Articles
Turquoise Coast Coastal Nodes
Along a remote stretch of Western Australia's beautiful Turquoise Coast, four local councils chose an innovative, collaborative approach to improving aging toilet facilities and shelters at five popular free and low-cost beachside camping spots.
The Shires of Irwin, Coorow, Dandaragan and Northampton pooled a $2.52 million investment ($1.5 million from Tourism WA through the WA Caravan and Camping Action Plan 2013-2018 and $1.02 million from Royalties for Regions) into a single coordinated program that let them use one common design to simultaneously upgrade campgrounds along a stretch from Kalbarri to Jurien Bay.
The collaboration illustrates how smaller regional councils can work together and get more from increasingly limited funding. One Modus design across every site meant one design process, one supplier and one delivery program instead of four, stretching every dollar further and putting more into the ground than any council could have achieved alone.
It also delivered something rare for individual projects: a uniform standard of facility along an entire stretch of coast. Now campers and travellers enjoy the same welcoming Capricorn-3 toilet building and Oceana shelter wherever they stop, regardless of which shire they're in.
Five camping nodes across four shires
The project redeveloped the toilet facilities and shelters at five coastal camping nodes across four Mid-West shires from Kalbarri down to Jurien Bay. The five sites, running from north to south, are shown in the map above and were part of a wider State Government push to upgrade around 200 regional campsites.
- Lucky Bay - Shire of Northampton (near Kalbarri)
- Cliff Head - Shire of Irwin
- Leeman Beach - Shire of Coorow
- Milligan Island - Shire of Coorow
- Sandy Cape - Shire of Dandaragan (near Jurien Bay)
Facilities to support tourism along the Coral Coast
The upgrade wasn't simply meant to replace worn-out campground toilet facilities; it was a conscious investment in the region's tourism economy.
Sitting along the Coral Coast touring route, these campgrounds are a key draw for the drive-tourism market. Comfortable, reliable amenities encourage visitors to stay longer and come back. More, every visitor keeps the nearby Mid-West towns lively and vigorous through spending time and money at local businesses.
Yet the popularity of these five beachside campgrounds between Perth and Kalbarri with WA's caravanners and campers had simply outgrown their amenities.
Improving these facilities would help these regional communities continue to grow. Twin State Government programs were designed to close that gap:
- Tourism WA's Caravan and Camping Action Plan, a state-wide push to expand affordable, high-quality camping and caravanning across regional WA
- Royalties for Regions, an effort to reinvest in the infrastructure and economies of regional communities
Four local WA councils; one shared design
Rather than individually commissioning their own new toilet buildings, the four councils collectively approached Modus. They requested one toilet building design that would meet the needs of all of them. Working as a group not only enabled budgets to go further; a shared design provided the entire coastal region a consistent standard of facilities and a single, recognisable visual theme.
In all, Modus delivered 13 Capricorn-3 toilet buildings across the four shires. We installed 11 in the initial rollout, then two more in early 2017. Every single one was built to the same coastal specification.
Toilet buildings built for the remote coast
Each location received a Capricorn-3 custom toilet building, a compact three-cubicle layout designed for accessibility and engineered to deliver long-term durability in an exposed coastal setting. Every building included:
- One AS1428-compliant universal-access cubicle, one ambulant cubicle and one standard cubicle
- Stainless steel pans and hand basins, with grab rails and ambulant rails
- A custom laser-cut aluminium feature panel in a wave pattern wrapping the verandah
- A self-contained waterless sewage system made up of concrete holding tanks with passive flue venting for natural breakdown and odour control
Everything was manufactured according to comprehensive coastal specification: a light Surfmist palette with charcoal-grey trims, as well as marine-grade stainless fixings, tough Ultra steel sheeting and a two-pack coating expressly chosen for its ability to endure continual salt air and relentless sun and UV exposure.
Expressly matching shelters
Alongside these toilet amenities, Modus fabricated a run of medium- and large-sized Custom Oceana shelters for shaded seating, cooking and relaxing.
- Lucky Bay: 4 x Oceana Medium shelters (7.7m x 4m)
- Cliff Head: Oceana Large shelters (6m x 8m), one with an integrated food-prep bench
- Sandy Cape: Oceana Large shelters (6m x 8m), with a food-prep bench and BBQ
- Milligan Island and Leeman Beach: Oceana Large shelters (6m x 8m)
To maintain thematic and visual consistency, our engineers designed these as a matched family with the toilet buildings: we employed the same Surfmist roof and sheeting, used hot-dip galvanised frames known for their longevity, and selected Ironstone aluminium feature panels that echo the toilet amenity's wave motif.
Picnic settings, BBQ shelters and fire pits complete each location.
The result: clean, comfortable and accessible toilet and shelter
This upgrade means that some of the most stunning camping locations along the Turquoise Coast now offer clean, accessible amenities and comfortable shaded shelters.
Travellers have even more reason to stop and spend time (and money) in the local towns. They can stay up to three nights at no charge with the assurance that the facilities are of good standard.
And for the four local shires, working collectively not only delivered a higher standard of facility for the same investment, design consistency across the sites between Kalbarri and Jurien Bay improved ease of maintenance.
Modus is proud to have partnered with the Shires of Irwin, Coorow, Dandaragan and Northampton to help open up the Turquoise Coast for the campers, fishers and travellers who love it.
