Port to Point Trail (City of Albany)

 

A 24 kilometre return ride in the City of Albany, the Port to Point Trail takes riders from Albany Port to Emu Point. Heading along the granite-dominated coastline, the trail has spectacular views of King George Sound, the Vancouver and Flinders Peninsula and the Point King Lighthouse on the way to Middleton Beach. Continuing on, the trail finishes at the popular Emu Point at Oyster Harbour. A fun, easy cycle perfect for the whole family

Distance: 24 km (return)
Gradient: Relatively gentle, with some mild undulations along the coastal ridge, with a steep side trip to the Point King Lighthouse
Quality of Path: A mix of bitumen and some boardwalk
Quality of Signage: Generally well signed, with clear trailheads along the way and information panels at key points, though lacking a clear trailhead at the eastern end
Experience Required: No Mountain Biking or Bushwalking Experience Required
Time: 1-2 Hours by Bike, 5-8 hours by foot
Steps: None
Best Time to Visit: All year
Date(s) Completed: 15th August, 2021
Entry Fee: No
Getting There: The trail has a nebulous start point in town. We recommend starting at the Albany Waterfront. From the town hall on York St, head towards the Princess Royal Harbour and turn left onto Princess Royal Dr. Parking is available east of the Albany Entertainment Centre.

Having enjoyed a week of Electric Biking the Southern Forests in July and with a Munda Biddi Trail maintenance trip booked for August, perfectly favourable sunny weather on the Sunday gave Alissa and I  the opportunity to get on the electric bikes and check out the Port to Point Trail. Linking Albany Port to Emu Point, the central section of this trail (known as Ellen Cove to Albany Port though not actually right to the port itself) has long been considered one of Trails WA's Top Trails and has been on our to-do list since the early days of the blog. Being mostly bitumen and paving for a 24 kilometre walk made it unattractive for a 'hike', however it is perfect for an easy morning ride. 

When the Ellen Cove to Albany Port Trail was first opened, it didn't go all the way into Albany's city centre and just started at the end of Brunswick Rd. Given the trail now extends right to the city itself, Alissa and I parked up at the marina area only to find no clear indication of where we were supposed to go. With a lack of clarity, we decided to head towards the port area along Princess Royal Dr, and then taking the winding Bolt Terrace up towards Brunswick Rd. 

Alissa and I had been familiar with this road from having driven the PUBLIC Silo Art Trail in March 2021 as the parkland along Bolt Terrace provides the best view of the Ruby Seadragon painting by Brooklyn-based artists Yok and Seryo.

The park is also interesting as it is home to Mass Rock or First Mass Rock, so named due to the fact it was the place mass was celebrated for the first time in the settlement of Western Australia in January 1838.

Joining onto Brunswick Rd, Alissa and I reached the start of a quality stretch of share path that we realised actually extended to Stirling Terrace and would be the superior way of joining the trail, and would be the way we would get back to the car on the return journey. 

At the end of Brunswick Rd, the Port to Point Trail joins onto the original stretch of the Ellen Cove to Albany Port trail. Winding its way along the headland of Point King, the trail provides spectacular view of Point Possession across the other side of the harbour. Point Possession is the point where Captain Vancouver claimed Western Australia for Britain, and is now most often visited by hikers doing the excellent Point Possession Heritage Trail. 

This is definitely granite country, with many lovely granite domes and outcrops providing a lot of visual interest as the trail undulates along the rugged coastline. While nominally a family ride, there are some fun short and sharp descents throughout, however as the trail is shared with locals taking their dogs for a walk cyclists should definitely take it easy when going around a blind corner. 

Rounding the corner of some massive granite boulders, the trail passes the Ataturk Monument. The sculpture commemorates Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was a commander in the Turkish Army forces which opposed the ANZAC landing in Gallipoli, and would go on to become the first president of Turkey when it became a republic in 1923. While a brilliant commander, Ataturk was also a peacemaker who said during a 1934 dawn service at Gallipoli that 'those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives [in Gallipoli], you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace'. It is a lovely gesture that this statue of someone who was ostensibly the enemy in World War I has been placed in Albany given it was the last place in Australia many of those who lost their lives in Gallipoli would have seen of their country. 

Leaving the memorial behind, the trail continues to provide sweeping vistas of the Princess Royal Harbour, King George Sound and Point Possession. Given this is a popular tourist trail, there are a plethora of excellent lookout points throughout along very short side trips. 

A more substantial side trip leads to the remains of the Point King Lighthouse, which though Alissa was not interested in exploring, is something I consider well worth checking out. The steep and gravelly ride down is not really the best for cyclists but is doable if you're worried about leaving your bikes at the main junction. The Point King Lighthouse was the second lighthouse built on the Western Australian coastline and operated from 1858 to 1911. 

Being located at the channel leading into Princes Royal Harbour and the rugged nature of the coastline, you can definitely understand why this lighthouse would have been extremely important. For walkers and cyclists, the coastline is not really a cause for concern and instead a major boon as the rocky headland of coastal granite provides spectacular views. 

After exploring the lighthouse ruins and riding back up the steep track (easy work given I was on an electric bike, but not so easy on an acoustic), I met back up with Alissa as the trail rounds the corner and heads north around the headlands. At this point, we were surprised to see a proper trailhead marker given the somewhat poor state of signage at the Albany end. These trailheads are actually quite excellent as they give you a clear indication of how long it is between key features while also providing a lot of interpretative information that sheds light on the areas history and environment.  

Having cleared Point King and entering King George Sound, the coastal views change. Where previously Point Possession served as the trail's visual anchor, the more open vistas provide views of the Flinders Peninsula which is home to Torndirrup National Park and the outstanding Bald Head Walk Trail. 

Reaching the stretch of trail just below the Marine Drive Lookout point, Alissa and I passed another sculpture, this time honouring French explorer Nicholas Baudin who mapped the Western Australian coastline in 1801. Baudin's expedition is the reason that so much of the Western Australian coastline still has French names today, such as Geographe Bay and Cape Naturaliste which were named after the ships undertaking the expedition. 

Beyond the Marine Drive Lookout, the Port to Point trail traverses the first stretch of boardwalk along the trail. While only 40 metres long, this is a great taste of things to come given the home stretch into Ellen Cove is entirely on boardwalk. 

King George Sound is famous for being on the whale migration route, with humpback whales and occasionally blue whales seen in the sheltered waters. As such, there is a well positioned observation deck located along the trail which provides outstanding view of one of Australia's most beautiful natural harbours. 

After passing the whale watching lookout, Alissa and I were excited to transition away from the bitumen to an extended section of boardwalk leading to Ellen Cove, which includes some surprisingly nice and sheltered sections like the one pictured above. 

Around 250 metres long, the boardwalk is a lot of fun to ride and provides a lovely vista of Middleton Beach. This is an area that brings back a lot of memories as my family used to often holiday in Albany during the 1990s and we often stayed in Middleton Beach even though it is not the most convenient and walkable place to stay in Albany. To really show my '90s cred, I remember boogie boarding at Middleton Beach on more than one of these almost annual visits.

The Middleton Beach foreshore used to be home to the Esplanade Hotel or, more accurately, multiple Esplanade Hotels that had been built and demolished over time. The site had been vacant for many years after the most recent Esplanade Hotel was bulldozed, however the opening of the Hilton Garden Inn has finally put an end to what had been a longstanding eyesore in the area. 

From Middleton Beach, the trail runs along Flinders Parade to the dog beach car park at Middleton Beach before the share path continues through a narrow strip of bushland between the beach and the Albany Golf Course. While it doesn't look particularly substantial on Google Maps, the coastal strip is wide and vegetated enough that you don't feel like you're just riding alongside a golf course for a long stretch, however it does also mean that you don't get constant coastal views either. 

Given how open the trail is, I was appreciative of how much of the trail from Middleton Beach to Emu Point was through shaded peppermint groves. While less scenic, there were some nice undulations along this stretch that made it a lot of fun.

While speeding along the trail, it is worth bearing in mind the other trail users. While families with their small children and dogs can be encountered all along the trail, there is a horse riding area of Middleton Beach just off Griffiths St, so riders should be careful not to careen through here at full speed or risk running into a horse or spooking it!

Beyond Griffiths St, the trail passes through more excellent shaded bushland before entering the Emu Point precinct. This area is filled with multiple holiday parks, and overlooks the entrance to Oyster Harbour. Given the tourist-friendly nature of the area, there were a lot of people out and about through here, and we encountered a lot of other e-bikers and cyclists. This is something we actually noticed quite a fair bit throughout Albany - there seems to be quite a take up of electric bikes which makes sense given Albany's relatively compact nature makes it ideal for biking.

Reaching Emu Point itself, the trail provides views of the channel that leads into Oyster Harbour. Across the way, the granite-dotted headlands on the other side of the channel are part of Mt Martin Botanical Park, an area Alissa and I once attempted to walk on a very hot November day and gave up due to the insane amount of blow flies that were constantly biting us along the way!

Continuing a bit further north, Alissa and I reached the end of our journey as we took in view of Oyster Harbour. This is a part of Albany we have not explored as regularly even though Alissa has family who live on the other side of the harbour and having done the Luke Pen Walk Trail along the King River which feeds into Oyster Harbour further north. 

From Emu Point, it is a fairly straightforward ride back along the Port to Point Trail however I wanted to point out that there is a superior way to get to and from town instead of taking Bolt Terrace. Instead of turning onto Bolt Terrace, there is a continuous stretch of shared path that runs along Brunswick Rd up until the point it becomes Stirling Terrace. At this point the narrow and constrained nature of the road corridor necessitates some road riding, though the street is relatively quiet and with slow moving traffic. 

At Stirling Terrace, a bridge all the way across past the old Albany Railway Station to the Albany Entertainment Centre brings cyclists and walkers back to the marina precinct and is thus a much nicer way of travelling from the marina to the trail. 

The Albany Entertainment Centre opened in 2010 and is key to the cultural life of the regional city. With much of Alissa's family living in the Great Southern region, I've often been surprised at the number of regional touring shows that Albany is able to draw, and it has made the waterfront precinct the popular area that it has become today. 

Alissa and I were glad to have finally ticked the Port to Point Trail off our list, and that we had saved it for a biking trip instead of writing it up as a walk trail. While there are certainly some nice stretches of the trail that make for a good semi-urban walk, the full 24 kilometres from the port to the point and back mostly on bitumen make this less conducive to walk than it does to cycling, where the length and paved nature of the trail make it a fun a low challenge ride suitable for family groups. With the granite scenery near Point King, the wooden boardwalk leading to Ellen Cove and the undulating trail through the peppermint groves being some of the trail's highlights, this is a recommended ride Alissa and I will happily do again.