Last Sunday I did the Manning Park river loop for maybe the two hundredth time in my life, and there were exactly four other people on the whole track. Four. On a loop that runs right along the Canning River, flat as a tack, shaded most of the way, and about fifteen minutes from the city. I counted them because I was genuinely surprised, not because there's nothing to see. There's heaps to see. It's just that nobody seems to drive out there anymore unless they already know it's there.
The walk everyone drives past
Manning Park sits on the Canning River's edge, tucked between the more talked-about stretches that get all the foot traffic. Everyone's heard of the Kings Park foreshore wander, and fair enough, it's pretty. But I'd argue it's a bit overrated compared to what you get at Manning, where you're not dodging prams three-wide and queuing for a coffee van. The river loop here is narrower, quieter, and honestly more interesting if you like actually looking at the water instead of the person in front of you.
I wrote about this exact stretch a while back in Manning Park's river loop is the walk Perth keeps skipping, and nothing's changed my mind since. If anything the bush along the eastern bank has filled in more, which makes the shaded sections even better for a hot-weather lap.
Where the loop actually goes
The loop traces the river's edge, dips under a stand of paperbarks, and loops back past the reserve's open grass. It connects, if you've got the legs for it, to the Rossmoyne Senior High School Footbridge, which is a handy spot to cross over and extend the walk into a longer there-and-back without doubling up on the same path twice. I used to cut across that footbridge with my old mate Deb on Sunday mornings, back when we were both too lazy to drive anywhere properly and the river loop was the easiest thing going. She still does it most weekends, rain or shine, and reckons it's the only exercise she's ever stuck with for more than a month.
The track surface is mostly packed gravel and boardwalk, which means prams and wheels handle it fine, and there's enough shade from the river oaks that you're not cooked by 10am in summer. It's not a technical walk. It's a proper, unhurried one, and that's the whole point of it.
How it stacks up against the bigger-name rides
If you're after something with a bit more distance, the Ride around the Rivers Ride 10 - Mount Henry Bridge to Riverton Bridge picks up not far from here and gives you a longer cycling leg along the same river system. I've done it on a borrowed hybrid more times than I'll admit, and it's a nice complement to the Manning loop if you want to turn an afternoon into something bigger than a stroll.
For a slower version on two wheels, there's also Canning River path: Perth's quieter riverside ride worth doing, which covers a gentler stretch further along. Between the three, you've got a decent spread of options depending on whether you want to walk, ride hard, or ride easy, and none of them involve the car parks you'll fight for at the more famous Perth river spots.
Wetlands, wildlife and why the reserve gets looked after
The river edge through Manning Park is proper wetland country, and it shows. Darters sit out on the dead branches drying their wings, black swans cruise past most mornings, and I've seen a tortoise sunning itself on the bank often enough that I'm fairly sure its their regular spot. The reserve's managed under the same broad framework that covers a lot of Perth's river foreshore, with oversight from the WA Dept. of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, which keeps tabs on the vegetation corridors and the bird breeding seasons along this stretch of the Canning.
That kind of management is part of why the loop still feels a bit wild despite being minutes from suburban streets. The understorey hasn't been mowed into a golf course. There's leaf litter, there's the odd fallen branch left where it landed, and the birdlife seems to appreciate that more than a manicured foreshore would give them.
If you'd rather paddle than walk
Walking's not the only way to see this bit of river. If you'd rather be on the water looking back at the park instead of walking beside it, the Perth Kayak Tour - Canning River Wetlands runs through this exact stretch and gets you right up close to the paperbark roots and the quieter channels you can't really see from the bank. I did it once with a cousin visiting from Melbourne who'd never paddled anything bigger than a bathtub, and even she said the wetlands looked more interesting from the water than she expected.
Planning your own lap
If you want to check conditions, seasonal closures, or just see the loop plotted out properly before you go, Trails WA has decent coverage of the broader Canning River trail network, Manning Park included. It's worth a look if you're new to the area and want to string a few connected sections together rather than just doing the one loop and heading home.
And honestly, that's the thing about Manning Park. It's not trying to be a destination. There's no visitor centre, no gift shop, no queue for anything. It's just a river, a loop of track, some paperbarks that have clearly been there a long while, and enough quiet that you can actually hear the swans before you see them. I grew up fishing off a jetty down near Victoria Quay with my dad, and there's something about this loop that scratches the same itch, minus the salt air and the smell of chips from Cicerello's drifting up South Terrace. Different river, same feeling of not being in a rush.
Most Perth walkers will keep driving past the turn-off for Manning Park on their way to somewhere with a bigger car park and a better Instagram reputation. That's fine by me. It means the loop stays exactly as it is: quiet, a bit scruffy around the edges, and genuinely one of the better short walks the river system has to offer.