Where Wilson Inlet is in its yearly sandbar cycle, when it was last opened, and the official channel for the current status.
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Wilson Inlet is closed off from the ocean by a sandbar for most of the year. Each winter the Water Corporation cuts a channel through the bar to let the inlet drain. Here's where the inlet is in that yearly cycle, when it was last opened, and where to check the current status.
Where we are in the cycle
Wilson Inlet is in its opening window.
the Water Corporation may open the bar once Wilson Inlet is high enough. Watch the official channels below for an announcement.
The bar is opened to stop the rising inlet from flooding low-lying farmland around its shores. The Water Corporation cuts a channel through the sandbar at Ocean Beach once the inlet reaches about 1.0 metre above sea level (mAHD) — usually somewhere between June and early September. Once the channel is cut, the outgoing water quickly scours it wider.
The channel was cut about 50 m from the western cliffs and scoured to around 100 m wide within a day, draining roughly 29 gigalitres in the first 24 hours.
This is the usual cycle, not a live reading
For roughly six to seven months a sandbar seals Wilson Inlet from the Southern Ocean. Through winter, rain and river flow fill the inlet until it is high enough to open.
The opening follows a decision framework the Water Corporation developed with DWER, the Shire of Denmark and the City of Albany — mainly to keep the rising inlet from flooding low-lying farmland around its edges.
the Water Corporation and the Shire announce openings here.
Source: Healthy Estuaries WA (DWER) and Water Corporation media releases, checked 6 July 2026 (yesterday).