Middleton Beach, Western Australia

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Middleton Beach Albany, Western Australia
Ellen Cove, Middleton Beach.
Postcode:	6330
Location:	3 km from Albany
LGA:	City of Albany
State District:	Stirling
Federal Division:	O'Connor
Suburbs around Middleton Beach Spencer Park Seepings Collingwood Park Mount Clarence Middleton Beach Middleton Bay Mount Clarence Mount Adelaide Emu Point

Middleton Beach is a coastal suburb of the City of Albany in Western Australia

It was named after Captain Middleton in 1834. In the early years of Albany's settlement, Middleton Beach provided a handy spot to off-load supplies and stock onto shore as some of the larger boats could not navigate the entrance into Princess Royal Harbour (the main port).

Middleton Beach is a very popular, safe and beautiful beach for swimming and recreational beach activities. The waters are protected by King George Sound; the Southern Ocean’s waves do not usually reach these sheltered waters. Middleton Beach is the main swimming beach of Albany. The vibrant blue waters attract locals and visitors alike.

Middleton Beach also provides an easily accessible location for viewing Southern Right and Humpback whales during their annual migration to the Southern Ocean. Whales enter the bay to rest and can sometimes be seen as close as 20-30 metres from the shore or frolicking out in the deeper waters of the bay.

The beach is also famous for its multiple Esplanade Hotels. In 1892 the first of the Esplanades opened only to be to be burnt down in 1908. The rebuilt hotel was finished in 1911 and became more popular as a road was built connecting Albany town to Middleton beach, as before the only way to get there was by boat or bush track. In the 1940's it was to be demolished and rebuilt in to a bigger hotel, it was finished in 1949 and became very popular. In the 1970's the old hotel was demolished and of course made way for a new hotel.

Then in 1990 it was demolished by Paul Terry who had a dream to build a 5 star boutique, colonial style hotel with bar and restaurant. It also had a separate building called the Extravaganza it housed a few shops and a vintage car museum(the museum was later closed in 1993 due to Paul Terry's death and the collection was sold as too was the hotel). In 2006 plans were made to demolish the Esplanade and surrounding buildings for a new modern apartment hotel, the extravaganza building and adjoining units were demolished in early December while the existing hotel will be demolished in early 2007, the new apartment hotel is set to commence construction in mid 2007 and to be finished in late 2008, early 2009.