12 best coastal walks in Australia
Our 34,000km coastline makes for some spectacular trails, ranging from a few kilometres to much longer undertakings. We’ve tracked down a fine selection.
With a coast measuring a whopping 34,000km, it’s no surprise Australia boasts some of the most spectacular shoreline trails in the world. Don your boots, grab a map and pack and walk this way.
1. The Great Ocean Walk, Victoria
This cliff-hugging trail that runs along the Shipwreck Coast from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles lives up to its descriptive name. La Trobe, the first governor of Victoria, once bush-bashed through here and rated parts of it as “the most severe exertion I ever encountered”. Life’s easier these days and you can cover the well-marked 100km route in four days, or do shorter sections. Southern Ocean waves have chewed at this coast for eons, carving out spectacular cliffs such as The Gables and sandy beaches like Milanesia. Having trekked endless ridges and gullies your mecca is finally revealed — eight Apostles. Perhaps not the easiest walk on this list but it is definitely one of the best coastal walks in Australia.
twelveapostleslodgewalk.com.au
2. Wilsons Promontory Circuit, Victoria
Wilsons Promontory National Park at the southernmost tip of mainland Australia can be tackled in long or short versions. The Southern Prom Circuit from Telegraph Saddle is a three-day trek out to The Prom’s eastern beaches. You’re deep into a 50,000ha domain of fern hollows, massive granites and hidden coves. There are campsites at Sealers Cove and Little Waterloo Bay but be sure to book a site and a permit. Shorter day-hikes include the 10km Telegraph Saddle to Sealers Cove section, or a 2km ramble along the Squeaky Beach track to Picnic Bay.
3. Spit Bridge to Manly Walk, Sydney
On this easy, 9km trail the real stars are the untouched headlands and the harbour’s vast blueness. This beautiful coastal walk skirts the northern foreshores of Sydney Harbour National Park, starting at Spit Bridge and weaving past Clontarf, Castle Rock and Grotto Point. Almost every step of the way delivers views of what one First Fleet officer described, perhaps excessively, as “the finest harbour in the universe”. This description alone puts this trail on our list of best coastal walks in Australia. At Forty Baskets Beach the track phases from the wilds to suburban milds along the manicured foreshores of Fairlight and Manly. sydneycoastwalks.com.au
4. Bathers Way Walk, Newcastle
Start this amble at Nobbys Beach from where the six-kilometre seafront trail runs south to Merewether. Skirting Newcastle Beach it climbs through parklands to World War II gun emplacements and Newcastle Hill where, at Strzelecki Lookout, you step onto the steel Anzac Memorial Walkway that perches spectacularly over the sea. Then follows the long sweep of Bar, Dixon Park and Merewether beaches. Reaching the latter’s famous baths you’ve earned a beachside coffee break. If you’ve still got the legs, push on around the rock shelves to Glen Rock State Park and Burwood Beach.
5. Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania
The ancient granite cluster of The Hazards looks down on Wineglass Bay and the stem of its elegant isthmus. Nearby is the equally superb Hazards Beach plus the teal waters of Promise Bay. The route into here is via the Wineglass Bay-Hazards “loop”, a five-hour, 12km hike from Coles Bay. Alternatively, the Freycinet Peninsula Circuit, a 27km, multi-day hike expands these adventures amid great granite boulders and rosellas scooting through corridors of she-oaks. There are campsites at Hazards Beach, Cooks Corner and Wineglass Bay.
6. Maria Island, Tasmania
The porcelain sands of Riedle Beach are a highlight for walkers on Tasmania’s Maria Island. This sweeping, 3.5km isthmus shoreline could vie for the title of Australia’s Best Least-Known Beach, but the 11,550ha national park island is more than a one-trek wonder. Other luminous trails here include one to Haunted Bay where the sculpted granite shore is covered in brilliant lichen and fairy penguins peer out at you from their burrows. There’s an excellent commercial “glamping” operation on the island or, more economically, you can sleep in the 19th-century convict quarters between hikes and climbing the Bishop and Clerk rock towers.
7. Seal Bay, Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island at times seems like a slab of inland Oz that’s run away to sea, with its lush grasslands rolling down to a coast of improbably blue waters. Walkers exploring the south coast of this 4400sq km island (our third largest after Tasmania and Melville) can head to Seal Bay Conservation Park, home to a protected colony of Australian sea lions. There’s an 800m, wheelchair-accessible boardwalk overlooking the shoreline dunes from where you watch these effortless masters of the sea lumber awkwardly onto land, there to collapse among their pals and pups. Elsewhere along the island coast are pristine half-moon beaches that go begging for footprints.
8. Walk the Yorke, Yorke Peninsula
South Australia’s spectacular Walk the Yorke trail consists of 500km of shared hiking paths that run from Port Wakefield to Moonta Bay. The designers broke this formidable slog into 16 hike-sized “hero walks” of between one to three days duration, with the longest (Marion Bay to Gleesons Landing) covering 60km. The overall route showcases “the Yorkes’” ever-changing coastline and its communities. The terrain includes cliffs, pristine beaches, dunes and woodlands. There are campsites and council bush camps (permits and fees apply) as well as private accommodation.
9. Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Darwin
The Nightcliff and Casuarina Beach Path is a shared hiking trail that runs through Casuarina Coastal Reserve’s 1500ha mixed habitat. Along the 11.7km trail, walkers cross unspoilt beaches, cliffs, namesake casuarinas, World War II fortifications and even a nudist beach. How could this not be on our list of best coastal walks in Australia. Seasonal migratory birds and turtles are often spotted on the tidal flats, while offshore at low tide you can see Nunggalinya, or Old Man Rock, a significant site for the local Larrakia people. Swimming isn’t recommended due to crocs and stingers but the sunset lightshow over Beagle Gulf definitely is.
10. Cape to Cape Track, Western Australia
The Cape to Cape Track along the southwest coast connects two of mainland Australia’s best lighthouses, the historic beacons at Cape Naturaliste in the north and Cape Leeuwin in the south. The 130km route beside the Indian Ocean claims to be the nation’s longest coastal walking track. The five to eight-day journey, which can be done in smaller sections, follows defined paths and has basic overnight camping sites. The terrain ranges from soft sand beaches, limestone caves and karri forests to cliff-top trails with astonishing views. Brilliant wildflowers, birdlife and humpback whales are part of the scenery.
11. Marloo Bay, Fraser Island
James Cook saw “Indians” on the only headland on the east coast of Fraser Island and, predictably, named it Indian Head. They were, of course, Aborigines, for whom the island was known as K’gari — Paradise. Fraser’s northeast coast offers a serious 30km hike from Orchid Beach just north of that headland and along Marloo Bay (named for the wrecked 1890s vessel Marloo). Mid-point is the Ngkala Rocks from where the hike continues up Manann Beach to the island’s tip. Beyond the adjacent dunes are perched lakes, wallum heath and wildflowers, and dingoes said to be the purest strain in eastern Australia. Still K’gari.
12. Noosa Heads Coastal Track
This easy track follows the northern shoreline of Noosa Heads National Park, running 6km from the town around to Alexandria Bay and Sunshine Beach. It starts with a boardwalk and then enters the 2883ha national park, a wildlife sanctuary, where the well-made trail winds above the rocky shoreline and through she-oaks and pandanus palms. En route you’ll probably stop and watch the action at eponymous surf breaks such as Boiling Pot, Granite Bay and Hell’s Gate. The track varies from sealed to unsealed; allow up to four hours for the round-trip.
This story was originally published in April 2021 and has since been updated.
