The Hidden Yallingup: 7 Places Locals Don't Tell Tourists

I'll tell you, but only because you asked.

Photo: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Locals are funny about secret spots. Half of us pretend we don't have any, the other half pretend they don't matter. The truth is somewhere in between. Yallingup is small enough that there are no real secrets, but big enough, once you walk down the coast on foot, that there are quiet places ten minutes from the main road that almost no one visits.

I've lived here since 1982. I built my workshop on Blythe Rd in 1988 with my own hands, jarrah walls and southwest limestone. The land around it has been my backyard since I came here. Here are seven places I'd send a friend.

Twenty minutes south of Yallingup, signposted off Caves Road. The track in is rough. A 4WD helps but a sedan will get you most of the way in dry weather. The reward is a beach you'll often have to yourself. White sand, granite outcrops, no facilities, no phone signal. Bring water. Bring lunch. Don't expect to be back in town quickly.

This is the kind of place I drive to when I need to clear my head. It's not famous, it's not photogenic in the obvious way, it's just empty.

Photo: Western Australian Government, CC BY 2.5 AU · via Wikimedia Commons

Everybody parks at the main Smiths Beach carpark, which fills up by 10am in summer. The northern end of the beach can be accessed from a track that runs off Wyadup Road, past the campground. It's a fifteen-minute walk down through scrub and you come out at the quiet end of the beach. Same water, same sand, half as many people.

The locals who surf here know the track. It's not signposted from the road. Look for the small dirt pull-off about a kilometre past the Wyadup Brook turnoff.

Five minutes from Smiths Beach but you'd never know it. A small dirt road off Wyadup Road leads to a parking area above a stretch of granite headland. Rock pools at low tide, fishing platforms, occasional dolphins out the back. Sunset here is better than sunset at Sugarloaf: quieter, more intimate, and the colour bouncing off the granite is something I've never quite seen anywhere else.

If you've been to Sugarloaf Rock at sunset and thought it was crowded, drive five minutes more to Wyadup Rocks instead.

Photo: Lasthib, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Everyone walks the Cape to Cape between Sugarloaf and Yallingup Beach because it's the easiest, most signposted section. Walk north of Yallingup Beach instead. The track climbs the limestone cliffs above Three Bears surf break and continues toward Rabbit Hill. You'll get the same views, fewer people, and a track that genuinely feels like wilderness in under twenty minutes from the carpark.

Cape to Cape day walks near Yallingup for the marked walks. This is the unofficial extension.

This sounds like nothing. It's a small grassed area at the southern end of Yallingup Beach, just up from the carpark, with two or three picnic tables and a view straight down onto the reef. Locals eat fish and chips here. They walk down with their kids in the evening. They sit in the shade while their teenagers paddle out.

It's not hidden so much as overlooked. Tourists drive past it on the way to the lookout. Pamela and I have probably eaten a hundred takeaway dinners here over the years.

Photo: Lasthib, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

I'll put my own gallery on this list and you can decide whether that's cheeky. Most visitors to Yallingup drive past the Blythe Rd turnoff because they're heading to the beach or to Caves Road. They don't know there's a working furniture workshop and gallery three minutes off the highway with a viewing window into the workshop where they can see what's being made. I built the building in 1988 (solid jarrah walls, southwest limestone) and in 2009 I opened it up to other makers in the region. There's a glassblower, painters, a photographer. It's a community of work, not just my shop.

Free entry. Walk straight in. Pamela curates the front of the gallery while I'm usually in the workshop behind the viewing window. Google Maps sometimes misdirects via Wildwood Rd. Stay on Bussell Hwy, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd.

It's not a secret. It's just easy to miss. the best galleries in the region for the rest.

Everyone goes to Injidup Natural Spa at midday. The carpark is packed, the rocks are slippery, and the swell is usually a bit big for the pools to do their thing properly. Go at first light instead. Six o'clock in summer, seven in winter. The light is better, the crowds aren't there yet, and the pools are at their calmest before the wind picks up.

The trick is the tide. Aim for a small swell and a mid-low tide. Check the forecast. Time it right and you'll get the place to yourself for forty minutes, which is all you need.

Injidup’s natural spa, properly for the full timing.

You might be wondering why a local would publish a list like this. Here's the honest answer: this region has changed a lot in forty years, and what hasn't changed is that the quiet places are quiet because most visitors stick to the signposted spots. The lookouts. The famous carparks. The cellar doors with the big signs.

If you've come this far down the South West, you're probably the kind of visitor who'll do the extra ten minutes' walk, drive the rougher track, time the morning right. That's the kind of visitor who keeps these places good. The ones who rush in for a photo and rush out are why somewhere becomes a problem.

For one slow morning, here's how I'd run it.

Start at first light at Wyadup Rocks for the sunrise. Walk back to your car, drive five minutes to Smiths Beach and take the Wyadup track to the quiet end of the beach. Swim. Walk back. By 10am drive to my workshop on Blythe Rd, watch what's being made, and have a cup of tea. By midday you're back in the village for lunch.

That's a Yallingup morning the way I'd run it on a Saturday.

Photo: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

the beach-by-beach list for where these spots fit against the well-known beaches. the budget-Margaret-River list for the wider budget list. All of the above are free.

That's seven. There are more. But seven is enough.