Point Peron

Beach WA 804 extends from the tip of Point Peron north for 300 m to the 10 m high bluff in lee of Mushroom Rock. The beach is steep, narrow and curving, and is bordered by low calcarenite, with a central sandy section, fringed by a low tide beachrock reef. It is backed by a 20 m high vegetated foredune. Walking trials from the cape car parks run through the dunes and to the beach and out to the northern tip of the cape at John Point. Point Peron forms the southwestern boundary of Mangles Bay and the larger Cockburn Sound. The bay encompasses the southern shores of the Sound, which is backed by the city of Rockingham. The Sound extends north for 15 km to Woodman Point, with 10 km long Garden Island, 9 km to the west, forming the western boundary. Rockingham and the surrounding beaches have had a mixed history as port, holiday location and now a rapidly growing southern commuter suburb of Perth with a population of 60 000. Today the city also incorporates the adjoining seaside communities of Peron, Shoalwater, Safety Bay and Waikiki. The communities are located on a wide, low sandy coastal plain and are fronted by nearly 20 km of near continuous low energy beaches, with rocks only outcropping around Point Peron. The bay beaches (WA 805-809) begin at John Point on the northern tip of Point Peron and follow the generally curving north-facing shoreline for 8 km to the Kwinana Beach jetty. John Point is a 10 m high narrow finger of calcarenite located at the northwestern tip of Point Peron.