. The park was named after Jim McCulloch MBE, a respected Hopetoun resident and philanthropist, who founded the Ravensthorpe Museum and Wildflower Show.

The Groyne

The Groyne was constructed in 1984 to replace the old jetty finally demolished in 1983. There are six remaining pylons of the old jetty (on the foreshore beach near the large shelter) a 430 m wooden structure which extended the lightering jetty and curved to the south east into deep water. The year of its completion in 1907 marked also the start of the building of the Hopetoun-Ravensthsorpe railway when a mile of track was laid reaching from the head of the jetty to the warehouse. More information in "Hopetoun Jetty 1902 - 1983".

Hopetoun Railway Station 1909 - 1935

The layout of the tracks and buildings, the bases of the overhead tank, inspection pit and the remains of the turntable can still be seen 600 metres east along the Esplanade following the Railway Heritage Walk trail. The station was demolished in the 1940's, a new replica Railway Station and Bandstand is now a prominent feature in McCulloch park in the centre of Hopetoun. In 1947 a salmon cannery which was constructed along the line on the now clear area of the roadside 200 m ,after Chambers Street. This was demolished in the 1950s. A further 1.3 kms east along the Esplanade note the track of the railway line bearing away left at an angle. It leads to the ruins of the first building in the Hopetoun area, Dunn’s Cottage. This makes a very pleasant walk along the old railway line following the Railway Heritage walk trail. Other sections of the Walk Trail between Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun are described in brochures available at the Visitors Centres.

Seal Island

Haul out rock for Australian Sea Lion for most of the year, situated South of the Groyne.

Peter the Fisherman Church

Built 1975. Notices of services are posted on notice board at the front of the church.

Old Post Office 1901 - 1978

Manual telephone was originally operated here. Business and rainfall recording then moved across the street to the General Store (1978). This building was extensively renovated and restored in 2001 the renovation won a Finalist award in the WA Design Awards in 2002, since the renovation the building has been re-opened as The Deck.

Old Metropolitan Hotel

This building was built 1903. Modern stained glass leadlight windows. PRIVATE PROPERTY currently under renovation.

Mary Ann Haven

Officially opened Australia Day, 26 January 1993 - Senior Citizens Centre, Home and Community Care, Medical Consulting Rooms. This is a wonderful example of how, in three years a group of dedicated Hopetoun people made a dream into a real community asset.

Pavilion and Sports Centre

Facilities for football, hockey, cricket, bowls, basketball, and tennis. 18 hole golf course is along Hamersley Drive. Well equipped, fully fenced playground for young children. Remember to supervise children at play.

DOLSPOINT woodfired pizzas on Thurs, Fri, and Sat; also wave ski and tennis court hire, volley ball,hockey, soccer, cricket... Good place to train, good place for a game! Phone 98383344

Hopetoun Hall

Typical turn-of-the-century goldfields architecture. Originally the Kundip Hall (deserted gold mining town halfway between Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe). Dismantled and moved to Hopetoun in 1949, side sections and verandas added later. Recently added adjacent larger community building for many years operated as the Ravensthorpe Hospital.

Table Hill or Beacon Lookout

Overlooks Hopetoun 2 kms from Post Office. Follow the signs. Outstanding full circle view of ocean, natural bush, farmland and the mountains in the Fitzgerald River National Park (park entry is only 10km from Hopetoun). THE CAIRN to mark 150 years since EDWARD JOHN EYRE and WYLIE passed this way, walking from Fowlers Bay in South Australia to King George Sound (Albany) in search of an overland stock route, the Cairn was unveiled in June 1991.

Hopetoun Cemeteries

3 kms north of the town beside the road on the east side. Go through the present cemetery dating from 1974 to the old cemetery consecrated in 1903 and used only until 1910. The old cemetery has a group of six graves marked with plaques and picket fence. A few metres away is a single fenced grave.

Dunn's Swamp and Dunn Cottage

Just 1 km further north along the Hopetoun road is the sign for Dunn's Swamp along a gravel road on the right. It is well worth a visit to this calm and beautiful fresh water lake surrounded by paperbark trees. An un-signposted southerly track leads to the ruins of Dunn's Cottage built in 1877. This may be easier to find by following the Railway Heritage Walk Trail. The Dunn brothers chose this spot to water their sheep, shear them and transport the wool from Mary Ann Haven by boat rather than by land from Cocanarup to Albany.

Hamersley Drive Heritage Scenic Trail

This 170-km circular route makes its way to Fitzgerald River National Park. Brochures are available from the Tourist Bureau.

Fitzgerald River National Park

Apart from the beautiful beaches and the excellent fishing, the major attraction in the area is Fitzgerald River National Park, a huge 330,000-ha strip of the coastline between Hopetoun and Bremer Bay. It is, by any measure, a superb park of rivers, dramatic gorges, spongelite cliffs along the Hamersley and Fitzgerald River valleys, wide sand plains, isolated mountains, rugged cliffs, pebbly beaches and spectacular displays of wildflowers between August and November. Activities include sightseeing, walking, photography, camping, canoeing and fishing. During the winter months, southern right whales can be seen from the cliffs at Point Ann.

CALM have put out a brochure titled Fitzgerald River and Frank Hann National Parks which provides detailed information on the roads in the park, a useful map, information about camping (there are no facilities), fishing and bushwalking.

A very detailed study of the park, A Park in Perspective, has been commissioned by the Fitzgerald River National Park Association and written by Keith Bradby. It provides information on the geology, geomorphology, climate, vegetation and history of the park.

In the Introduction Bradby sums up the appeal of the park when he writes: 'The park sits astride the incised valleys of four major river systems, which flow south-east to the coast. Dominating the southern section is a low range of rugged quartzite hills known collectively as The Barrens, while the core of the park is an extensive undulating plain...The flora of the park is exceptionally rich and diverse. Although the Park is only 0.2 per cent of Western Australia's land surface, over 20 per cent of Western Australia's plant species occur there. Many of the plant species are endemic to the region, reflecting the tight and varied plant/soil mosaics. Vegetation varies, from woodland on the richer soils through to mallee and mallee heath.

'There are more recorded species of birds, mammals and frogs than in any other reserve in south-west Australia. This is partly a reflection of the park size, but also because of the blending of wet country and dry country species which occur in the park.' In fact, there are 209 bird species and over 1800 recorded plant species, including 81 orchid types. 62 plant species are unique to the park, including the brightly-coloured royal hakea. Some of the park's flora, such as the showy banksia, is notable for unusual and striking leaf-shapes. 18 native mammals are known to inhabit the park, including the rare dibbler and the heath rat; both, at one time, thought to be extinct. Threatened species, such as the woylie, the tammar wallaby and the ground parrot, mostly inhabit the heaths and mallee in the north of the park, which preserves an example of the vegetaion once typical of the wheatbelt before clearing occurred.

There is a walkway to the top of East Mount Barren Lookout which affords fine views of the area. The trek takes two to three hours return. Beaches along the coast include Barrens Beach and East Mylies Beach (both good for walking, fishing and whale watching), West Beach (good for surfing but with no facilities), Whalebone Beach (for remote backpack camping), Quoin Head (accessible by 4WD only with free gas barbecues, toilets, bushwalking, camping and fishing), and Hamersley Inlet, which has two campsites, toilets, bushwalking and fishing opportunities.

Culham Inlet

This inlet, not far west of Hopetoun, is the landlocked estuary of the Steere and Phillips Rivers. This is a good spot for a bushwalk when the wildflowers are blooming in spring. For further information ring the Tourist Bureau.