Click on the link below for a Hidden Treasures discussion about unexploded ordnance, a shipwreck, an icon and a suburb that’s more like a town:

https://www.abc.net.au/radio/perth/programs/saturdaybreakfast/hidden-treasures-chris-parry/13365360

Hidden Treasures recently crossed the fine line that exists between a ‘Sunday drive’ and a ‘road trip’. 

On this episode of Hidden Treasures on ABC Saturday Breakfast, Ro and I walked up and down dunes and along windswept beaches to find a shipwreck, find lost statues from Perth’s iconic past and find out how many rocks it takes to name a suburb.

How many suburbs in Perth would you find an internet description that says; 

“Large sections of the suburb are fenced off due to unexploded ordnance left behind from past military activity in the area.” 

How many Perth beachside suburbs would have a beach sign at a prominent lookout spot that warns of;

“No lifesaving service, steep stairs, dangerous current, submerged rocks, dumping waves and snakes.”

Welcome to Two Rocks. Perth ends here.

Two Rocks is the furthest northern extent of the Perth metropolitan area.  It’s over 60 kilometres from the Swan River.  Its better-known neighbour, Yanchep, is 7 kilometres to the south.

It’s a big suburb, more than 50 square kilometres with the suburb’s population living in just 2.3 square kilometres.

Two Rocks has a distinct feel.  It’s more like a seaside town than a suburb.  There are dinghy’s on street verges.  Flotsam and jetsam gathered after storms adorn the verandas of houses like some sort of trophy collection. In the southern suburbs we hang Christmas lights. Up here, they hang what the sea has hurled at them.

The adorning doesn’t stop there.  To complete the seaside town impression, many of the street poles have opportunistic handwritten signs selling a local service or seasonal produce.  Octopus is a current favourite for $20kg! I’m sure when the time is right there are signs that say, “Crays 4 Sale”.  Not lobsters.  Crays.

As you head up Two Rocks Road turn left at ‘The Spot’.  It’s a sandy track to the best left-hand break surf spot we’re allowed to talk about.  It takes a bit of paddling to get out to the break and if the waves are more than a metre there’s normally a rip.

As I drive into carpark at ‘The Spot’ I feel like a new cowboy in town swinging open the saloon doors.  All heads turn to look at this Narrogin plated vehicle that takes the last bay at the end of the line.  Tying my car up to the rail I turn and see that the faces are all still turned towards me.  Not only do I have Narrogin number plates but I’m wearing a flannelette shirt.

The black steamer wet suit clad lads give me a “G’Day” and I give one back and then we’re all friends, talking about the conditions and which way I need to trek to find the Alex T Brown, a shipwreck that reveals herself differently each season, depending on the wind and tides. 

The Alex T Brown was a 65m, four masted schooner that blew ashore on this day(29 May) in 1917. Many parts of its hull and rigging can be found in Two Rocks and Yanchep, including the Yanchep Inn.  For my visit, I found a long line of metal rivets attached to a beam, possibly the backbone of the hull.  I sat next to the wreck, looking out to sea for a while before the trudge back to my mates in the carpark, a round trip of about 700 metres through up and down dunes and very soft beach.

From the history of the sea to the history of iconic Perth let’s head to the lightly wooded and weed entangled paths of the old Atlantis Marine Park and make our way to King Neptune who sits on top of a small hill with a big smile and an impressive trident held in his mighty limestone hands.

Atlantis Marine Park was the place to go throughout the 1980’s.  Built at the beginning of the 80’s and closed at the end of them.  There were dolphin shows and lots of water related adventures that involved tubes, mats and slides while wearing a pair of stubbies, a terry towelling hat and no sunscreen.

These days the remains of the park rival anything you’ll find in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.  As well as King Neptune you can be an amateur Perth cultural icon archaeologist and discover statues of dugongs, narwhales and elephant seals and if that’s not enough statue action for you, head up to the gardens at the local tavern and you’ll find many other marine themed statues that were in the park.

Check out the local bakery and cafes that overlook the marina.  It’s a great spot to hold a coffee in one hand, pastie in the other and watch boats being launched and retrieved, old hulls being sanded and kids fishing from the marina jetty.

Are there two rocks in Two Rocks?

There are definitely a couple of very impressive rocks that are at either end of the beach that begins at Wreck Point and then further up the beach at the Marina end.  The rock off Wreck Point has a raggedy hole that is a photographers dream in any weather.  The beach allows dogs and it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to walk to the other end where this bigger rock is a bit like a bridge with a tunnel at the bottom, that allows the breaking waves to impressively spray from. 

Two Rocks is a hidden treasure because it’s a suburb that doesn’t feel like a suburb. It feels like the seaside town you used to visit and wish you could get back to.  You can.  It’s called Two Rocks. Perth ends here.