Mandurah Town Beach

Town Beach is Mandurah's in-town ocean beach, a strip of sand running north-east from the Mandurah Ocean Marina's northern wall to Stewart Street, where the Silver Sands dog beach takes over. It is the quick-session option — whiting, herring and tailor within a few steps of the car, with toilets and showers behind the sand and the marina cafés a short walk south. The marina wall is why the beach stays fishable on days San Remo and Halls Head are a washing machine, and about 750m round it, where the wall meets the estuary channel, a fishing platform adds herring, skippy and tarwhine on the tide change. Nobody drives an hour to fish it, and nobody who lives ten minutes away fishes anywhere else on a Tuesday evening.

Fish light and walk the sand until a gutter or a colour change shows itself — the fish are rarely spread evenly. Whiting and herring take a small paternoster rig with prawn, bloodworm or a strip of mulie cast just beyond the first break. At dawn and dusk, swap to a 20–30g metal or a ganged mulie for tailor running the beach. For herring, skippy and tarwhine on a tide change, head along Breakwater Parade to the fishing platform where the road bends south at the channel, and fish a float or small paternoster. When the patrol flags are up or the day is hot, fish the far ends of the beach or come back once the crowd has gone home.

Herring, sand whiting and yellowfin whiting are the everyday catch, with tailor on dawn and dusk from late spring through autumn. Tarwhine and skippy hang around the rock toe of the marina wall and in the channel below the fishing platform. Australian salmon schools push along the Mandurah beaches in autumn, though the open beaches north at San Remo get more of the run than this sheltered corner. Blowfish will find your bait before anything else does.

Go at first light or the last hour of daylight — that is when the fish are close and the swimmers are not. Fishing is not permitted on the marina pens or other marina facilities, so read the signs before casting from anything built. The exception is the fishing platform at the channel end of the northern wall, the one built spot meant for a line, so fish there rather than off the walls or marina jetties. If the sand goes dead for an hour, move rather than wait: try the platform on the tide change, or the estuary foreshore round the marina for bream and herring.

Access is via Dolphin Drive past the Dolphin Pool or off Breakwater Parade, with two sealed car parks at the marina end of the beach — the Dolphin Drive one has the toilet block. The fishing platform is about 750m on foot from the Breakwater Parade car park, or drive on and use the roadside parking beside it. Showers, barbecues, seating and a playground sit behind the sand. Beach matting runs to near the waterline from November to April, and a beach wheelchair and beach walker can be borrowed free from Keith Holmes Reserve inside the marina, booked through Mandurah Ocean Marina Chalets on 9535 8173. Dogs are prohibited on the whole beach from Stewart Street west to the marina wall, and parking fills on hot summer weekends, public holidays and the mid-March Crab Fest weekend, when the festival spills into the marina.

The beach faces north to north-west and sits in the lee of the marina's northern wall, so it is noticeably calmer than the open Mandurah beaches in a south-west swell. The south-westerly sea breeze blows across or slightly off the sand here rather than straight in, so it stays fishable later into the afternoon than the west-facing beaches. Northerlies and north-westerlies blow straight in, westerlies come in at an angle, and a winter front churns it up until the wind swings south-west behind it. Water is usually clean in the lee of the wall, but discolours for a day or two after a winter storm, and after heavy winter rain the ebb out of the channel can push stained estuary water along the western end. Tides are small — about a metre at most and usually well under — so on the beach the wind and swell matter more than the tide chart. The channel is different: the whole estuary drains through it, so the flow runs hard either side of the change, and that is when the herring and skippy come on at the platform.

The main hazard is people. This is a busy swimming beach, and under the City of Mandurah's local law it is an offence carrying a $300 infringement to fish inside a flagged or signed swimming area or anywhere signposted no fishing, or to clean fish or cut bait within 10m of a swimming area in a way that may cause a nuisance, so fish well away from the flags and clean the catch at home. The marina rock walls are steep, slippery and not built for climbing — fish the beach or the platform, not the armour rock. Sharks visit too: the City closed Town Beach in February 2024 after a bronze whaler of about 2m bumped a jet ski 100m offshore, so keep berley and fish frames away from swimmers and check SharkSmart before a session. Bluebottles drift in on summer northerlies and stingrays sit in the shallows, so shuffle your feet if you wade. At the platform, a hard-running tide and boat traffic share the channel — keep casts short of it, keep kids back from the edge, and never climb down the rock to retrieve gear.

Yes — Town Beach is fished for whiting, herring and tailor, with salmon in autumn. It is also Mandurah's busiest in-town swimming beach, patrolled by surf lifesavers over Christmas and some public holidays, and fishing inside a flagged or signed swimming area is an offence under the City of Mandurah's local law, so fish away from the flags and go early or late on hot days. Fishing is not permitted on the Mandurah Ocean Marina pens or marina facilities, but there is a fishing platform at the channel end of the marina's northern wall, where Breakwater Parade bends south — check the signs there.

Australian herring, sand whiting and yellowfin whiting are the regular catch, with tailor at dawn and dusk from October to June. Tarwhine and skippy hang around the marina wall towards the channel, and Australian salmon schools can move along the beach from March to June.

Yes. It is sheltered by the marina wall, the car parks are right behind the sand, and there are toilets, showers, barbecues and a playground. Light rods with prawn on a small paternoster will keep kids busy with herring and whiting — keep them clear of the swimmers, and back from the edge at the fishing platform on the channel, where the tide runs hard.

Largely, from November to April. The City of Mandurah lays beach matting at Town Beach over those months, reaching close to the water depending on tide. A portable beach wheelchair and a beach walker are free to borrow from Keith Holmes Reserve in the marina, booked ahead through Mandurah Ocean Marina Chalets on 9535 8173.

No. Dogs are prohibited on the beach from Stewart Street west to the marina wall, which covers all of Town Beach. The Silver Sands dog exercise beach starts at Stewart Street and runs north-east to the Henson Street car park, and it is fishable sand too.