Maidens Walk Trail and Lookout, Bunbury, Western Australia

 Hi everyone. I hope you and yours are doing well. 

It is winter here in Australia, and finally the rain has started to fall in the south west where I live. 

Last weekend we took advantage of a cool fine day to explore the new Maidens Reserve lookout. Maidens Reserve is a coastal nature reserve featuring lookouts, hiking and walking trails, and picnic and play spaces on the edge of Bunbury, bordering the Indian Ocean. 

The new walk paths and lookouts, designed by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, recently took home the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Western Australia highest honour - the WA Medal - for one of the best designed regional landscape architectures. They also won an award of excellence in the category of parks and open space, and a regional achievement award in the tourism category. Read more at: Bunbury Herald-Maidens Reserve Award

The judges said that as well as a powerful connection to place resulting from their collaboration with traditional owners, the rest points, ramped lookout, and improved pathways extended the reserve's reach to include families, wheelchair users and older people. 

We hadn't been out to the Maiden's Reserve for a few years, as it is not one of our close-to-home usual walking tracks, and our previous visits had been along the original sand tracks, so we decided it was time to make a return visit. 

You will find the carpark and playground off Ocean Drive in Glen Padden. 

The walk trails to the two lookouts, which give panoramic views over the Indian ocean and Bunbury townsite, start from here. Make sure you read the information boards before you set out, and decide which is the best walk for you. 

There is a 670 metre concrete pathway that is suitable for assisted wheelchair access, and which takes you to the 45 metre high lower lookout, and then 153 steps which take you up to the 67 metre high upper lookout. Alternatively you can climb steps all the way from the carpark to the top. 

As well as the walks to the lookout there are three longer distance and more challenging walk trails ranging from 1.2 kms to 3.5 kms.  

Please note that dogs must be kept on a lead at all times. 

Laying the in Kalgulup Regional Park, a Noongar word meaning 'place of fire', his area has been frequented by Noongar people for thousands of years. 

The Kalgulup motif represents the woody nut and leaves of the mungite - bull banksia - Banksia grandis - which typically grows in jarrah forest. The Noongar people made a sweet drink or sucked the flowers of the banksia, and the woody nuts were used as a fire stick to carry fire from one camp to another. The wavy lines on the left hand side of the motif represent fire. 

You can see the trail options on the map below - the blue line is the concrete wheelchair friendly path, or you can go straight up the 305 steps to the upper lookout - the straight yellow line upwards from the You Are Here sign on the map below - great for fitness enthusiasts! Beware - there are no hand-rails on these steps. 

We chose the concrete easier trail winding through the trees with stopping points and views over the city along the way. 

There are conveniently placed seats, and notice boards telling you about local plants.

When you reach the lower lookout there are seats and views over the city. Then stairs up to the upper lookout. In the lower right photo you can see a stopping point half way up the climb from the lower lookout to the upper lookout. I wish I had taken more photos but there were people on the lookout with children, and then we met someone we knew and photos were forgotten! 

From the upper lookout there are 360 views to the Indian Ocean. Here there were plaques describing the indigenous and white-man history of the area. One plaque showed Noongar place names, many of which we use today. 

From here you can continue on in a big loop down to the beach and then back along the sand / limestone track to the parking area (the yellow loop trail on the map above).  

or return the way you have come - which is what we did. 

Remember safety whenever you go trail walking - let someone know where you are going, stay on the path, and be aware of snakes

There wasn't much flowering when we walked the trail, but it was interesting reading the information plaques, and the uses that Noongar people made of the various plants of the area - nature's pharmacy. However, don't be attempted to sample anything unless you are with an experienced person. We will have to go back in spring to see the wildflowers. 

I hope you have enjoyed this little look at the Maidens Reserve lookouts walk trails today. 

For more information:

Bunbury Herald-Maidens Reserve

Explore Parks-Maidens Reserve

Do you have a favourite walk trail? Perhaps you would like to tell us about it in your comments. 

You might also like these walks near where I live:

Manea Reserve, Bunbury

Pram friendly Millbridge walking path

A walk by the water - Leschenault Inlet, Bunbury

Paperbark Cathedral-Leschenault Estuary-Australind

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