Six-thirty on a Sunday and there are already four prams doing laps of Lake Monger before the joggers even show up. That's not an exaggeration, that's just what happens most weekends once the weather turns decent, and it tells you most of what you need to know about this loop before I've said a word about the birds.
I've been walking this lake on and off since I was a kid, back when my nan lived nearby and we'd come out on a Sunday for a look at the swans and a sausage roll after. It hasn't changed much, and that's sort of the point. The lake sits a short drive from the city, tucked between Leederville and Wembley, and the whole loop is flat enough that you could push a pram around it half asleep, which, some mornings, I basically have.
What makes the Lake Monger loop work for prams and wheelchairs
The short version is there's no real hill, no loose gravel that'll rattle a stroller apart, and no steps anywhere on the main circuit. It's a genuinely flat, sealed loop around the water, roughly three and a half kilometres if you do the whole thing, though most families I see just do a lap or two and call it a morning.
What surprises visitors is how wide the path is in most sections. You can have a pram, a dog on a lead and a jogger all passing each other without anyone stepping onto the grass. That's not an accident either, the path was widened and resurfaced years back specifically because so many locals were using it for exactly this mix of prams, wheelchairs and cyclists.
The black swans, and why they're the whole show
Lake Monger is basically synonymous with black swans in Perth, and for good reason. There's a resident population that's been there for generations, gliding around near the reed beds on the northern side and occasionally waddling right up onto the grass near the picnic tables looking for trouble. My youngest still calls it