Cooks Beach

Cooks Beach is a roughly 1 km sweep of pale sand on the southwestern Freycinet Peninsula. It’s one of the coastal stops on the Freycinet Peninsula Circuit, and its length gives you room to slow down and explore the shore. This is a walk-in beach, so I’d save it for a circuit day or an overnight rather than trying to squeeze it into a quick drive around the park.

The circuit is a two- to three-day loop: it takes in Hazards and Cooks beaches before crossing Mount Graham toward Wineglass Bay. Plan Cooks as part of that longer walk, not as a side trip from the road. There’s a small walker campsite beside the beach, with a composting toilet.

Water from Lagunta Creek can be unreliable. Carry enough for the route instead of counting on a refill, and check the latest walk notes before setting off.

About 100 m inland at the southern end, Cooks Hut has a stone section dating to 1859. Graziers built it, and volunteer stonemasons restored it in 2007 after it was at risk of collapse. It’s for emergency use only, so treat it as a piece of the peninsula’s history, not a place to stay.

A strong view here is low on the beach, with the pale sand, shallow water and wooded headland in the same frame. The waterline carries your eye around the bay and makes the full sweep of coast easier to see than a close shot of sand.