Denmark on WA's South Coast

View over Peaceful Bay Near Denmark

The trip down to Denmark and the South Coast from Pemberton was very scenic. We drove through some wildreness areas and stopped at the lookout in the William Bay National Park. Denmark is in the heart of the Great Southern and is listed in Lonely Planet's top 10 destinations in the world (so they say!). It is about 4 1/2 hours from Perth with a climate similar to Ulladulla so it would be great in the summer. The beaches and coastline are simply breathtaking.

Entry to Wilsons Inlet at Ocean Beach Point

Denmark is located on a large inlet called Wilsons Inlet. It's almost like a natural harbour but isn't deep enough for that. The scenery around the area is fantastic. It has about 100Kms of spectacular coastline and beaches. The Inlet itself is 20Kms long and is fed from the Denmark and Hay Rivers. Adjacent is the Nullaki Peninsula on the southern side. The whole area is very popular for boating, fishing and swimming.

Elaphant Rocks from the Lookout

We stayed in a park at Ocean Beach which is about 10K from the town right on the beach and entrance to the Inlet. We saw quite a few board riders out, some older guys as well. Its very popular for surfing, even though there wasn't much surf running at the time. The caravan park was one of the best we had stayed at. Must have been out of season though as there were only two other vans there (in a park that has 200 sites!)

Unique Elephant Rocks near Madfish Bay

Denmark is home to some of the region's most incredible wildflowers with whole areas in full colour. So we were told - unfortunately, we were again a few weeks too early for this. We have since met several people travelling over to WA, mainly to see the wildflowers in springtime. You could spend several weeks just travelling from region to region to see their flowers.
One of the most scenic areas in the district is the coastline of the William Bay National Park

Elephant Rocks

Greens Pool is rated one of WA's most idyllic beaches. It's located in a sheltered natural lagoon with glittering emerald water and pure white sand. The area is ideal for swimming, snorkeling and diving. The smooth, brown granite rocks seem unique to this region. The rocks at Elephant Rocks are aptly named - they are huge granite formations that resemble elephants as you can see from the photos. You can just make out Diane in this photo at the base of the big rock.

William Bay Coastline

Nearby to Denmark is the West Cape National Park which is home to the popular Shelley Beach.The road in is gravel but the scenery is worth the trip. Although we didn't take it, the trip to the top of Mt Lindesay is well worth it for the 360 deg view over the entire area including Wilson Inlet, Bennet Range and the Walpole Wilderness. There's only so much you can do on a trip like this.

Greens Pool

Denmark is surrounded by native woodland with a large variety of trees, including the eucalypts, marri, karri, jarrah and red tingle. A most distinctive local tree is the  red flowering gum

Looking East from Greens Pool

Denmark is a rural town with timber milling, orchards, beef cattle and dairy farming as its primary industries. Soil and climate attract wine growers, but tourism is the fastest growing business in Denmark. We could imagine what it would be like in the warmer months.

Western Australia's world-famous tingle trees are some of the most enormous trees in the world and can only be seen in WA's Southern Forests region.
They have a  Tree Top Walk here which soars 40 metres into the tingle canopy. It is similar to the Illawarra Fly near Robertson NSW.

Denmark Coastline

  We spent an enjoyable few days in Denmark and the nice van park and set off along the South Highway the distance of 51 Km to Albany, the largest town in the southern region