Yahoo News Readers respond to Australia's #BestBeaches: go to Bali!
Of all the beaches in all the country … Guardian Australia readers don’t want you showing up at theirs, apparently. Going by the comments on our open thread that asked readers to share their favourite beach, many people living near a lovely seaside spot are pretty determined to keep it secret. Given there are more than 10,000 beaches on the mainland, it shouldn’t be too hard.
Some readers were more generous with their hints and tips for discovering Australia’s #BestBeaches. Here is a selection.
Any beach near a pub with a cold beer and a bucket of prawns
The best beach is the one you are overlooking as you sit in the shade on the balcony of a great old Australian pub on a blazing hot day, after a refreshing surf, nursing an ice cold Australian beer as the cicadas buzz nearby, there’s the waiter now with your bucket of prawns … nothing better.
Swimming with rays and seals in South Australia
I’m a South Aussie that has lived in Melbourne for 11 years and I’m normally surprised at the lack of SA beaches that make it into this list. It’s nice to see a few pop up this year, particularly the ones on [Kangaroo Island]. Like others, I’m not going to name specific beaches but Innes National Park in the toe of Yorke Peninsula is absolutely stunning. Swimming with rays and seals is a regular occurrence, as is sharing a set of waves with a pod of surfing dolphins. Eyre Peninsula’s beaches are also spectacular. It’s not uncommon to be able to get 1, 2 or 3 doz of its famed oysters caught that day from a fridge at a beachside servo, next to the soft drinks (just brush up on those shucking skills).
Oliver Lardner replied:
Not true! SA beaches are cold and miserable places and the sand is coarse and the water is always cold and the waves are always rough. DO NOT VISIT SA (p.s. would you keep your big mouth shut ... that’s secret SA only information you’re leaking there mate)
I second the vote for Emu Bay. Early on summer mornings, the water is truly like crystal. You can stand in the water and survey the five-kilometre semi circle of white sand and dunes, and it is like a dream of the perfect beach. I do have mixed feelings about the publicity though – generous feelings of wanting to share conflict with “oh I don’t want it to be over-run”. I think if too many people started going there, they’d have to close it off to cars – which might be a good thing in a way. However you can ride a bike on the sand, so that could be a better alternative.
Someone else will probably mention it, but Stokes Bay on Kangaroo Island is another lovely beach. There’s a genuine “secret” element to Stokes Bay, so I won’t say more, you just have to go there – take the kids and the buckets and spades and even some goggles and a snorkel! Then have fish and chips at the cafe after.
White sand, turquoise water: Western Australia every time
WA beaches every time. White sand. Less people. Turquoise water. Take your pick of forests or scrub, palms or red dirt, 50-metre high untouched sand dunes or the perfectly protected cove. All of them in WA. Less people, more clear unpolluted crystal clear sunshine and water.
For urban beach, Cottesloe cannot be beaten. For regional? Try Two Peoples’ Bay early on a summers’ day near Albany WA. For remote? 80 Mile Beach ... It’s in the name ... 80 miles. Unbroken white beach. No people. Unbeatable. (Or, for the leisure set, Cable Beach isn’t too bad ...)
Cable Beach, Broome, from the time I lived there in the 70s. We would finish work and go to the beach for a swim before returning to the hotel for dinner.
Clovelly Beach, Sydney, for family outings. Shoreham Beach when visiting the Mornington [Peninsula, Victoria].
National parks that limit numbers
No one favourite, but have visited some exquisite and remote beaches along the far south coast of NSW situated in the Nadgee Nature reserve and further south into Victoria’s Croajingolong National Park. Many beaches reachable only on foot and strict controls on the number of visitors in the park at any one time means they aren’t loved to death by large visitor numbers. In the case of Nadgee, numbers in the reserve are limited to 30 at a time, with no single group greater than eight persons.
Nowhere, go to Bali!
Dear international tourists. Do not believe this article. It’s all wrong. Most beaches in Australia are pretty bad. Stay away. Go to Bali.
LIn3418 replied:
Ha, ha is that you First Dawg.
Oh, Bali isn’t in Australia?!
Bondi, for better or worse
ajo1:
I lived till I was eight years old just up the road from Bondi Beach. That Bondi of sand, fun and play is a universe away form the Bondi Beach of now.
For a day at the beach nothing can beat the circus of narcissistic performance art that is Bondi. Sun, surf, sand and ego propel the flâneurs prancing along the sand and boardwalk to form a day-long sun-drenched parade. Take it or leave it.
If that’s not your thing then the worship of Ra while idling the day away with a good book, as the world passes you by in between catching waves.
Bondi is not just a beach, it’s an icon of Australian culture for all its faults it’s the holy grail of beach culture. Bondi is a micro machine of desire, capital and pleasure which unfolds as the sun transverses the day.
Then there is the food and drink culture, a vast cornucopia which can satisfy even the most fickle gourmand. And if that doesn’t do it for you there are always the deep fried Mars bars.
