A Day Along The Murramarang South Coast Walk

The Murramarang South Coast Walk linking Maloneys Beach to Pretty Beach and traversing the entire length of Murramarang National Park is now open and already proving justly popular. In many ways, this is a typical Australian “long” distance walk¹: the walk passes through several small coastal villages and is never far from civilisation. Road access along this section of coast is plentiful. Every beach, even the most tiny, can be visited with only very short (less than one kilometre) walks from the nearby trailheads. And, the walk itself, has been created by cobbling together much existing track.

Conversely, much new track has been built and the new track is superb: well constructed and located, and supremely scenic. There are hundreds of fantastic viewpoints and the track visits every beach along this section of coast, even the most tiny. The only downsides, and these are minor, is that water is not available at Oakey Beach campground so must be carried from South Durras or Maloneys Beach (about 8 kilometres from South Durras); the signage is a little confusing (many three way junctions are completely unsigned), public transport between the two ends of the tracks is (for all practical purposes) unavailable, and Durras Lake is more often open than closed meaning a deep water crossing (up to my chest yesterday) is generally required.

As autumn trickled into winter with a series of gloriously sunny but cool days following each other, Doug and I made plans to walk the full Murramarang South Coast Walk in a day. The website lists the walk as 34 kilometres, but, at the end of the day my Garmin watch had recorded a distance of 38 kilometres and about 900 metres of elevation gain and loss. To be fair, I had two navigational errors along the way where I missed the track leaving two of the camping areas (as previous, signage could be improved) and we walked from Merry Beach which is a couple of kilometres north of the official start of the track at Pretty Beach.

Early in the morning, Doug dropped me at the new trailhead at Maloneys Beach and I started the walk by stepping up the brand new staircase which cuts off the old section of track that wrapped in from the north. It was a beautiful morning with sea mist rising in the cool clear air. Right away there are stunning views south to the Tollgate Islands and the beaches and headlands south of Batemans Bay.

At North Head, the coastline heads due north and the track follows closely along the coastline through a stunning forest of spotted gums and burrawangs. The trail is marked by signs featuring a kangaroo and there are kangaroos everywhere, often comfortably lazing on grassy verges behind white sand beaches. So habituated are the macropods to humans that they barely look up as you walk by.

There are lots of little lookouts along the way and the track dips down and traverses empty white sand beaches between headlands as it wanders north. I had breakfast in the sun at Richmond Head enjoying a fantastic view up to Flat Rock Island while sitting on a log in the autumn sunshine. At Cookies Beach, I topped up my water from the tank attached to the toilet block before continuing north along the beach. The full length of Beagle Bay is only about five kilometres, but the sand is soft and the beach steep in parts so this section can seem long.

At Durras Lake, I met Doug who had waded across the inlet upstream of the wave break. Luckily, the beach was empty as I had no swimmers and had to strip virtually naked to cross as the water was almost chest deep on me. My feet were starting to get sore and swell a bit in my shoes so the cool water actually felt good.

Finally, at the end of the long beach, I walked up the newly aligned track over Point Upright. At dead low tide, but it must be dead low, it is possible to walk around the rock platform to Depot Beach and return via the Burrawang Track over Point Upright. It is worth the short detour to Point Upright to look over the coast that you have already walked.

Between Depot Beach and Pebbly Beach the route lies around a rock platform. This is another place you need low tide, but not dead low. I had to sprint a couple of sections between waves and so called Tranquility Bay was not very tranquil and as it faces due east, it may be tranquil only infrequently. At Pebbly Beach, the resident macropods were laying happily in the sun. This spot is “known” as a place to see wallabys on the beach and there are always people driving in, snapping a picture and leaving again. Thus is modern tourism.

From Pebbly Beach north to Pretty Beach the trail has been completely rebuilt and is wonderful. It traverses several small beaches and follows the coastline closely on bush tracks above rocky headlands. There are fan palms and burrawangs and pockets of dense rainforest. At the south end of Island Beach near O’Hara Island, the track descends stone steps for the last time and the remainder of the walk is beach or rock platform until the steps leading up to Pretty Beach. Standing at Pretty Beach as the sun set and sea fog misted across the jagged slopes, it was breathtakingly beautiful and satisfying to have walked the coast of Murramarang National Park.

But, Doug had parked at Merry Beach, so I had a couple more kilometres of bush track and beach to get to the car and drive south to pick Doug up. At Snapper Point, one last lookout to the south and, as the sun set and the air rapidly cooled, I walked the last desolate beach to the car.

1 At just 34 kilometres I’m not sure the Murramarang Coastal Walk qualifies for the category label: “long distance.”