Swanbourne Beach

Swanbourne is the western suburbs beach for travellers who want nothing between them and the sea. Tucked between the fame of Cottesloe and the facilities of City Beach, it is the quiet, undeveloped one, a wide stretch of soft gold sand behind natural vegetated dunes with no pavilion, no packed terrace and very few people once you are past the surf club. For anyone who has come to slow down, this is the honest pick on this part of the coast, the place where a morning belongs to the swimmers, the walkers and the dogs, and the loudest sound is the swell.

The early swim is the whole point. On a settled autumn or spring morning the open sea is clear and unhurried, the sand runs wide and freshly washed, and because the main section is patrolled in season you can take the water with the reassurance of the flags. Float out past the gentle break, turn back toward the dunes catching the first light, and then climb to the cafe above the beach for a coffee with a horizon and almost no crowd. It is one of the most genuinely restorative mornings in Perth precisely because so little has been built around it.

Now the honest part, and there are two. First, Swanbourne is calm in feeling rather than physics. This is open Indian Ocean, west facing and exposed, so it is quiet but not sheltered, and the afternoon sea breeze will roughen the surface from late morning through summer. Second, the long natural stretch north of the surf club has for decades been known as a clothing optional beach, while the patrolled section to the south is a conventional swimming beach, so it is worth knowing which part you are walking to before you set out. Neither is a problem, but both are worth planning around.

Who should come: anyone who wants the quietest, most natural swim in the western suburbs and is happy to take it early on the patrolled sand. Who should look elsewhere for a sheltered float at any hour: go north to the reef pool at Mettams Pool, to the reef softened water at North Beach, or to the famous terrace at Cottesloe if it is facilities and a scene you are after rather than stillness.

Swanbourne sits about twenty minutes by road west of central Perth, between Cottesloe and City Beach, with parking behind the dunes off Marine Parade. The Fremantle train line stops at Swanbourne station, though that is a longer walk inland from the sand, so a car is the simplest way to arrive at dawn before the modest car park fills on a warm day. It rarely turns into the slow circling hunt of Cottesloe, because most of the crowd passes Swanbourne by.

Plan your swim for the early morning before the sea breeze arrives, and bring or hire shade, because natural cover on the open sand is limited beyond the dunes. Showers, toilets, the surf club and the cafe sit behind the patrolled section. Decide in advance whether you are heading for the conventional swimming beach to the south or the clothing optional stretch to the north. Swim between the patrol flags, watch the conditions through the day, and remember the sea here is typical and never guaranteed.