Davenport Creek

A west coast secret

Davenport Creek is the kind of place locals are reluctant to talk about. Forty kilometres west of Ceduna — out along Denial Bay Road and then a stretch of unsealed track — a tidal creek winds through thick mangroves and dazzling white dunes before opening to a sheltered lagoon and an empty ocean beach. The mangroves here are the most westerly in South Australia, growing in dense profusion along the creek banks and sheltering whiting, flathead and blue swimmer crabs.

Getting in

Conventional vehicles can reach the cockle beds and the ocean beach, but you will want a 4WD (with tyres let down) to cross the dunes to the creek itself and the headland beyond. The reward is calm, clear water that is ideal for a swim or a paddle, fishing that rarely disappoints, and basic free camping with an environmentally friendly toilet — and usually nobody else around.

Make a day of it

Davenport Creek pairs naturally with the historic Denial Bay jetty on the drive back to Ceduna, or push on around the coast to the oyster sheds of Smoky Bay. Take everything you need and carry your rubbish out — this is a wild place, and the locals like it that way.