Beebingarra Creek (Twelve Mile Creek mouth)

Beebingarra Creek is the tidal creek about 10km east of Pretty Pool that fishing maps call Twelve Mile Creek. It spills out through a 500-metre-wide mouth behind a two-kilometre sand spit, so it is a proper creek and not a mangrove drain. It is the quieter, further-out cousin of Four Mile and Six Mile — the same Pilbara recipe of barramundi in summer, threadfin in the mouth and holes, and mangrove jack and cod up at the rock bars, with fewer people and more mud. Nobody has built a platform here, and that is roughly the appeal.

Treat it as two fisheries. At the mouth and in the deep holes, fish float-rigged mullet or herring and 3–4 inch paddle-tail plastics for threadfin, and favour the neap tides when the water slows enough for a lure to stay in the zone. For summer barramundi, work the run-in along the mangrove edges and snags with shallow-diving hardbodies and weedless paddle tails, casting tight and rolling them slowly back. Further upstream, the pools and rock bars hold mangrove jack and cod. A soft plastic or a strip bait bumped along the rock at the top of the tide gets their attention, and a locked drag decides who keeps it.

Barramundi are the drawcard over the summer wet, with king and blue threadfin around the mouth and deep holes through the year. Mangrove jack and cod come from the upstream rock bars and pools. Black jewfish turn up in the deeper holes, so a heavy leader earns its place even when you are casting for threadfin.

Plan the whole trip off a tide chart and not the clock. Port Hedland's springs run past six metres, and the difference between a fishable creek and a few hundred metres of bare sand flat is a couple of hours. Neaps suit the threadfin and the lure fishing, and the bigger run-ins push barra up onto the mangrove edges in summer. Arrive, fish and leave on a known tide, because walking back across a flooding flat is how a good session becomes a story. Mud crab pots are a common side project in Port Hedland creeks, but check the current DPIRD mud crab rules before setting one.

Beebingarra Creek sits in Pippingarra, east of Pretty Pool in the Town of Port Hedland, roughly 16 km east of the West End in a straight line. One fishing guide notes 4WD access via Twelve Mile Creek Road and says to check before making the trip, but that road is mapped only well inland and no public track to the mouth appears on current maps. No sealed road, ramp or facilities are documented at the mouth. The country behind this coast includes Pippingarra Station, a pastoral lease, so ask the station or the Town of Port Hedland whether there is a permitted track to the mouth before committing. Treat it as a self-sufficient 4WD outing, and if the track, tenure or tide doesn't suit, the Spoilbank Marina platform in town is the sealed-road alternative.

Tide runs everything here: the mouth drains across 200–300 metres of sand flat at low water, and the run-in and run-out are the fishing windows while slack water is quiet. The dry season, roughly May to September, brings settled weather with the breeze usually building through the afternoon, so mornings are the working hours. The summer wet is barramundi time, but it also brings heat, storms and cyclone risk, and the creek colours up after rain. Water is turbid for much of the year, so this is a structure-and-tide fishery rather than a sight fishery.

Treat this creek as saltwater crocodile habitat. A 3.5-metre croc was reported at Pretty Pool, about 10km west, by two men fishing and swimming there in 2012, with sightings at about six other sites around Port Hedland. DBCA recorded more confirmed crocodile sightings along the Pilbara coast in 2024 than in the previous decade combined. Don't wade the channel or mangroves, keep back from the edge, and never clean fish at the water. The tide is the other threat: six-metre springs flood the flats fast, cut off the spit and bog vehicles parked too low, so park above the high-tide line and leave with water to spare. Stonefish and stingrays sit on the flats, so wear solid reef shoes. Summer heat is dangerous and the site is remote, so tell someone your plan and carry water, a first-aid kit and a way to call for help.

Twelve Mile Creek is the name fishing guides use for Beebingarra Creek, the tidal creek east of Pretty Pool in the locality of Pippingarra. Its mouth is at roughly -20.30, 118.73, about 16 km east of Port Hedland's West End in a straight line. One fishing guide notes 4WD access via Twelve Mile Creek Road, but confirm the route and land access locally first. It is a different creek from Six Mile Creek, which reaches the coast just east of Pretty Pool, much closer to town.

No. Six Mile Creek's mouth is roughly 7 km further west, just east of Pretty Pool and much closer to town. Beebingarra Creek, which fishing maps call Twelve Mile Creek, is further east and more remote. Both are tidal mangrove creeks fishing for barramundi, threadfin and mangrove jack.

Barramundi over the summer wet, threadfin (king and blue) around the mouth and deep holes year-round, and mangrove jack and cod at the upstream rock bars and pools. Black jewfish are also caught in the deeper holes. Neap tides suit the threadfin, and the summer run-in pushes barramundi onto the mangrove edges.

Under DPIRD's statewide rules, barramundi must be at least 550mm and no more than 800mm, with a daily bag limit of 2. They must be landed as whole fish, and the possession limit away from home is 2 whole fish or 4 fillets. Rules change, so check the current DPIRD Recreational Fishing Guide before you keep one.

Yes, and more often than they used to be — DBCA confirmed more Pilbara-coast crocodile sightings in 2024 than in the previous decade combined. Saltwater crocodiles have been reported at Pretty Pool and several other sites around Port Hedland, including a 3.5-metre animal seen by people fishing there in 2012. Numbers are much lower than in the Kimberley, but every tidal creek, including Beebingarra, should be treated as croc habitat. Don't wade, keep back from the edge and don't clean fish at the water.