Mutton Bird Beach and Shelter Island

Mutton Bird Beach

Mutton Bird Beach is a popular fish­ing, swim­ming and 4WD acc­ess­ible beach, locat­ed about about 20km from the Albany City Centre.

Origin­ally a com­merci­al fish­ing loca­tion for catch­ing salmon, Mutton Bird Beach has evolv­ed into a popular area for diving, surf­ing, beach walk­ing, 4 wheel driv­ing and para­glid­ing.  Fish­ing remains a strong attrac­tion with herr­ing, skippy, whit­ing, salmon, silverbream, pike, flathead, shark, queen snapper and sampson fish at differ­ent times of the year.

At the end of Mutton Bird Road, the road forks left and right, lead­ing to two differ­ent areas to ex­plore.

The left turn leads to to a small car park.  Here, a short path leads down to a pret­ty little tri­angular beach, directly in front of Shelter Island.  Granite form­at­ions and dazzl­ing white sands stand in con­trast to the brilli­ant turquo­ise waters of the channel that separ­ates the beach from the Island.  This is a per­fect spot to relax, ex­plore, fish or snorkel the pro­tect­ed waters of the channel.

The right turn leads to the main carpark and look­out with stunn­ing views of Mutton Bird Beach, curv­ing into the dist­­ance below.  A small toilet block com­pletes the facili­ties.

Four wheel drive access to the lower carpark and beach proper is via a gravel track lead­ing from the carpark.  Here you will find some great 4x4 tracks, beach driv­ing, and many seclud­ed spots to enjoy the day with your family.

Shelter Island itself is a class 1A nature reserve.  Approxim­ately 10ha is size, it is mostly granite but with enough plant life to sup­port breed­ing groups of Flesh-foot­ed Shearwaters, Little Penguins and local varie­ties of black rats and other creatures.

To reach Mutton Bird Beach, follow Lower Denmark Road for 9.9km, then turn left where signpost­ed at Elleker-Grassmere Road.  Follow this for 3.3km then turn left at Mutton Bird Road.  At the end turn left for Shelter Island access or right for the look­out and 4WD beach access.

updated 14/04/2021


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