Albany’s own Jacob’s Ladder, Albany Botanic Walkway staircase, built to connect Middleton Beach to Mt Adelaide

Albany will soon have its own iteration of Kings Park’s Jacob’s Ladder, with concept designs for the project unveiled as part of the overarching plan to reinvigorate Albany Heritage Park for tourism. The pedestrian staircase, named the Albany Kinjarling Connect Botanic Walkway, will run from Middleton Beach/Binalup to the top of Mt Adelaide/Irrerup. It will include level and stepped sections, lookouts, yarning spaces, shelters and signage. The project is anticipated to be complete and open to the public by the end of 2026. Funded by a $3.62 million Federal Government grant via the Growing Regions fund, the project will help tell the bicentenary story, according to member for O’Connor Rick Wilson. “Albany was the first settlement in WA where Aboriginal and European people learned to live together,” he said. “The scenic south coast city was WA’s first European settlement, and is gaining an international reputation as Australia’s home of the Anzacs. “In an inclusive way, this project will help tell the story of the impact of and responses to the first planned arrival of Europeans in WA, and the departure of the first fleets of Anzacs from Albany’s shores.” The project will be similar in style to Perth’s famous tourist hotspot, Jacob’s Ladder, which links the Swan River to the corner of Kings Park and is a popular site for exercisers and visitors. The ladder will serve as a cornerstone of the Albany Heritage Park Link Trails Project, which includes 8km of walking trails, 10km of mountain bike trails, and almost 5km of dual-use pathways. City of Albany mayor Greg Stocks spruiked the ladder as a “brilliant piece of work” that he predicts will become iconic amid the developing Middleton Beach precinct. “When you’re looking at (the precinct) from a Middleton Beach Hotel developer point of view, you’ve got a swimming enclosure, a surf reef, you’re going to have a Jacob’s Ladder, “ he said. “We’ll complete the mountain bike trails by Christmas, we’ll complete the walking trails by June, (so) if you want to do any activity-based tourism in Albany . . . the choices are endless.” “The Jacob’s Ladder, I think, will become iconic. “I think it’s a brilliant piece of work of which the city has paid $0. We’ve obviously put time into staff, but in terms of the physical dollars that are going into that project, that was a government grant from the Federal Government in the Growing Regions fund.”