SWA OWS Series: Coogee

Sheltered inside Cockburn Sound from the open Indian Ocean swell, Coogee Beach spreads out along calm turquoise water with offshore views extending toward Rottnest, Carnac, and Garden islands. Here, Swimming WA stages the SWA OWS Series: Coogee, a major open water swimming festival held in the sea off the coast of Coogee in Western Australia. The west-facing bay provides flat, forgiving swimming conditions right off the sand, complete with a recreational jetty and an eco shark barrier that encloses a peaceful aquatic arena for swimmers of all abilities. The event program spans a comprehensive ladder of distances suited to both emerging open water swimmers and elite distance specialists, offering 500-metre sprints alongside courses of 1,250 metres, 2,500 metres, 3,000 metres, 5,000 metres, 7,500 metres, and a full 10,000-metre marathon.

Swimmers aged nine and older are welcomed onto the start line, making it a gathering point across generations. For distance competitors, the regatta carries premier competitive weight, serving as the official Western Australian Open Water Championships and hosting the Australia Cup over both the 7.5-kilometre and 10-kilometre courses. Beyond the racing itself, the weekend is anchored by open-water learning and seaside camaraderie, featuring an Arena Open Water Skills Clinic right on Coogee Beach. On race day, the shoreline buzzes with a close-knit community atmosphere, as local swimming and surf clubs gather on the sand to cheer for one another and celebrate every finish under the Australian sun.

Cockburn Sound and the waters of Owen Anchorage

Woodman Point is a low headland extending westward into the Indian Ocean that marks the northern gateway to Cockburn Sound. North of Woodman Point, the coastal waters open into the sheltered marine expanse known as Owen Anchorage, while the southern side recedes into Jervoise Bay. Woodman Point holds more than a century of coastal maritime lore. In the 1880s, an isolated quarantine station was established out on the point to screen immigrants arriving by sea from overseas outbreaks of smallpox, bubonic plague, and Spanish influenza. During that same era, residents from nearby Fremantle regularly made the sea voyage out to the headland by steam boat or private yacht to attend lively horse races along the sand.

The Omeo shipwreck and the Coogee Maritime Trail

Just off the northern curve of the swimming beach lies the Coogee Maritime Trail. Centred around the historic iron hull of the Omeo steamship, which ran aground only 25 metres from the beach, the underwater trail weaves past submerged art installations and a purpose-built artificial reef. Because the entire trail rests in shallow depths mostly between 2.5 and 5 metres, reaching a maximum depth of just 7 metres, competitors can easily strap on a mask and snorkel after their race to drift peacefully above the historic wreck and its colonising marine life. The wider waters of Cockburn Sound harbour other fascinating chapters of naval history, including the Dutch submarine HNLMS K VIII.

After patrolling the Java Sea during the Second World War, the submarine was being towed through the sound about three kilometres from the beach in 1943 when its hull foundered just 100 metres offshore. In 1957, the sunken hull was broken up with explosives to clear a navigational channel for the Kwinana Oil Refinery, though its brass conning tower was salvaged and given a second life aboard the Fremantle Harbour pilot boat Lady Forrest.

C.Y. O'Connor Beach and Robb's Jetty pylons

The coastline opens onto C.Y. O'Connor Beach, stretching from McTaggart Cove in the south to Catherine Point in the north. Standing directly in the open sea about 30 metres from the shoreline is an evocative sculpture honouring the visionary engineer C.Y. O'Connor, marking the historic stretch of surf where he famously rode his horse into the ocean. Along this same northern beach, the weathered pylons of Robb's Jetty still emerge dramatically through the surf line, extending 120 metres out into the sea. Constructed in the 1870s, the jetty was decommissioned and largely dismantled in 1994, leaving its photogenic row of wave-washed timber posts standing against the incoming swell. Resting quietly near the shoreline are additional reminders of Western Australia's working maritime past, including the stranded hulk of the SS Wyola alongside the remains of an old timber barge. Together with the submerged trail at Coogee, these relics make this shoreline an intriguing landscape where swimmers can explore centuries of seafaring history along the waterline.

Port Coogee marina, shady lawns, and Coogee Common

Back at Coogee Beach, the foreshore is designed for easy post-race recovery, offering manicured lawns shaded by trees alongside public barbecue facilities where clubs gather after stepping out of the ocean. Stretching out over the shallows, the historic Coogee Beach Jetty—first constructed in the 1960s—remains a favourite gathering spot where local anglers cast lines into the crystal-clear water. Just north of the beach park, the Port Coogee marina village offers scenic waterfront boardwalks, public mooring jetties, and sheltered seaside promenades. Tucked within the marina basin is Ngarkal Beach, a protected, mirror-calm swimming cove that takes its name from the Indigenous Noongar word for seagull. For a celebratory post-swim meal, Coogee Common sits just back from the coast inside the beautifully preserved 1894 stone building that originally served as the historic Coogee Hotel. Surrounded by extensive kitchen gardens that supply fresh seasonal produce directly to the kitchen, it provides the quintessential Western Australian setting to toast a completed crossing over Cockburn Sound.