There will be games for everyone to play at Waratah Bay on Easter Saturday, April 4, at the 2026 Charlie Brown’s Picnic Free Family Fun Day.
Build a sandcastle, search for Easter eggs, dance to a Celtic reel, enjoy fresh strawberries or a sausage in bread, and run like the wind in old-style foot races, before people 16 years and over seize the rope for a mighty tug of war.
Arranged every Easter for nearly two decades by the Waratah Bay community, with the backing of Corner Inlet district people and businesses, Charlie Brown’s Picnic honours a generous-spirited beachcombing hermit.
Charlie lived in bushland beside Cooks Creek, just off the beach and west of the coastal hamlet’s present-day caravan park, during the years after World War One.
He liked fishing, and fossicking for gold, as well as growing strawberries, which he would always offer to visitors and to locals alike, along with a yarn or two.
In time, the beach house part of early Waratah Bay became known as “Charlie Brown’s,” while the beach look-out area at the eastern end of Gale Street is still called “The Gap.”
This Easter Saturday morning, assemble on the beach across from the Waratah Bay Recreation Reserve at the corner of Gale and Moongana Streets from 9am in readiness for the start of the Sandcastle Competition at 9.30 am. All sandy creations will be judged by Walkerville artist Lucy Parkinson at the end of the construction period, to be followed by the famous Charlie Brown’s Picnic Easter egg hunt.
From 10.30am, the Picnic Day agenda will continue on the Waratah Bay village green, north of the recreation reserve rotunda, with live music by Corner Inlet’s own Irish folk band Blind Cobblers Thumb, a fundraiser barbecue served by the Fish Creek Scouts, and dishes of strawberries with cream.
Register for the Doggie Derby, set to begin at 11.45am, and for the Novelty Race events such as the Egg and Spoon, the Sprints, the Relay, the Sack, and crowd favourite, the Three-Legged Race, which are scheduled to run from 12 noon.
Every Picnic Day participant will be divided into one of two teams: the Waratites, for those staying in the village along with any day trippers; and the Parkers, for those staying in the caravan park.
All activities accrue points towards either the Parkers or the Waratites being able to triumphantly claim the Charlie Brown Shield, which is then placed on display at the Waratah Bay Caravan Park after every Picnic Family Fun Day.
The spirit of Charlie Brown and the Waratah Bay community invite families, friends, individuals and groups to come and join in for a wonderful, and traditional, beach holiday experience at Charlie Brown’s Picnic Free Family Fun Day this Easter Saturday, April 4, 2026, from 9 am.
