This beach has to be experienced to be believed.

Team Gooddog entered from the Northern car park, the graffiti enhanced "Dog Beach" sign planted in the bleak grey sand setting the scene for what was to come at the seaward side of the dune.

This short beach appears to have been hewn from a garbage dump, with slag and rusting metal objects embedded in the loose embankment that skirts the beach - some of them spilling on to the sand below. Multiple waste run-off pipes bristle threateningly from this same wall, like cannon from a Spanish galleon.

Amazingly, the beach is littered with full " Pooch Pouches" the Cockburn preferred design of plain white plastic standing out like a beacon against the depressing grey sand. In fact full poo bags were everywhere – hanging from a star picket that once supported a broken-down wire fence and balanced atop of the pine bracing poles that belong to the same structure – this, despite the presence of a doggie latrine bin just a few metres away.

It seems to be a chicken and egg situation at Cockburn – does the appalling nature of the facility inspire its users to ignore basic dog clean-up culture, or do these uncultured users deserve the facility they get? Either way, the dog handlers of Cockburn need to clean up their act, because that is the first step towards applying pressure on the council to do the same with theirs.

Rating

Just dreadful